Best M&A Advisers in Perth (2026): WA Gold, METS and Resources Deals

Best M&A Advisers in Perth (2026): WA Gold, METS and Resources Deals

TL;DR. Eleven Perth firms pass our three tests: an ASIC licence or authorised-representative number, a real Perth office, and a dated 2025-26 adviser credit in a deal filing. Sternship Advisers is the busiest name in the filings, with nine ASX-filed adviser credits between March 2025 and July 2026, including financial adviser to Spartan on its sale to Ramelius for about A$2.4bn (ASX, 17 Mar 2025). Azure Capital and Barrenjoey advised De Grey on its sale to Northern Star for about A$5bn, and the scheme booklet prints both at Perth addresses (booklet, 11 Mar 2025). Gold is now WA's second-biggest commodity: record sales of A$36bn in 2025, ahead of LNG, within A$226bn of total resources sales (WA Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration). Warriedar's booklet prints its adviser's fee: A$100,000, plus A$300,000 if shareholders approved (booklet, 26 Sep 2025). ACCC merger notification has been mandatory above the thresholds since 1 January 2026 (Determination F2025L00753). A private foreign buyer from a non-FTA country faces a $0 FIRB threshold for mining tenements (FIRB, 2026 thresholds). WA landholder duty reaches share sales of companies holding A$2M or more of WA land, and land includes tenements (WA Government).

I'm Sean Yu, co-founder of Peony. Before Peony I worked in M&A at Nomura, then invested at Backed VC and Target Global, so I have sat on the bank side and the buyer side of a deal. Today I sit on the document side: Peony's 8,000+ customers run sales, fundraises and investor reporting through our rooms. I did not advise any deal on this page. Every credit below comes from an ASX announcement, a scheme booklet, an SEC filing or the firm's own dated page, and each one is linked.

Here is the honest read. A generic list of Perth M&A advisers can blend Sydney banks with no named Perth team, accounting firms that appear in filings only in due-diligence roles, a brand absorbed in 2020 and "M&A firm Perth" landing pages. The 2025-26 WA filings tell a cleaner story. A small Perth bench sits on both sides of the same goldfield deals. One accounting network wrote five of the six independent expert reports we read. Sydney-based banks join the multi-billion schemes. This guide prints eleven ranked firms, a separate independent-expert lane, a sidebar of the banks that run the biggest WA deals, and the names we left off with the reason.

The quick playbook. For a WA gold or mining-services deal under about A$300M, start with the Perth tier-one boutiques. On an ASX takeover approach, hire a financial adviser early and expect the board to need an independent expert. Above A$1bn, plan for a Perth adviser plus a global bank. This page is the Western Australia spoke of our Best M&A Advisors hub. It sits alongside Best M&A Advisers in Sydney and Best Energy M&A Advisers in Australia and New Zealand, and our Calgary guide covers another resources city.

What does the Perth M&A market look like in 2026?

Perth's deal flow is a resources market. Gold consolidation and mining-services roll-ups lead it, and it sits on a WA resources sector that sold A$226bn of minerals and petroleum in 2025. That figure is "down from peak levels of more than $250 billion", per the WA Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration. The commodity split explains which advisers are busy:

An average gold price of more than US$3,400 an ounce turned that A$36bn into an M&A wave. I call it the Gold Consolidation Chain, and every link is in a deal filing. De Grey went to Northern Star (completed 5 May 2025). Focus Minerals sold Laverton to Genesis (4 June 2025). Spartan went to Ramelius (31 July 2025). Gold Road went to Gold Fields (effective 26 September 2025). Warriedar went to Capricorn (25 November 2025). Magnetic went to Genesis (22 June 2026). Westgold sold Mt Henry-Selene, Peak Hill and Chalice. Ramelius sold Edna May to Forrestania (4 September 2026). One merger failed: Regis and Vault announced a merger on 5 May 2026, and Regis declined to match a Genesis offer on 13 July 2026. Genesis's own scheme for Vault, about A$5.6bn, goes to a shareholder vote on 11 November 2026 (Vault booklet, registered 6 Oct 2026).

