Good evening,

The equity market’s supposed to rally on Monday, but it doesn’t feel like bankers had a flood of deals ready to make the most of the friendly conditions.

Instead, bankers are tipping a quiet few days for capital markets deals, with nothing of size likely until after the Reserve Bank’s rates decision (and Melbourne Cup!) on Tuesday. To be fair, it’s hard to launch anything while the market’s guessing about a 25 or 50 basis point rate rise.

So Monday morning’s focus for deals will be on M&A.

Nitro Software will be out with news pre-market, confirming receipt of Potentia Capital’s $1.80 a share offer and making a call on whether that’s enough to secure due diligence.

Nitro’s board met (twice!) at the weekend, and we expect it doesn’t think $1.80 is enough to buy the company. It also likely wants more before granting due diligence, but we question how practical it is holding out on Potentia when the group already has a 19.9 per cent stake.

We also look at the big short that’s engulfed Perpetual Ltd, and what’s keeping hedge funds on their toes, and have a new PE sell-side process that’s about to get up and running.

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