Good evening,

Storm clouds are gathering over Perth mine-site trucking company Bis Industries.

The company, owned by The Carlyle Group and Varde Partners, is no stranger to debt troubles, having secured a financial lifeline just a year ago.

Now, Street Talk can report Bis is asking for time out from its hefty repayments, with its lenders calling in KordaMentha and Clayton Utz for advice.

Over at BHP’s multi-billion sale of Queensland coal mines Daunia and Blackwater, one of the bidders, Whitehaven, is facing an uphill battle against some shareholders.

This group of dissidents prefers a fat dividend cheque over a chunky acquisition – however, it wasn’t known if there were enough of them to block a shareholder vote should Whitehaven win the assets. Binding bids are due in the coming week.

Finally, Palisade Impact’s fast internet provider GigaComm is after a hunk of cash to fund its infrastructure needs; Sydney’s largest private coach carrier has finally sold after a year-long wait; and the reporting season threw up questions about Metrics’ profitability levels.

Happy reading,

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Street Talk Editors