Daily Brief Australia: Alumina Ltd, QV Equities Ltd, Metarock and more

In today’s briefing:

Alumina (AWC AU): Alcoa’s Binding Proposal Aided by Alcoa’s Re-Rating

Alumina Ltd (AWC AU) has entered a scheme implementation deed with Alcoa (AA US) at 0.02854 Alcoa shares per Alumina share. The scheme meeting is targeted for 3Q.
While the offer is not a knockout bid, the 15% increase in Alcoa shares lowers the headcount risk from retail opposition and lowers the bump potential.
Regulatory approvals are a formality, and Citic Resources Holdings (1205 HK) lack of support reflects HKEx listing requirements. At the last close, the gross spread was 3.4%.

QV Equities Ltd (QVE AU) has disclosed a binding scheme proposal from WAM Leaders Ltd (WLE AU) consisting of a cash and scrip consideration pegged to pre-tax NTA per share.
The indicative value of the cash proposal is A$1.02, and the scrip is A$1.058 (0.7609 WLE shares per QVE share). Shareholders are entitled to an A$0.013 March quarter dividend.
The offer is attractive, and the shareholder structure facilitates the vote. At the last close, the gross spread of the scrip + dividend offer is 8.1%.

Metarock Group Ltd (ASX:MYE) is a specialist underground mining contractor across both metallurgical coal and metalliferous hard rock mining, working with most tier-1 operators in the respective spaces.
Following a difficult 18 months dealing with legacy contracts that required an equity injection, asset sales and ATO payment plan, MYE appears to be coming out the other side, posting an adjusted $49.1m EBITDA over the 12 months to December 31, and reducing net debt to $62.8m which includes $30m of invoice financing.
Applying H1 FY24 annualised depreciation and interest charges we calculate EBITA of $22.8m for the last 12 months, implying CY23 EV/EBITA of ~4.9x.

💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma

The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network