Good evening,

It’s down to the short strokes for J-Power’s run at renewable energy developer Genex Power, which could see Australia’s only listed pure-play renewables developer change hands to its Japanese suitor.

Street Talk understands proxy advisers are lining up behind the $380 million bid ahead of next week’s scheme meeting, lending support to the board and independent expert Grant Thornton which declared the scheme fair and reasonable.

Sources said Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis have both issued positive recommendations, telling their clients to vote in favour of J-Power’s “significant premium” 27.5¢ per share all-cash bid on July 16.

The question now is whether Scott Farquhar’s Skip Capital will play nice with its 19.9 per cent blocking stake. Skip, an erstwhile bidder itself, is yet to publicly declare its voting intentions. A spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Street Talk on Thursday afternoon.

Readers will recall Skip Capital teamed up with Stonepeak Partners in 2022 to lob a 25¢-a-share bid, only to walk away after four months of due diligence. Two years on, another party is gunning hard for Genex and Skip is yet to break its silence, after taking up its ambitions to support the energy transition.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

• AustralianSuper, Gold Coast Council fly into Queensland Airports sale.
• Big private equity sign NDAs, prepare first-round bids for Compass Education.
• Regal swoops on Queensland aluminium royalty, preps cash call.

• Crown offloads Nobu stake in deal valuing the group at $1.3 billion.
• Deals bounceback yields $3.8 million each for law firm partners, The Telegraph London reports.
• UK announces biggest overhaul of listings regime in decades, Financial Times reports.
• Jarden pitches a carbon trading service for big emitters.
• French energy company Engie partners with Macquarie for Mexican pipeline project, Reuters reports.

School management software is the next big thing in technology M&A. Just ask Sydney’s Advent Partners, whose data room at Compass Education is expected to be chock-full of local and global buyout firms in the coming months.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.