American oil and gas investor Harbour Energy is understood to have made a fresh approach to Australia's Santos.

Street Talk understands the two parties have been in talks across the Easter long weekend, after Harbour Energy approached Santos with an all-cash proposal late last week. 

Santos shares last closed at $5.07, valuing the company's equity at $10.6 billion. 

It's understood Harbour Energy's indicative offer was at a premium to the last close. 

Santos is expected to grant the bidder due diligence, but stop short of recommending the offer to shareholders at this early stage. It is expected to announce the approach to the market as early as Tuesday. 

The new approach comes as Harbour Energy boss and former Shell executive Linda Cook has been in Australia meeting stakeholders. 

It also comes about six months after Harbour Energy last approached Santos, with an indicative offer at $4.55 a share. Santos rebuffed the proposal, saying it undervalued the company and the bidder's funding was uncertain. 

Since then, the market has been awaiting Harbour Energy's return.

Harbour Energy has been seeking support from fellow equity and debt backers for a fresh bid. The Australian FInancial Review revealed in November that Harbour Energy was seeking to shore up a $5.30 a share offer, which prompted Santos' disclosure of the earlier proposal. 

Santos is advised by Deutsche Bank and Rothschild Australia.

Harbour Energy has been taking its counsel from JPMorgan, Highbury Partnership and Gilbert + Tobin, and is also believed to have drafted in Morgan Stanley. It is owned by resources private equity investor EIG Global Partners, which is best known locally for its stake in ASX-listed Senex Energy. 

Santos is about 15 per cent owned by two Chinese shareholders, gas distributor ENN Group and private equity firm Hony Capital, who under a strategic partnership with Santos have the option to counter any takeover offer that is higher than their own entry price onto the share register.

It is not the first time Santos has been in private equity crosshairs. The company rejected a $7.1 billion approach from a separate private equity outfit in October 2015. It has since raised equity twice, tapping new and existing shareholders for a combined $4 billion in fresh funds. 

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One of the country's newest private equity firms has teamed up with old world investors The Myer Family Company, MLC and Washington H Soul Pattinson to make its maiden acquisition. 

Street Talk can reveal Colinton Capital Partners - the Sydney-based buyout firm set up by former The Carlyle Group country head Simon Moore and senior Goldman Sachs dealmaker Genevieve Gregor last year - has agreed terms to buy marine engineering and maintenance company Australian Maritime Systems Group. 

The deal is expected to be worth about $70 million and see Colinton Capital and its co-investors take a 92.5 per cent equity stake in the business. 

Australian Maritime Systems was set up when the federal government opted to outsource coastal navigation to the private sector nearly two decades ago. 

It is best known for designing and maintaining navigational aid and traffic services systems for government bodies including the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and port authorities, often operating under long term contracts. 

Australian Maritime Systems is understood to be on track to record about $10.5 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the 12-months to June 30, with higher earnings already contracted for next year. 

Colinton Capital's Moore will join Australian Maritime Systems' board. Its investment thesis is expected to see the company try to increase its footprint in Australia and seek contracts with offshore maritime safety bodies that are similar to Australia's AMSA. Australian Maritime Systems already has operations in Australia and Canada. 

Colinton Capital will take the stake off existing shareholders including chief executive and founder John Sugarman, who will remain with Australian Maritime Systems under the new ownership structure as executive chairman, and Servcorp Ltd executive chairman Bruce Corlett. 

The private equity firm will acquire the business using funds from its maiden fundraising, and has co-investments from The Myer Family Company, MLC and Washington H Soul Pattinson. ANZ Banking Corporation is expected to provide debt funding. 

The deal, which was signed late last week, came after Australian Maritime Systems hired boutique Andover Group's Mark Hodge to find a buyer for the business. Colinton Capital saw off a handful of rival bidders, including another private equity firm, to secure the acquisition. 

Interestingly, sources noted Australian Maritime Services looks a lot like US-based government services provider Booz Allen Hamilton, which was formerly owned by Carlyle. Moore spent more than a decade at the private equity giant, and finished as a global partner in late 2015. 

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There's a cashed-up latecomer for Vocus Group's up-for-sale Kiwi arm.

