The big banks and miners sat on their hands. Private equity couldn't compete with cashed-up strategic buyers.
The IPO market wobbled. And infrastructure deals topped the league tables.
That's how deal makers will remember 2016. It was patchy, at best, and on a number of occasions it looked like pretty much all deals would be off the table altogether.
As always though, a collection of ambitious CEOs and boards, cashed-up pension fund investors and an IPO market still inviting private equity floats kept the deal making world going round.
So bankers and pinstriped lawyers keep their well-paid jobs, set sights on fresh targets for next year and should be able to afford new cars, watches and renovations when annual bonuses land in the coming weeks.
Here is Street Talk's most memorable deals of the year.
Ausgrid
It was the biggest and most political deal of the year.
New South Wales was left floundering when federal Treasurer Scott Morrison blocked the only two binding bids for the state's biggest ever privatisation and most valuable electricity network, Ausgrid.
With egg on the faces of all involved – the NSW government, its advisers, the respective offshore bidders and even the Foreign Investment Review Board which back-tracked on its own earlier guidance – and the prospect of another drawn out auction for the stake, in came AustralianSuper and IFM Investors.
The pair, both bluer than blue Australian heavyweights with a combined $170 billion or so in assets under management, used NSW's controversial unsolicited proposal framework to make a bid for the up-for-sale 50.4 per cent Ausgrid stake.
The move blindsided rivals. It was the first time the unsolicited framework had been used for an M&A; deal. It was set up to handle construction of new tollroads, hotels and the like, and requires the bidder to have a unique pitch.
And IFM and AustralianSuper's uniqueness? The bid was "all Australian" and would not be conditional on FIRB approval.
One month later, NSW Premier Mike Baird and Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian signed the deal. It valued the Ausgrid stake at $10.4 billion including debt, while Baird labelled it a $16.19 billion result. Baird's number included all of Ausgrid's debt which was lined up by the new owners and no longer sits on NSW's books.
Reliance Worldwide Corporation
It's almost three years since the initial public offering window opened and dozens of companies have made the most of the conditions and rushed to the ASX boards.
Fund managers are very accustomed to the IPO process, while equities desks and bankers have learnt a few new tricks in messaging and managing demand to ensure good outcomes for their clients.
The biggest issue heading into the new year is IPO quality. Fundies fear the best and brightest IPO contenders have now worked through the system and worry about what it is to come.
But all is not necessarily lost.
This time last year, very few fundies had heard of $1.64 billion plumbing supplies manufacturer Reliance Worldwide Corporation. Even some of the bankers who would help Reliance Worldwide raise $918.8 million at the top of its price range in April needed a quick primer.
Reliance Worldwide proved to be the kind of nuts and bolts business fund managers love. And it came to the market as a family-owned business without the hint of private equity or too much polish applied for the float.
The company listed at $2.50 a share and is now trading above $3.
Asciano
Nothing fires up an M&A; deal like an accompanying after-market share raid.
And in the case of Asciano, it happened twice.
Ports and rail operator Asciano had agreed a takeover with US-listed but Canadian born and bred Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, and a bunch of Brookfield's well funded and like-minded investors.
The proposed Asciano/Brookfield deal was going swimmingly until the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised "red light" concerns about merging Asciano's stevedoring business with Brookfield's Queensland port and Western Australian rail assets.
And then ASX-listed Qube Holdings and its backers, the expanding Global Infrastructure Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, pounced. They picked up a blocking 19.9 per cent stake in a raid and equity swap through UBS.
Brookfield hit back only one week later, raiding its own 14.9 per cent stake through Macquarie and Citi's equities desks, and another 4.3 per cent economic interest.
So with two big consortiums on the register – both with $1.5 billion-plus stakes – Goldman Sachs and Gresham-advised Asciano went back and forth between the bidders.
It was pretty clear the $9 billion sale would end only one way – when the two consortiums came together and split the assets between them. And so it happened in March this year, when Asciano announced one set of investors would buy the Pacific National rail businesss and another including Qube would take the ports.
For Qube's team, headed by Chris Corrigan and Maurice James, it marked a sensational return to Asciano's Patrick ports business about a decade after they decided to go it alone with Qube.
Masters
Perhaps the biggest "wow" moment of the year was when Woolworths finally signed a deal to sell its troubled hardware unit.
Metcash picked up Home Timber & Hardware Group, as expected, and the bulk of the stock at its Masters chain was sold to US inventory liquidator Great American Group.
But the shock was in who picked up the bulk of the hardware business, its property, including 40 Masters freehold trading sites, 21 freehold development sites and another 21 leasehold sites.
Beating property funds and big name private equity tyre kickers to the punch was a well-heeled group spearheaded by well known former UBS investment banker David Di Pilla, who called themselves Home Consortium.
Di Pilla's aged care property arm Aurrum was joined in the consortium by the family offices behind Spotlight and Chemist Warehouse, backed by lease commitments from retailers including JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Chemist Warehouse ad Spotlight.
Di Pilla was known as a canny deal maker at UBS and it seems little has changed since he left.
Charter Hall Long WALE REIT
Fund managers dished out a timely lesson in equity market sentiment as property player Charter Hall went about floating its newest fund.
Much of the year in equity markets was dominated by the yield trade. As bond yields looked like being lower for longer, institutional and retail investors piled into high-yielding shares to top up portfolio performance.
Petrol station owner Viva Energy REIT rode the wave perfectly, raising $911 million at $2.20 a security or a 5.9 per cent forecast distribution yield and saw its stock pop another 15 per cent on listing in early August.
However, market sentiment soon changed. And as it was changing, Charter Hall was in the market seeking to raise $871 million at a 5.3 per cent forecast distribution yield. When it came time for firm commitments, Charter Hall failed to get "sufficient quality of support" for the $350 million institutional portion of the IPO.
The tide had gone out and what looked like a sure thing only one month earlier had failed.
To its credit, Charter Hall restructured the deal and offered investors a 6.3 per cent forecast 2017 financial year distribution yield. The recut deal found support and it listed on November 8.