The second engine is mining services and contracting, often called METS (mining equipment, technology and services). GenusPlus bought MGC Group, Railtrain and MPC Kinetic, the last for A$325M upfront. NRW bought Fredon (EV up to A$200M). SRG Global bought TAMS (A$85M). Bhagwan Marine bought Riverside Marine (EV up to A$130M). Tasmea bought Maxim Group (EV A$254M). Southern Cross Electrical bought Force Fire. Two more ASX releases name no advisers at all: Macmahon's purchase of Aspect Engineering (18 September 2026) and Perenti's A$100M sale of BTP (21 August 2026). I print no credit for either.

What the market is not, in 2026, is a lithium or nickel M&A market. Sales of both collapsed, and in the filings we read we found no dated 2025-26 adviser credit on a WA lithium deal. Break and reimbursement fees sit near 1% of deal value on my own arithmetic from the filings: A$23.8M on Spartan's about A$2.4bn, and A$55.5M on Genesis-Vault's about A$5.6bn.

How did we rank Perth's M&A advisers?

Every ranked firm had to pass three tests, and we ranked on filed evidence, not on league tables or websites.

1. Licence. Advice on whether to accept or reject a takeover offer is a decision about a financial product (ASIC RG 36.27). An M&A adviser therefore generally needs its own Australian financial services licence (AFSL) or must act as an authorised representative under one. We checked every firm in ASIC's October 2026 licensee and authorised-representative datasets on data.gov.au.
2. A real Perth office, proved by a scheme booklet's corporate directory or the firm's contact page. The register shows only the principal locality, so it cannot prove a branch.
3. At least one dated 2025-26 adviser-of-record credit with a primary URL and a verbatim quote.

Evidence tiers, strongest first: an ASX filing or booklet by a deal party; the same release recovered from a party's archived website, because the ASX feed drops delisted codes; a counterparty filing outside ASX, such as an SEC 6-K; then the firm's own dated tombstone. Own-website credits are labelled as such below.

Role labels. I print the role exactly as the filing gives it: financial adviser (FA); corporate adviser (CA), which is the wording Genesis and GenusPlus use for M&A advice; independent expert (IER, under ASIC RG 111); and lead manager or bookrunner (ECM), which is capital raising, not M&A advice. I call the pattern Three Hats, One Deal. The same Perth firm can wear two hats on one transaction: Euroz Hartleys was both financial adviser and joint lead manager to Bhagwan Marine. Only the M&A hat counts toward the ranking.

League tables are context, not ranking evidence. LSEG's free FY2025 and first-half 2026 Australian adviser tables are bank-heavy by value. Its mid-market and small-cap count tables are led by PwC, Macquarie and the accounting networks (LSEG FY2025 review, H1 2026, mid-market FY2025). No Perth-only boutique appears in either count table. That is why a WA owner learns more from the filings than from the tables.

Who are the best M&A advisers in Perth in 2026?

Five Perth-headquartered firms lead with three or more filed credits each: Sternship Advisers, Azure Capital, Euroz Hartleys, Argonaut and Longreach Capital. Three national firms with verified Perth offices follow (Gresham, Canaccord Genuity, Barrenjoey), then three small-cap specialists. All licence data is from ASIC's October 2026 datasets.

Tier one: Perth-headquartered advisers with three or more 2025-26 filing credits

1. Sternship Advisers

Sternship Advisers is a Subiaco boutique, founded in 2017 by the former UBS Perth team, that advises WA gold miners and mining-services acquirers on both sides of a deal; it was financial adviser to Spartan on its sale to Ramelius for about A$2.4bn: "Spartan has appointed Sternship Advisers as its financial adviser and Herbert Smith Freehills as its legal adviser" (ASX, 17 Mar 2025).

