Good evening,

Tonight we’re back fishing in the land of the giants.

While KKR tries to firm up its $88-a-share bid for Ramsay Health Care, rival global buyout group CVC Capital Partners is thinking about a $20 billion-odd Australian bid of its own.

CVC’s stalking Brambles Ltd, a fixture of the ASX boards for 70 years and an Australian global success story that’s recently attracted interest from private equity firms and infrastructure investors.

Sources said CVC had held a few rounds of talks with Brambles, but was yet to put forward an indicative bid. Brambles has shored up its defences, in anticipation that it’s coming.

Losing Brambles would be another blow for the ASX, which has always been a picking ground for offshore swoopers, but particularly so in the past 12 months. Ramsay and Link Group look like going, while Sydney Airport, AusNet, Spark Infrastructure and others have departed in the past year.

It remains to be seen whether CVC can catch and land Brambles. Its interest is in a relatively early stage, with due diligence outstanding, let alone funding and the like.

Elsewhere, we look at Virgin Australia, which is one name that’s slated to head back to the ASX in the medium term. And we delve into the battle for Infomedia.

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