Good evening,

Mexican-themed restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez tried to sell itself to New York-based buyout giant Blackstone before deciding to proceed with a $2.2 billion float that bankers hope will defrost the IPO market and put listings back on the menu.

Blackstone was in talks to buy a slice of Guzman y Gomez and its $700 million rival Zambrero – with hopes of putting them together – as recently as this year, limited partner sources told this column.

Blackstone proposed a structured deal to Guzman y Gomez’s owners, including TDM Growth Partners and co-founder Steven Marks. That’s industry jargon for a debt-like instrument that gives the holder a slice of the equity upside up to a limit.

The idea is to make a minimum return of about 15 per cent. It’s the same mechanism that pan-European private capital player Metric Capital Partners and Scott Farquhar and Kim Jackson’s Skip Capital eventually deployed at Zambrero.

Sources told this column that Guzman y Gomez and Blackstone went through several rounds of talks, and the deal made its way to the private capital giant’s investment committee.

Guzman y Gomez eventually knocked back the offer, betting there was more money to be made on the ASX than in lining Blackstone’s portfolio.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

• Crescent Capital Partners is in advanced talks to buy Quantum Radiology from The Growth Fund, which continues to shed assets.
• Chris Abbott-backed Genetic Signatures has secured interest to raise $30 million at a circa 2.7 per cent premium to the last close.
• One of Iress′ divisional CEOs reporting to Marcus Price has exited as the business fields interest from both potential bidders and cyber hackers.
• Cancer treatment biotech Immutep was raising $102 million via Bell Potter, Wilsons Corporate Finance and Canaccord Genuity.
• Another listed cancer biotech BCAL Diagnostics raised $10.5 million from existing backers like Ellerston Capital.

• Phil King’s Regal Partners is betting big on private capital, spending $235 million to acquire Melbourne lender Merricks Capital.
• China-linked investors were forced to sell shares in rare earths miner Northern Minerals on “national interest” grounds.
• CIMIC and Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting piled into lithium hopeful Vulcan Energy Resources.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.