Street Talk can reveal $US250 billion Canadian giant Brookfield, which has turned up in several big-ticket Australian auctions in recent months, is preparing to submit a final offer for Vocus New Zealand by the last week of April. 

The Toronto-based asset manager is expected to bid against electricity and telco services retailer Trustpower, which is taking its counsel from local boutique Cameron Partners. Brookfield is self-advised. 

Private equity suitors TPG and Pacific Equity Partners earlier withdrew from the sale process while doubts have been raised about the auction's other domestic suitor 2degrees, which is majority owned by Canada-based Trilogy International Partners.

In a note to clients last week, UBS analysts highlighted commentary from a conference call with Trilogy,which suggested there may be a mismatch in price expectations.   

"Trilogy noted in particular that because of the high level of competition in the New Zealand broadband space, 'there's a pretty big gap between what we think this thing would be worth and what the sellers expectations are,'" the broker said. 

Brookfield last year kicked the tyres on data centre business, Metronode, while its $9 billion takeover of infrastructure group Asciano has been its biggest play in Australia to date. 

Vocus is understood to be seeking $500 million to $600 million for the business. It earlier told interested parties that its New Zealand unit was a highly profitable standalone business with $NZ342 million ($315 million) revenue in the year to June 30 and $NZ60.9 million in underlying earnings. 

Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse are running the auction.

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It's quarter time in one of the most competitive sectors in Australian capital markets - institutional equities - and the early results are a little surprising. 

While it will be mid-week before final cash equities broker market share numbers are available, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch's equities desks are looking at top-three positions, while JPMorgan's move to hire a pair of Goldman Sachs veterans has it pushing for a top-five spot. 

UBS will finish the quarter at No.1 by a big margin - again - and looks to have already established an unassailable lead.

Morgan Stanley and Citi are off to a slower start this year and have slipped out of the top three, replaced by Deutsche and BAML. JPMorgan, Macquarie Insto and Credit Suisse are fighting hard to break into the top five, while Goldman Sachs lags at the bottom of the bulge brackets. 

Overall, the value of shares traded in the first quarter was in line with last year, even though the benchmark index was trading 200 to 300 points higher for most of the period. 

It comes as desk heads and their bosses re-shape their businesses to try and make the most of structural industry changes. Big global investment managers are changing the way they pay brokers, while hedge funds are dipping in and out of the market often at the whim of macro events offshore. 

Locally, buy-side power has shifted towards the big industry funds whose move to in-house Australian equities mandates shows no sign of slowing down. Chief investment officers at the industry funds, such as UniSuper, are now among the first clients called when equities desks are trying to get a big trade away. 

So it is understandable there is plenty of debate inside investment banks about the value of cash equities and importance of market share, although few at the top of the table dispute its importance. Market share does not guarantee profitability. 

In terms of equity capital markets deals, where fees are highly correlated to league table positions, UBS is again on top, ahead of its co-lead manager on Woodside Petroleum's $2 billion rights issue, Morgan Stanley. The pair leads Deutsche Bank, Macquarie Group and Goldman Sachs, according to Dealogic data.

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Regional publishing may have its detractors, but it certainly isn't short of suitors.

Street Talk can reveal Sydney-based private equity firm Allegro Funds is actively running the numbers on both News Corporation and Fairfax Media's regional publishing outfits.

Last week, this column reported that Anchorage Capital Partners has also signalled interest in the pair of regional businesses and has been keeping a watching brief on moves made by News Corp and Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review. 

News Corp has given Citi's investment banking team in Melbourne the role for canvassing the market's appetite for its regional publishing assets. It is understood Anchorage is further progressed with its look at News Corp's regional business than Fairfax's, but it has not come to the board with any offer.

Investors and media executives have long thought combining News Corp and Fairfax's regional business, Australian Community Media (ACM) is a logical move which would allow for an array of cost savings and efficiencies, including sharing print facilities without too much cross-over in areas covered by the respective publications.

But, the problem is News Corp and Fairfax, fierce rivals at the best of times, would find it difficult to nut out a deal that would appease both parties. Observers reckon it makes sense for a private equity firm to come in and buy both businesses before putting them together.

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