• Licence: Sternship Advisers Pty Ltd is not a licensee itself. It is corporate authorised representative 001255209 of Sternship Capital Pty Ltd, AFSL 493204, which is wholesale-only. The firm's footer gives the same CAR and AFSL numbers.
• Office: the Spartan transaction booklet's corporate directory printed "Level 2, 44A Kings Park Road, West Perth WA 6005" (booklet, 4 Jun 2025); its contact page now gives Suite 4, 414 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, which matches the Subiaco locality on its ASIC authorised-representative record.
• Dated credits, all ASX-filed:
  • Spartan, sold to Ramelius for about A$2.4bn (announced 17 Mar 2025; implemented 31 Jul 2025): FA to Spartan.
  • MGC Group, bought by GenusPlus (completed 17 Apr 2025): "Sternship Advisers acted as corporate adviser and Gilbert + Tobin acted as legal adviser to Genus" (ASX, 3 Apr 2025).
  • Laverton, bought by Genesis from Focus Minerals for A$250M (26 May 2025): CA to Genesis, jointly with Canaccord Genuity (ASX).
  • Predictive Discovery, Perseus's bid (3 Dec 2025): joint FA to Perseus with Macquarie Capital. Perseus ended its proposal on 16 Dec 2025 after Robex matched (ASX; termination).
  • Magnetic Resources, bought by Genesis for about A$639M (16 Feb 2026; implemented 22 Jun 2026): CA to Genesis, jointly with Canaccord Genuity (ASX).
  • Railtrain Holdings, bought by GenusPlus for A$36.5M upfront plus contingent payments of up to A$8.5M and A$10M over CY26 and CY27 (4 Mar 2026; completed 1 Apr 2026): CA to Genus (ASX).
  • MPC Kinetic, bought by GenusPlus for A$325M upfront plus A$25M deferred and up to A$50M earn-out (18 May 2026; completed 1 Jul 2026): CA to Genus (ASX).
  • Edna May Gold Hub, bought by Forrestania from Ramelius for A$300M (29 Jun 2026; completed 4 Sep 2026): "Sternship Advisers is appointed as financial adviser to Forrestania" (ASX).
  • Vault Minerals, Genesis's scheme of about A$5.6bn (14 Jul 2026; pending, vote 11 Nov 2026): "Genesis' financial advisers are Sternship Advisers Pty Ltd and Macquarie Capital (Australia) Limited" (ASX).
• Context: LSEG's first-half 2026 Australia tables rank Sternship #21 by announced value (US$809M, 3 deals) and #22 by completed value (US$678M, 4 deals).
• Verdict: the first call in Perth for a gold or mining-services deal from about A$10M to multi-billion, on either side, and the most frequent acquirer-side adviser in our ledger.

2. Azure Capital

Azure Capital is a St Georges Terrace corporate adviser that runs seller-side and target-side mandates for WA gold miners; the De Grey scheme booklet lists "Azure Capital Pty Ltd (ACN 107 416 106) as financial advisers to De Grey in relation to the Scheme" (booklet, 11 Mar 2025).

