Good morning,

It was envelope day at Barrenjoey on Friday (followed by a round of drinks at Double Bay hotspot Matteo).

Because its staff own 45 per cent of the equity in the business, they were up for cash bonuses. Street Talk understands the Barrenjoey bankers were pleased as punch given the dearth of big-ticket transactions this year.

It’s been a rough time for bonuses at investment banks. Weakened deal flow volumes across M&A and equity capital markets have seen investment banking fees nosedive and bonuses slump. And it’s not expected to get much better next year with bonuses projected to fall up to 25 per cent globally.

Barrenjoey itself has faired reasonably well, picking up a series of mandates this year like Mason Stevens′ (potential) IPO, the Star Entertainment strategic review, Betr’s sale and Queensland Airports Limited’s sell down. On the ECM side, it’s kicked off blocks for Magellan Financial, Cettire and Wesfarmers and been on raises for Infratil, Azure Minerals and Appen.

However, establishment costs have weighed on Barrenjoey’s expenses this year as the bank invests in new divisions like fixed income and prime brokerage and moved into a new office in Sydney’s Quay Quarter building – dubbed the Vertical Village. Magellan’s latest accounts revealed the start-up lost around $26 million in the last financial year.

Still, the introduction of new divisions, while expensive to roll out and bring online, has diversified the bank’s product offering and will help mitigate the effects of weakened fees.

Happy reading,

• The owners of one of the country’s best-known supermarket brands, Bundaberg Sugar, have hired two banks to run a buyer search in one of the biggest deals this year.
• Can and bottle maker Orora is prepping a $1 billion-plus equity raising to fund the acquisition of an offshore glass business. Fundie sources were waiting for a deal this week.
• Redundancy season is dragging on with National Australia Bank preparing to hand down bank-wide job cuts with 10 per cent of the markets division to go.
• Former Domain chief executive Antony Catalano and Melbourne billionaire Alex Waislitz have been quietly plugging away on a deal to lift their stake in property portal View.com.au via media venture View Media Group.
• Alternative milk label Inside Out is set to milk investor interest, tapping E&P to find it a growth partner.

Ororashares have risen 6 per cent over the past 12 months and last traded at $3.52. After the company’s result this month, UBS analysts increased their 12-month price target to $3.75 a share, citing better-than-expected margins in North America.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.

• Australian Venue Co is eyeing more buyouts under its new private equity owner PAG underscored by solid trading in the first two months of 2023-24, writes Simon Evans.
• The Federal Trade Commission said it would pause its in-house proceedings to block Amgen’s $US27.8 billion takeover of Horizon Therapeutics, Bloomberg reports.
• Private equity firm Veritas Capital is considering a potential offer for BlackBerry, Bloomberg reports.
• Instacart on Friday made public its filing for an IPO in New York, setting the stage for one of the most anticipated listings in recent years, Reuters reports.