School holidays and the pre-reporting season blackout sucked the life out of the market on Monday, resulting in a pretty quiet day on trading desks and in dealing rooms.
The one major piece of regional M&A news was that EQT had returned for aged care play Metlifecare in about a $NZ1.3 billion bid.
While that's sure to please Metlifecare's antsy investors, not everyone is happy. One of its biggest investors has requisitioned a meeting to spill the company's chairman, as we revealed on Monday. Metlifecare is yet to say anything about it to shareholders.
Elsewhere, we are back looking at women'swear retailer City Chic, which is on the M&A warpath and seeking to nail a deal of its own. City Chic confirmed as much on Monday.We put forward a likely target.
Confidentiality agreements are flying around for Eni's $1 billion-plus Australian gas portfolio ahead of the formal sale documents, and bankers are starting to get serious about trying to lock in buy-side mandates.