Street Talk

Groundhog Day at Sydney Desal auction as Morrison bankers up

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Updated Jul 29, 2025 – 5.43pm, first published at 4.56pm

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Barrenjoey Capital Partners didn’t hold back in its sell-side pitch for the $2.5 billion Sydney Desalination Plant, bowling over readers with pages of detail that read more like an investment memorandum than a sale flyer.

Jarrod Key’s infrastructure team is spruiking the asset hard, hoping to get as many deep-pocketed bidders to the table for part-owner Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTTP). But are prospective acquirers’ efforts all for nothing?

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.