Waste Services bids land | Eyes on Arcadium-Rio Tinto talks | Kinetic sale hits a roadblock

Good evening,

The mooted $4 billion sale of bus operator Kinetic has hit a roadblock.

Street Talk understands Kinetic’s owners, OPTrust and Foresight Partners, along with sell-side advisers at Macquarie Capital have pushed out the deadline for non-binding indicative bids by a week from October 1.

That gives prospective acquirers more time to prepare their offers, especially in light of recent Victorian government contract wins in mid-September that pushed up guidance to $500 million-plus EBITDA in the 2025 financial year from $450 million during early marketing.

It also means Macquarie’s infrastructure bankers have extra breathing room to rustle up more bidders.

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

Buyout firms lock horns for $1 billion-plus Waste Services Group; NBIOs in

Steer clear of Rio Tinto’s $5.8 billion bid, Arcadium shareholder urges board

Regal Funds’ Todd Guyot dies: ‘terrific investor, even better person’

Pemba’s defence tech play Aurizn inks bolt-on; two more in the wings

An Arcadium Lithium shareholder has come out swinging following reports that Rio Tinto is in talks to acquire the dual-listed global lithium miner for between $US4 billion ($5.88 billion) and $US6 billion, describing the suggested price as “highly opportunistic”.

The Australian sharemarket snapped a three-week winning streak on Friday, as the escalating conflict in the Middle East sent traders fleeing equities and pulled shares down from record highs touched a week earlier.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.