BHP’s $5b coal auction kingmakers | T alon Energy ignites shareholder fury over bid | Kiwi waste management biz Smart Environmen t mulls future

Good evening,

Bidders for BHP’s $5.2 billion Queensland coal mines aren’t keen to go it alone.

Street Talk understands suitors are trying to woo five Japanese commodity houses to join their camps as the action heats up, looking for funding, expertise and eventual buyers for the coal.

Top of the list are steelmakers JFE and Nippon Steel, and trading houses Marubeni and Sojitz. A fifth, Itotchu, is understood to be working with Whitehaven Coal.

Meanwhile, it’s shareholders at 20 paces at West Australian gas play Talon Energy. Investors, Street Talk understands, are unhappy with the board, who they claim has failed to engage with Strike Energy over a proposal to consolidate the Walyering gas field development where they are joint venture partners.

Elsewhere, M&A activity in the waste management sector hasn’t died down. Street Talk can reveal Kiwi waste management business Smart Environment has called in the bankers at UBS to weigh its options.

Finally, in fundraising news, Will Vicars-backed Oneview Healthcare is in the market for $22 million, while TRUE Infrastructure is looking for $20 million to fund its acquisition of AustralianSuper’s holdings in two infrastructure funds.

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