Good morning,

Sunday’s rolling forward of the clocks signals the arrival of this year’s AGM season.

While there are plenty of companies that have yet to issue notices, Street Talk already has its eye on a handful of meetings.

At this rate, everyone in the country will have their sets tuned to the Qantas annual meeting on November 3, where less than impressed shareholders will have their say on the airline’s remuneration report, share buy-back plans and re-election of several long-standing directors.

Sparks are also expected to fly at Endeavour, where the hotels and liquor group’s largest shareholder, billionaire businessman Bruce Mathieson, is in a very public spat with the board. Mathieson is calling for a board shake-up and has thrown his support behind long-time retail exec Bill Wavish.

Elsewhere, Perpetual chairman Tony D’Aloisio faces a challenge. As The Australian Financial Review reports today, influential proxy advisory Ownership Matters recommended shareholders vote against his re-election and against approval of the remuneration report. The fund management group’s chief executive, Rob Adams, has struggled to get the market behind the firm’s growth by acquisition strategy and spent the past month shedding staff.

We expect the ASX board will also get an icy reception – with shareholders irate over the failure of its CHESS clearing and settlement system and 20 per cent share price decline over the past year. Chairman Damian Roche is up for renewal.

Then there’s Whitehaven Coal, where major shareholder Bell Rock Capital has been increasingly public in its campaign to stop the company from acquiring two of BHP’s two mines.

While Origin Energy is still yet to secure regulatory approvals for a vote, its AGM on October 18 could draw a crowd with several major shareholders spoiling Brookfield and EIG’s $18.7 billion takeover hopes.

Questions will surely be asked of the Austal board whose takeover talks have gone nowhere.

And finally, industry super fund HESTA has put all boards on notice about climate change and diversity, planning to withhold support for those with less than 30 per cent female representation.

Happy reading,

• Endeavour detractors have hit the pavement, selling their takes on the company’s ailments to investors, analysts and proxy advisers.
• EastLink auction speeds past ACCC pit stop; data room set to open.
• Baker McKenzie equity capital markets partner jumps to Adamantem Capital.
• Superloop cools its jets after its target Symbio gets competing bid.
• Pacific Current block trades after Regal walks.

• Macquarie girds for $1.2 billion takeover battle with European waste company, writes Hans van Leeuwen.
• Eucalyptus ups capital raising with $8 million second close, writes Nick Bonyhady.
• German media group Axel Springer is keen to join the auction for UK’s Telegraph Media Group, Bloombergreports.
• Deal makers see rebound after US activity buoys global M&A volumes, Reutersreports.

Endeavour’s share price is down 25.4 per cent in the 12 months to September 21. This compared to Coles down 6 per cent while Metcash is down 8.2 per cent. Woolworths, which Endeavour was spun out from in June 2021, saw an 8.4 per cent increase in its market value in that period.

The S&P/ASX 200 posted its biggest quarterly drop since the second quarter of last year.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.