Good evening,

Bankers and investors had plenty going on despite the school holidays and the weekend.

Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources revealed a 19.55 per cent stake in lithium play Essential Metals, just four days before the Tuesday scheme vote for IGO and Tainqi’s 50¢ a share bid.

Hedge funds have been in and out of the stock since IGO and Tianqi lobbed their bid in early January. But the situation has gone uncontested, despite lithium being the hottest commodity in town.

Street Talk’s straw poll on Sunday evening didn’t turn up any rumblings of an immediate bid from MinRes on Monday morning, but Ellison’s been in a few of these fights recently (Warrego Energy and Norwest Energy) and his late arrival at Essential Metals is sure causing consternation all around.

Over in WA gold, Genesis Minerals’ merger with St Barbara has morphed into just a purchase of the WA assets. We ran a temperature check on the $450 million raising and pulled out the crystal ball on St Barbara’s overseas assets, which were left at the altar in the recut deal.

Elsewhere, Macquarie-backed Active Utilities was up for sale via Gresham Partners, Regal’s farmland manager Kilter Rural was firing up a $500 million new fund, and Square Peg had a new partner.

Happy reading,
Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Street Talk editors