Quadrant Private Equity is considering the acquisition of Ardent Leisure's gym business, industry sources said. 

While Ardent has been talking to bidders about its d'Albora Marinas division, limited partner sources said Quadrant had focused its attention on Goodlife Health Clubs, one of the fastest growing gym networks with 76 locations across Australia.

Quadrant is self-advised while Citigroup is advising Ardent Leisure. 

Ardent Leisure shares were placed in a trading halt on Friday morning.

An announcement is expected later on Friday. 

Goodlife is expected to make about $30 million earnings in the 2017 financial year, according to sell-side analyst estimates, and is expected to be worth about $200 million. 

Goodlife has 76 gyms across Australia and more than 200,000 members. 

Ardent's news comes less than one week before it was due to hand down its full-year results to investors. 

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Morgan Stanley analysts have written $3 billion off their valuation of payTV operator and initial public offering-contender Foxtel, in light of competition from new streaming players. 

The analysts said Telstra and News Corporation-owned Foxtel was worth $5 billion, well below their $7 billion previous valuation and significantly lower than market consensus numbers at $8 billion to $9 billion. 

The valuation change comes after News Corp reported Foxtel earnings down 21 per cent in the 2016 financial year, on a United States dollar GAAP basis, and 9 per cent in local currency. 

Morgan Stanley said Foxtel faced similar issues to its New Zealand counterpart Sky Network Television, which recently agreed a merger with Vodafone NZ in an effort to set up for the future. 

"We encourage investors to explore the recent action by payTV peer Sky TV NZ to sell itself to Vodafone as a good case in point," Morgan Stanley told clients on Friday morning. 

"Why? Because we think FOXTEL and SKT face the same fundamental challenge, as outlined by SKT in detail in its deal documentation: historically, both have been highly profitable monopoly payTV businesses … but, that's it, they are purely video businesses that now face significant competition from new streaming players.

"In our view, they are strategically incomplete: in that they do not own their own networks/infrastructure, and therefore cannot build data/ISP or voice businesses and keep 100% of the economics.

"Instead, they are reliant on telco bundling partnerships, which in Australia have historically received a poor response from consumers and produced low returns to FOXTEL."

Morgan Stanley said it was time to consider Foxtel's valuation in light of News' result, changes to its senior management and Sky TV NZ's takeover. 

It also comes as Telstra, which has a 50 per cent stake in Foxtel, mulls options for its investment. Telstra and News were considering floating the business, but delayed plans until 2017. 

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Investment bank UBS has launched a $90 million institutional placement for car dealership and logistics group Automotive Holdings. 

The broker was seeking to sell 19.91 million new share at $4.52 each on Friday morning. 

The placement was to be followed by a share purchase plan, worth up to another $20 million. 

The offer was priced at a 6.2 per cent discount to the last close, according to terms sent to potential investors. 

THe broker was seeking bids into the placement by 5.30pm Friday. 

Funds raised were to reduce debt and pay for acquisitions, announced on Friday. 

Automotive Holdings has agreed to acquire the Audi Centre Newcastle and Newcastle Skoda dealerships, both in New South  Wales. 

It comes only one week after Automotive Holdings announced long-standing chief executive Bronte Howson would retire after 17-years in the top job. 

Automotive Holdings also to released its full-year profit numbers on Friday. 

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Macquarie Capital has kicked off the long-awaited sale process for skip bins and waste management company Bingo Industries, sending a marketing flyer to potential buyers. 

Street Talk can reveal Bingo has been pitched as a fast-growing commercial and liquid waste business, servicing the building and construction industry. 

The flyer points out Bingo's strong growth in the Sydney commercial and construction waste market, where it is the local market leader in recycling. It has a strategic network of infrastructure across greater Sydney with facilities resulting in recycling rates of 80 per cent to 90 per cent. 

Potential buyers were told Bingo would benefit from increased demand from customers seeking environmentally friendly waste management solutions, and would be well positioned to benefit from NSW"s sizeable infrastructure pipeline. Meanwhile, the commercial side of Bingo's business has won a number of blue-chip clients through its recycling capability, the flyer notes.

The pitch is also about being able to expand Bingo nationally. 

Which makes it sounds like the process is aimed at cashed-up private equity firms - and those trade players who have a good knowledge of the market. That means the likes of Cleanaway, Tox Free Solutions and JJ Richards & Sons will be likely to take a look. 

[Bingo is expected to be worth north of $500 million, so you would also have to think it is the bigger end of the private equity spectrum kicking the tyres in coming weeks.] 

It's understood interested parties have been told that Bingo's owner, the Tartak family, wants to remain involved in the business. 

Macquarie is expected to call for indicative bids in early October. 

The owners are also considering an initial public offering. 

The waste sector has been a busy source of deals of local and offshore suitors and the banks in recent years. 

KKR sold the Cleanaway part of Bis Industries to Transpacific for $1.25 billion in 2007, having acquired it from Brambles not long before. 

Ironbridge-owned EnviroWaste was bought by Hong Kong-listed infrastructure fund CKI Infrastructure three years ago in a deal worth $NZ501 million, representing an earnings multiple reminiscent of pre-GFC times.

And then there was the one which probably will be remembered as the most remarkable - Transpacific Industries also offloaded its New Zealand waste management business to Beijing Capital Group in a hotly contested auction in 2014.

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Mineral Resources has begun talks with parties interested in acquiring its 41.3 per cent stake in the Mt Marion lithium project, a sale certain to provide a gauge on the market's appetite for Australian hard rock lithium projects.

Managing director Chris Ellison confirmed the miner had begun talks to offload the stake as part of its strategy to step back from equity investments in projects once they reach production. 

Street Talk understands valuations on the stake range between roughly $300 million and $700 million.

Mt Marion, which is due to commence exports within months, is jointly owned by junior Neometals and Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium, China's largest lithium producer.

Ganfeng, which also holds 41.3 per cent of the project and has already agreed to buy 100 per cent of the mine's production for its first three years, is the most likely bidder for MinRes' stake given it is expanding its presence across the Chinese lithium supply chain and has proved hungry for supply.

Another logical buyer is lithium major Albemarle, which owns 49 per cent of the massive Greenbushes mine. However, sources suggested, despite having the balance sheet to consider the acquisition, Albemarle was more inclined to invest in utilising untapped capacity at Greenbushes rather than picking up another asset.

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