The three big M&A deals that stole the show; Rinehart hits back; Chris Ellison joins onshore gas takeover action

Good evening,

It feels like bankers and bosses are bailing out on Christmas this year for deals!

The three that stole the show are, of course, Origin Energy/Brookfield, OZ/BHP and David Jones/Anchorage.

Origin Energy’s suitors, Canadian giant Brookfield and Washington’s EIG Group, asked for due diligence extension until mid-January to firm up their $18.4 billion bid. The suitors and their advisers, UBS and Citi, have reassured they are still keen despite the government’s intervention in gas markets.

Investors will have their fingers crossed that come January, the biggest deal of the year gets up. Meanwhile, our colleague Aaron Weinman has an account on how the hush-hush deal came together.

Lastly, David Jones is finally off for a facelift at Anchorage Capital, whose interest was revealed by Street Talk in November. The PE firm paid about $100 million for the retailer, a far cry from the $2.1 billion it fetched in 2014 from old owner Woolworths Holdings. Our colleagues at Chanticleer offered some pointers on the restoration job ahead.

In other notable mentions, Aurizon finally sold its One Rail coal haulage business for $1 billion odd to a JV starring new prolific coal dealmaker Matt Latimore; QIC dealmakers stumped $NZ1.74 billion for Vector Metering after missing out on Intellihub; Aware Super and Palisade tag-teamed to buy the country’s largest operating wind farm, Stockyard Hill, once owned by Origin Energy.

In things still on the boil, Gina Rinehart’s Hancock was trying to talk down Strike’s bid at Warrego Energy; PEP wanted to recut its ReadyTech bid; and Chris Ellison was offering shares in MinRes to Norwest Energy.

And in private equity land, healthcare was the flavour of the week. Genesis Capital found another clinical trials deal in New Zealand, Quadrant Private Equity swooped on health equipment business Aidacare and Next Capital bought rehab retailer Country Care Group.

Like we said, it’s been a full-on week for dealmakers.

Tune in again next Friday for another weekly M&A recap until Street Talk returns to its nightly roundup in January.

Happy reading,
Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk editors