• Ownership: "Since May 2019, Azure Capital has been an independently operated affiliate of Natixis," per its Natixis page. It is not part of Wilsons.
• Licence and office: AFSL 276569, wholesale-only, registered in Perth. The De Grey booklet's corporate directory prints "Level 46, 108 St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6000". The firm also lists Sydney and Melbourne offices.
• Dated credits:
  • De Grey, sold to Northern Star for about A$5bn (booklet registered 11 Mar 2025; completed 5 May 2025): FA to De Grey, with Barrenjoey.
  • Laverton, sold by Focus Minerals to Genesis for A$250M (26 May 2025): "Azure Capital acted as financial adviser and HFW acted as legal advisor to the Company" (ASX).
  • Matrix Composites & Engineering, a Henderson, WA, engineering company acquired by Advanced Innergy Holdings by scheme for about A$94M (20 Apr 2026; implemented 23 Jul 2026): "Matrix is being advised by Azure Capital as its financial adviser and Gilbert + Tobin as its legal adviser in connection with the Scheme" (ASX; booklet, 4 Jun 2026). Henslow advised the buyer (AIH).
  • Regis's merger with Vault (5 May 2026): "Regis' financial advisers are Goldman Sachs and Azure Capital" (ASX). The deal was terminated: Regis declined to match Genesis on 13 Jul 2026 (ASX), Vault then terminated the deed, and a break fee of about A$50.7M became payable to Regis (ASX, 14 Jul 2026).
  • Edna May, sold by Ramelius to Forrestania for A$300M (29 Jun 2026; completed 4 Sep 2026 as A$210M cash plus A$90M in Forrestania shares): "Azure Capital acted as financial adviser and Gilbert & Tobin as legal adviser" to Ramelius (ASX; Forrestania completion; Ramelius confirmation).
  • Maxim Group, sold to Tasmea (EV A$254M; completed 2 Jul 2026): exclusive FA to Maxim. This is an own-website credit on its transactions page; Tasmea's ASX release names no advisers.
• Context: LSEG's FY2025 Australia completed table ranks "Azure Capital" #13 (US$2,762M, 5 deals), up from #49 in 2024.
• Reading its tombstones: as of 7 October 2026, Azure's transactions page still headlines the Regis-Vault deal as an "A$10.7 billion merger-of-equals", but its text records that Genesis's competing proposal "ultimately led to the termination of the proposed merger-of-equals with Regis". Read past the headline.
• Verdict: the Perth adviser with the strongest seller-side gold record in the period, from a A$250M project sale to a A$5bn scheme.

3. Euroz Hartleys

Euroz Hartleys is the ASX-listed Perth broker and corporate adviser (Euroz Hartleys Group, ASX: EZL) that acted for the acquirer on all four of its filed 2025-26 credits in gold and mining services; "Ramelius has appointed Euroz Hartleys Limited as its financial adviser and Allion Partners as its legal adviser," the Spartan announcement reads (ASX, 17 Mar 2025).

• History: "On 8 October 2020 Euroz completed the acquisition of Hartleys Limited" (our story). Hartleys is not a separate firm.
• Licence and office: Euroz Hartleys Limited, AFSL 230052, which covers both retail and wholesale clients. Its office is at Level 37, QV1, 250 St Georges Terrace, Perth (contact).
• Dated credits, all ASX-filed:
  • Ramelius's acquisition of Spartan (17 Mar 2025; implemented 31 Jul 2025): FA to Ramelius.
  • Alkane's merger with TSX-listed Mandalay Resources (28 Apr 2025; closed 5 Aug 2025): "Alkane has engaged Bell Potter Securities Limited and Euroz Hartleys Limited as joint financial advisors" (ASX).
  • SRG Global's acquisition of TAMS for A$85M (14 Oct 2025; completed 31 Oct 2025): "Euroz Hartleys acted as financial adviser" (ASX).
  • Bhagwan Marine's acquisition of Riverside Marine, EV up to A$130M (9 Feb 2026; completed 31 Mar 2026): "Euroz Hartleys Limited acted as Financial Advisor to Bhagwan in relation to the Acquisition." It was separately joint lead manager on the raise (ASX).
• Context: LSEG FY2025 Australia tables list "Euroz Ltd" at #25 announced (US$1,338M, 4 deals) and #23 completed (US$1,369M, 6 deals).
• Watch-out: its own M&A page describes the deal as a "takeover bid from Spartan Resources Limited". Ramelius was the bidder.
• Verdict: the natural adviser for a listed acquirer that wants a Perth house able to run both the acquisition and the equity raise that funds it.

4. Argonaut

Argonaut is a Perth resources corporate-finance and broking house that ran Westgold's 2025-26 divestment programme; three Westgold releases, starting with the A$64.6M Mt Henry-Selene sale, say "Argonaut acted as financial adviser and Thomson Geer as legal adviser to Westgold in relation to the Transaction" (ASX, 17 Dec 2025).

