Canaccord has launched an equity raising for gold and tin miner Metals X, sources told Street Talk on Monday night.

It's understood the miner was seeking $75 million in fresh funds at $1.48 to $1.50 a share. The stock closed at $1.70 on Monday. 

The raising is expected to be accompanied with news that Metals X will split into two parts; a pure play gold entity and a base metals company with its tin, nickel and copper assets. 

Canaccord launched the deal on Monday night, after Metals X went into a trading halt. 

The raising comes only hours after Metals X addressed potential investors at the annual Diggers & Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, pitching its story and strong performance over the past year. 

The raising is expected to account for about 10 per cent of Metals X's market value. 

The company had a $886 million market capitalisation as at Monday's close of $1.70 a share. 

Metals X has four key gold projects, including three in operation. The miner expects to be running at annual production of 300,000 ounces a year by the end of 2016. 

The raising comes only one fortnight after Canaccord handled a selldown in Metals X on behalf of Hong Kong's APAC Resources. 

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ANZ Banking Group has finally pulled the trigger on the auction of its online broking unit. 

Street Talk understands interested parties are perusing documents and indicative bids are due at the end of August. ANZ last week dispatched an information memorandum to international and domestic specialist online broking providers. 

The sale - being managed by boutique firm Flagstaff Partners - is said to include ANZ Share Investing's trading platform and customer holdings on the ASX's Clearing House Electronic Sub-register System (CHESS). The auction, will not however, include deposits that sit in customer accounts to fund trading activities. 

The big banks are competing fiercely for deposit funding in the present environment and ANZ's decision regarding the structure of its online broking sale reflects that. The sale of the unit, formerly known as E*TRADE Australia, was flagged by Street Talk in April. 

It is the first asset to be cut loose in ANZ's broader wealth and life insurance review. 

Elsewhere, new ASX chief Dominic Stevens will have a long list of matters to roll up his sleeves on. 

The ASX has seen the foreign ownership cap relaxed and exchange mergers are still in focus globally as the marriage of the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse inches closer. 

Along with the broader themes though, is the upgrade across the ASX's technology platforms which has been delayed. Street Talk understands the ASX has started telling brokers the start date for its new equities trading platform will be delayed for three years. The exchange telling those in the industry the delay is for their benefit, as it is "conscious of the impact on customers" of the technology changes already underway. 

Finally, the corporate regulator has appointed Shaw and Partners deputy chief Simon Gray as chairman of its prestigious market disciplinary panel. He will serve a two-year term and replaces industry stalwart and lawyer Lisa Gay, who was in the panel chairman's role for six years. 

The panel comprises senior industry figures, and in a similar way to the Takeovers Panel, acts as an independent peer-review forum for disciplinary action against market participants and operators for alleged breaches of market integrity rules.  

Gray joined Shaw in 2004 and has more than 15 years industry experience, including in the areas of legal and compliance and oversight of corporate finance.

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Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure has put together a mammoth banking syndicate to help fund the potential purchase of a controlling stake in NSW power distributor, Ausgrid. 

Street Talk understands CKI's banking group houses 19 lenders in total, including Australia's Big Four banks and a mix of European and Asian banks. Certainty and terms around the funding will be important in the privatisation contest with the 50.4 per cent stake in Ausgrid expected to fetch well north of $10 billion. 

Rival bidder State Grid Corporation of China, a state-owned enterprise, has Chinese giants Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China in its corner. 

Australia's Big Four are also involved in the State Grid lending group, sources said.

The funding packages are said to include a range of long-dated loans with a tenor as long as 10 years and are staggered over time. 

Investment grade credit ratings are required of bidders as a requirement of the NSW government, which will retain a 49.6 per cent stake in Ausgrid.

State Grid enjoys a AA- rating from Standard & Poor's while CKI is rated A-, which will have a bearing on on the price of financing.

