Good evening,

It’s time to take a trip down memory lane.

Although it sometimes feels like we’re sitting here punching out the same stories each day, it’s remarkable how much the market (and the deals) have changed.

On this night last year, we were talking about investors that had “made a killing in the Zips and Afterpays” and had another fintech Till Payments that was raising at a $500 million valuation.

A day earlier, it was news that Singaporean transport company ComfortDelGro had hired Credit Suisse and UBS to try to list its $1 billion-odd Australian business (the float never happened).

The day before that, it was terms for 29Metals’ $600 million-odd IPO.

Well, the IPOs have well and truly dried up since. Tonight, we have news of an IPO being pulled (Australian Solar Investments), which is unlikely to surprise anyone given the market conditions, although we haven’t written about a non-deal roadshow in more than a month.

So, we’ve taken the chance to delve deeper into M&A deals.

Among all the banker pitches that cross our desks, this year’s buzz phrase is definitely “mission-critical”.

It started with MacCap’s pitch to sell Cobham Aviation’s Australian arm in February, and we’re seeing it pop up more and more, including in tonight’s item on Loscam ANZ.

We’ve got our hands on Goldman Sachs and UBS’ pitch for Loscam, before an auction that’s due to kick off any day.

And we have a look at who’s who in the race for VicRoads, before the binding bids on June 15.

Happy reading,

Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood
Street Talk Editors