BREAKFAST DEALS: NAB's return to Honkers

National Australia Bank

National Australia Bank has added to its suite of bolt-on acquisitions with the purchase of Hong Kong-based investment advisory firm Calibre Asset Management. The price tag has not been disclosed, although a source has told Dow Jones the acquisition was worth around $5 million. NAB's Hong Kong general manager of banking, Andrew Macintosh, has flagged further interest in asset management acquisitions in Asia and says the 350-strong bank will focus on growth in wealth management, corporate banking and lending to small to medium-sized enterprises. The deal is the bank's first in Hong Kong since 2006, and follows the purchase of most of Aviva's Australian operations, an 80.1 per cent interest in Goldman Sachs JBWere's private client business and Challenger Financial's mortgage management division.

ANZ Banking Group

While talk of an Asian acquisition might be sexier, the word from Investment & Technology magazine is that ANZ is in talks to offload its ANZ Custody business. JPMorgan is reported to be frontrunner for the business, which is said to be worth $100 million, with an announcement expected by the end of the week. The bank scrapped a plan to sell Custody last year, but this time around has included a timetable to transition the backoffice administration for ING's wealth management to the buyer, the magazine says. ANZ entered into a formal undertaking with ASIC in relation to its custody and securities processing business after the bank's Opes Prime debacle.

Macquarie Group

Sal Oppenheim Jr & Cie has confirmed it rejected an offer for its investment banking unit from Macquarie Group. A spokesman for the Luxembourg-based company has declined to give further details, although sources have told Bloomberg the proposal was rejected on valuation grounds and the Silver Donut's job cut plans. A source has also told Reuters the offer price was below the €200 million to €300 million equity level of the unit. Sal Oppenheim's investment banking unit reportedly employs more than 400 people and advises small to medium-sized companies. Italy's Mediobanca SpA has previously expressed interest in buying the securities unit. Sal Oppenheim's wealth management operations will be bought by Deutsche.

AXA Asia-Pacific and AMP

Elsewhere in financial services, AMP is walking a fine line between keen and not too keen for its joint proposed takeover of AXA Asia Pacific. "Let me be very clear on one point: while the proposed merger with AXA is a transaction we want to do, it's not a transaction we have to do,” chief Craig Dunn said yesterday. Still, the drums are beating for a $6-per-share bid, and in particular for AMP to increase its portion of the $11.7 billion joint proposal with AXA APH's major shareholder, AXA SA. Meanwhile, AMP's investment unit, AMP Capital Investors, has flagged the launch of a $250 million property fund in Australia next year, with director of property Andrew Bird saying institutional investors now have room to consider a return to property. Bird also kept mum on AMP's stake in the Singapore-listed MacarthurCook Industrial real estate investment trust and expressed enthusiasm for logistic assets within Singapore, Reuters says.

Q Copper Australia IPO

Perth Glory soccer team owner, fashion fan and serial director Tony Sage is hoping his mineral investment company Cape Lambert Iron Ore will raise up $214 million before costs from its Q Copper Australia float. In one of the biggest resources IPOs of the year, Cape Lambert will divest its Lady Annie copper project in Queensland, acquired just six months ago as part of a $135 million raid on the assets of collapsed miner CopperCo. Sage, who said in September that three Chinese groups were "crawling all over Lady Annie”, says Cape Lambert will retain between a five and 10 per cent stake in the newly listed company. Cape Lambert, which is looking to sell 214 million shares at $1 each, has been cashed up since selling its namesake Pilbara iron ore project to China Metallurgical Group last year. As a sweetener, Cape Lambert will give shareholders about 10 cents a share from the float. But it's not just the Q Copper float that's making news in WA: Corvette Resources (in which Cape Lambert has more than a 40 per cent stake) and Tianshan Goldfields (20 per cent) have agreed to a $60 million merger via a scheme of arrangement. Tianshan has offered two of its shares for every Corvette share, with the combined company to hold $30 million in cash and the Plumbridge gold project in WA. The Q Copper IPO is expected to close on December 2, with mining restarted by July 2010. Patersons Securities is lead manager of the offer, which is not underwritten.

Perilya and CBH Resources

Having bought a majority stake in Perilya at 23 cents per share early this year, Chinese miner Shenzen Zhongjin Lingfan Nonfemet is now set to support the base metals miner's $55 million equity raising. Zhongjin injected $45.5 million into Perilya amid weak commodity prices and the collapse of talks with Perilya's Broken Hill neighbour CBH Resources. Shares have soared since then, while the ascent of CBH has been less impressive, leading to speculation Perilya might strike a deal with CBH after all should 28 per cent shareholder, Japan's Toho Zinc, acquiesce.

Rio Tinto and BHP

The inevitable chatter that BHP Billiton will return with a takeover offer for WA iron ore JV partner Rio Tinto has been hosed down by a number of brokers, including the UK's Liberum Capital, which has put the chances at less than 30 per cent. "We think the probability of a re-bid is low, but not immaterial,” Liberum has written. Still, international opposition to BHP's proposed $US116 billion iron ore joint venture with Rio Tinto might prompt the miner to consider another bid, it argues. "If the EU are hawkish and want to block the JV unless there are merger-type disposals, the probability of a re-bid is fairly material in our view,” Liberum said in a note. Under UK takeover laws, BHP cannot launch another bid until next week. BHP might have other things on its mind: iron ore chief and coal chief executive Marcus Randolph told the Australian Competition Tribunal yesterday that allowing third party access to its WA railways could punch a $US7.9 billion hole in the iron ore business's value, The Australian says.

Wrapping up

The September quarter prompted a buying spree from George Soros, with the hedge fund guru boosting Soros Fund Management's holdings by almost 50 per cent to $US6.2 billion. Soros' investments include AT&T and Verizon Communications in the telco sector, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores and Ford Motor. Elsewhere, Goodman Group will contribute $79 million to Goodman Australian Industrial Fund's $320 million raising. Australia's largest unlisted property fund is looking to raise $120 million from a DRP and $200 million from a rights issue. And China has given regulatory approval for Chinese steel giant Baosteel to take up to a 19.99 per cent stake in coal and iron ore company Aquila Resources. And Italy's Il Sole 24 has reported that British confectioner Cadbury will bolster its defences to Kraft's hostile bid through a tie-up with Italian chocolate company Ferrero. And coming up on Deals TV, we'll be looking at Newmont, Ticketmaster and more.