Daily Brief Australia: Newcrest Mining, Omni Bridgeway, BetMakers Technology Group, Actinogen Medical and more

• Newmont Mining (NEM US), the world’s largest gold miner, has pitched a non-binding, all-scrip proposal for Newcrest Mining (NCM AU), Australia’s largest listed gold company.  
• The proposal offers 0.38 Newmont shares for every Newcrest share, or an indicative Offer price of A$27.16/share, a 21% premium to last close. An earlier proposal from Newmont was rejected.
• The proposal is subject to a raft of conditions, including granting of exclusivity to Newmont, due diligence, Newmont shareholder approval, and regulatory approvals, including FIRB.

• In this insight, we take a look at the potential index changes for S&P ASX 20, 50, 100, 200, 300 in the run up to the March 2023 Rebalance.
• There could be one change for ASX 20 and one change for ASX 100 while ASX 200 could see four ADDs/DELs.
• For ASX 300, there could be 15 ADDs and 12 DELs in the March 2023 Rebalance including some high impact names based on days-to-trade.

• Newcrest Mining (NCM AU) confirmed a non-binding indicative privatisation proposal from Newmont Mining (NEM US) at 0.380 Newmont shares per Newcrest share. 
• The offer values Newcrest at a discount to Tier 1 gold producer EV/Resource multiples. Also, the offer carries the volatility risk around Newmont shares and FX rates.
• The offer underscores Newcrest’s value and helps the Board seek better terms. There is a possibility of a counterbid from other Tier 1 producers such as Barrick Gold (GOLD US).

Actinogen’s recent quarterly update confirmed that the company remains on track to start US recruitment in H1 CY23 for its six-month, placebo-controlled Phase IIb portion of the XanaMIA study. The study is designed to assess the safety and efficacy of Xanamem in a population of patients with mild cognitive impairment (CI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD), who at baseline will have been confirmed as biomarker-positive for AD (as determined through elevated blood phosphorylated Tau, or pTau). The company also started enrolment in Q4 CY22 for its XanaCIDD Phase IIa study assessing Xanamem in patients with CI relating to persistent depression despite ongoing treatment with standard-of-care medications. We expect the next material clinical data milestone for the company will be the XanaCIDD results, due in late CY23 or early CY24.