• Licences: Argonaut Corporate Finance Limited, AFSL 221476 (retail and wholesale), is the advisory entity. Argonaut Securities Pty Limited, AFSL 274099, is the broking and ECM entity.
• Office: Level 16, 9 The Esplanade, Perth, plus a Sydney office (contact).
• Dated credits, all ASX-filed:
  • Mt Henry-Selene, sold by Westgold to Alicanto for A$64.6M (17 Dec 2025; completed 16 Feb 2026): FA to Westgold (ASX).
  • Peak Hill, sold by Westgold to Great Boulder for A$58.3M plus a 1.0% royalty (4 May 2026; completed 1 Jul 2026): FA to Westgold (ASX).
  • Chalice, sold by Westgold to Corazon for A$25.7M (19 May 2026; completed 9 Jul 2026): FA to Westgold (ASX).
  • Materra Metals, to be acquired by AIC Mines for A$120M, made up of A$100M in shares and A$20M cash (23 Sep 2026; pending): "Materra's financial adviser is Argonaut" (ASX).
• ECM, labelled: Argonaut Securities was global coordinator, joint lead manager and joint bookrunner on Great Boulder's Peak Hill raise, and joint lead manager on Alicanto's raise. Those are capital-raising roles.
• Watch-out: Argonaut's homepage quotes De Grey's chair on working with the firm "through to our $6Bn takeover". De Grey's financial advisers of record were Azure Capital and Barrenjoey (with Barclays named in the December 2024 announcement), and Argonaut's role there was raising capital. We counted it as an ECM credit, not an M&A one.
• Verdict: the Perth adviser for a miner selling non-core projects in the A$25M to A$120M range.

5. Longreach Capital

Longreach Capital is a Subiaco advisory boutique, founded in 2017 by a former co-head of Gresham's WA office, that advises ASX-listed miners and contractors on acquisitions and disposals; "Longreach Capital is acting as financial adviser and Corrs Chambers Westgarth is acting as legal adviser to NRW on the Acquisition" (ASX, 2 Sep 2025).

• Licence and office: Longreach Capital Pty. Ltd., AFSL 497333, wholesale-only. Its registered locality is Nedlands; its office is at Level 1, 317 Rokeby Road, Subiaco (contact; leadership).
• Dated credits, all ASX-filed:
  • Warriedar, acquired by Capricorn Metals by scheme (24 Jul 2025; implemented 25 Nov 2025): "Capricorn has appointed Longreach Capital as its financial adviser" (ASX).
  • Fredon Industries, bought by NRW Holdings for EV up to A$200M (2 Sep 2025; completed 8 Oct 2025): FA to NRW.
  • Big Springs in Nevada, sold by Capricorn to Sentinel Metals for up to A$26.0M (2 Jul 2026; completed 26 Aug 2026): FA to Capricorn (ASX).
• Name trap: a Sydney entity, Longreach Capital Advisors Pty Ltd, is an authorised representative of Longreach Alternatives Ltd (AFSL 246747). It is not this firm. Match on AFSL 497333.
• Verdict: a strong choice for an ASX-listed miner or contractor making, or selling, a A$25M to A$200M asset.

Tier two: national firms with a verified Perth office

These three firms hold licences registered in Sydney or Melbourne but print a Perth office and have WA credits. For Gresham and Canaccord Genuity I could not confirm from the filings that the WA mandates were staffed from Perth, so read "has a Perth office", not "the Perth team ran it".

6. Gresham

Gresham is an Australian advisory firm with a Perth office in Brookfield Place that advised Gold Road from its rejection of Gold Fields' indicative offer through to the scheme; "Gold Road is being advised by Gresham Partners, Goldman Sachs and Corrs Chambers Westgarth," Gold Road's 5 May 2025 release reads (archived release).