CKI and Ausgrid lodged final offers for Ausgrid by the July 25 deadline and, as revealed by this column, presented to the NSW government on their respective business plans in the latter half of last week.

The rival suitors are now tidying up last-minute queries from the government on their plans for the distributor ahead of an initial indication expected next week from the Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison's office on foreign investment issues.

Unusually for a privatisation, final bids were allowed to be conditional on Foreign Investment Review Board approval.

Elsewhere, Credit Suisse has hired former UBS Australia fixed income head Grant Lovett to run its Australian fixed income and equity derivatives business. 

Lovett, whose formal title will be head of Australia, Global Market Solutions, is expected to start at the Swiss bank on August 2 and sit on the Australian management committee. 

Lovett previously worked for UBS in Sydney and New York.  He left UBS to become chief of staff to then-Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey. 

 

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The three big Hunter Valley coal carriers are believed to be through to the second round of mining giant Glencore's NSW rail sale, with a dataroom open and the binding bid date set for the end of September. 

Street Talk understands the big three - Asciano's Pacific National, ASX-listed rival Asciano and GRail's existing operator Genesee & Wyoming - led the bidding field into the second round late last week, setting the stage for a hard-fought $1 billion-odd auction under the watch of adviser RBC Capital Markets. 

While the bidders get to work assessing GRail, its parent Glencore and coal volumes from Glencore's Hunter Valley mines, they'll also be waiting to see what Rod Sims' ever-active Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has to say about the process and underlying contracts. 

Pacific National is the biggest player in the Hunter Valley coal haulage market with about 50 per cent market share, while Aurizon and Genesee hold close to 25 per cent each.

If Pacific National or Aurizon won the auction, US-based Genesee & Wyoming would be squeezed out and the Hunter Valley coal haulage market would be back as a duopoly.

At the least, you would have to think the ACCC would explain why it was not concerned about the potential impact on competition. 

For Pacific National, the auction comes less than one-month from the coal carrier's cashed-up new owners taking the keys following their takeover of Asciano. There is little doubt Pacific National has the firepower to buy the $1 billion-odd GRail, the question is whether its new owners can get their act and funding together quickly enough. 

Meanwhile Macquarie analysts reckon there would be $10 million a year in synergies available to Aurizon - and no doubt Pacific National, given its footprint. And then there is Genesee, which has been seeking a financial partner to help make its run more competitive.

Finally, investors are being asked to have another look at Tyro Payments Bank, the only tech company that has been granted a bank licence, with a small stack being offered through secondary exchange Primarymarkets.com. 

Tyro is taking on the big banks in lending to small business after being granted a full banking licence a year ago following a decade processing payments. 

A small group of early investors are looking to sell down portions of their shareholdings, with one and a half per cent of Tyro – believed to be worth about $5 million – up for grabs.

Tyro raised $100 million last November, tapping Tiger Global Management ($59.5 million), TDM Asset Management ($30.5m) and Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes ($10m).

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Banks are putting the finishing touches on written proposals, due next week, to score a role on the potential float of Arrium's prized Moly-cop business. 

Street Talk understands bank proposals will be submitted next week to administrator KordaMentha ahead of face-to-face pitches occurring soon after.

Up for grabs are as many as two additional joint lead manager roles alongside Deutsche Bank which is assessing a dual track process for the manufacturer and supplier of grinding balls and rods.

In early July, Moly-Cop started meeting fund managers on a global non-deal roadshow to introduce management to potential initial public offering investors.

One positive for the float route, is however, that local fund managers and sell-side analysts are familiar with the business, having watched it prop up Arrium's financial position in recent years. 

Moly-Cop is expected to be worth $1.5 billion to $2 billion.  A teaser document for the auction, mark two, hit the desks of a select group of potential buyers last month. An information memorandum will follow in mid-August.  

As revealed by this column, Morgan Stanley has been mandated by KordaMentha to sell the Whyalla steelworks and the other Australian assets inside the collapsed Arrium. 

 

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