☕️ Office Overshare

Good morning.

A word to the wise: If you’re on the fence about sharing that meme with your colleagues, maybe don’t.

Six junior bankers in the Bank of Montreal’s metals and mining group were fired after using work-sharing platforms to circulate crude memes and at least one obscene image (specifically, the ‘Wood’ meme – IYKYK). The images were discovered during an internal investigation when another employee raised concerns.

As always, we’re overjoyed to bear the meme-sharing risk on your behalf with the crème de la crème featured in our Watercooler section below.

🏆 LOI Subscriber #TBD

Market movers

Shares in online retailer Kogan.com soared over 23% yesterday to close at $7.57, after the company announced a return to profitability in its H1 2024 results. While revenue dipped 9.9% to $248.2 million, the company posted an $8.7 million profit during 1H24 compared to a $23.8 million loss during 1H23. It also reported a 184.2% rise in first-half EBITDA to $19.4 million.

It seems that Kogan.com’s swindling-supplier headaches seem to be fringe issues for the company this earnings season.

The quick sync

• The inside story of Afterpay’s rise and fall as the future of Australia’s BNPL poster-child begins to unravel. (Capital Brief)

• Former CommBank chief David Murray says boards with “ESG woke agendas” are putting pressure on CEOs. (The Australian)

• Pollination Group is staking its claim in the decarbonisation race; both investing in startups with environmental solutions and advising companies on how to achieve net zero. (Capital Brief)

• US venture capital funds are trying to attract Australian investors as the industry’s cash dries up. (AFR)

• The Business Council of Australia has put pressure on Albanese over economic reform inertia in a pre-budget submission to Treasury. (The Australian)

• Mistral and Microsoft have partnered to extend the tech giant’s presence in the AI space beyond OpenAI. (Capital Brief)

Trading floor

M&A

• QANTM Intellectual Property receives privatisation proposal, deal to be announced today. (AFR)

• Octopus Deploy buys US firm Codefresh for $42.6 million. (AFR)

• Australian Vintage confirms early stage talks with Accolade Wines. (The Australian)

• CSR accepts a $4.3b acquisition bid from Saint-Gobain. (AFR)

• Praemium acquires Iress' OneVue platform in a deal facilitated by MA Moelis and Arnold Bloch Leibler. (AFR)

• Alcoa plans to acquire Australian partner Alumina for $3.3b. (SMH | The Australian)

• Commonwealth Bank leads $650m debt for Costa Group take-private. (AFR)

• Goldman Sachs secures a US$1b commitment from Mubadala for Asia-Pacific private credit investment. (Capital Brief)

• Westpac is set to sell RAMS Home Loans with the deal managed by Morgan Stanley. (AFR)

• Superloop’s board rejects Aussie Broadband's takeover bid. (BNA)

• PE-backed Olive Downs coal mine mulls ownership changes. (AFR)

Capital Markets

• Goodman Group internalises management in NZ and unveils funds management platform. (AFR)

• Vulcan Energy Resources sees potential EU loan as a boost for lithium projects. (SMH)

• 187 ASX firms privatised in two years, exceeding the number of new listings. (The Australian)

VC

• Blackbird Ventures targets Australian expat founders for investment in bigger markets. (AFR)

People moves

• Akubra has appointed retail industry executive Natalie Culina as CEO. (BNA)

The watercooler