• Licence and office: Gresham Advisory Partners Limited, AFSL 247113, wholesale-only, registered in Sydney. Its Perth office is at Level 11, Brookfield Place Tower 2, 123 St Georges Terrace (contact).
• Dated credits: Gold Road's 24 Mar 2025 release, which rejected Gold Fields' indicative offer, says "Gold Road has appointed Gresham Partners as its financial adviser" (archived release). Gold Road has been delisted, so the ASX feed no longer returns its releases, and we recovered both from Gold Road's archived website. Gold Fields' 6-K puts Gold Road's equity at about A$3.7bn and its enterprise value at about A$2.6bn, and names J.P. Morgan as Gold Fields' adviser (SEC 6-K, 5 May 2025). The scheme became effective on 26 Sep 2025 (SEC 6-K).
• Own-website, year-only credits: "Advisor to KKR on the acquisition of Zenith Energy" (2026), Stonepeak's acquisition of Allgas (2026) and Schlam Payload's sale to USCO ITR (2025) (transactions).
• Context: LSEG FY2025 ranks "Gresham Partners" #11 by announced value (US$6,068M, 15 deals) and #10 by completed value.
• Verdict: the filed precedent for a WA target board that rejects a global major's indicative offer and then negotiates a scheme with it.

7. Canaccord Genuity

Canaccord Genuity is a national broker and adviser with an Exchange Tower office in Perth that co-advised Genesis on both of its completed 2025-26 WA gold acquisitions; "Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited and Sternship Advisers are acting as corporate advisors" to Genesis on Magnetic (ASX, 16 Feb 2026).

• Licence and office: Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited, AFSL 234666 (retail and wholesale), registered in Melbourne. Its Perth office is at Level 23, Exchange Tower, 2 The Esplanade (contact).
• Dated credits, all ASX-filed: CA to Genesis on Laverton (26 May 2025) and on Magnetic (16 Feb 2026), both with Sternship. "Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited acted as Financial Advisor to Sentinel" on the Big Springs purchase from Capricorn (2 Jul 2026; completed 26 Aug 2026), where it was also joint lead manager on the placement (ASX). On the sell side, "Ausgold has appointed Canaccord Genuity and SCP Resource Finance LP as its financial advisors" for OceanaGold's scheme valuing Ausgold at about A$776M (17 Aug 2026; pending) (ASX).
• Context: LSEG's first-half 2026 tables list Canaccord at #18 announced (US$1,138M, 5 deals).
• Verdict: a good fit for an acquirer that wants M&A advice and its equity raise from one house.

8. Barrenjoey

Barrenjoey is a Sydney-headquartered investment bank whose De Grey booklet names its Perth office, Level 12, 1 Spring Street, as the office of record; the booklet lists "Barrenjoey Advisory Pty Limited (ACN 636 976 228) as financial advisers to De Grey in relation to the Scheme" (booklet, 11 Mar 2025).

• Licence and office: Barrenjoey Advisory Pty Limited, AFSL 521801, wholesale-only, registered in Sydney. Its Perth office is on its contact page as well as in the booklet.
• Dated credits: FA to De Grey with Azure (completed 5 May 2025). "Lynas has appointed Barrenjoey as its financial adviser" on its scheme for Meteoric Resources, owner of the Caldeira rare-earths project in Brazil (1 Oct 2026; pending) (ASX).
• Verdict: the only Sydney bank with a Perth office printed in the 2025-26 WA booklets we read. Ranked here rather than in the sidebar for that reason.

Tier three: small-cap specialists with filed credits

9. Discovery Capital Partners

Discovery Capital Partners is a West Perth corporate adviser to ASX juniors and the one Perth firm in our sample whose success fee is printed in a booklet; "Warriedar has appointed Discovery Capital Partners as its financial adviser and Thomson Geer as its legal adviser" (ASX, 24 Jul 2025).

• Licence and office: AFSL 500223 (retail and wholesale), registered in West Perth. The Warriedar booklet printed Level 1, 3 Ord Street, West Perth; its site footer now gives Suite 3, Level 5, Westcentre, 1260 Hay Street, West Perth.
• Dated credits: FA to Warriedar on the Capricorn scheme. The booklet's fee table lists A$100,000, and adds that the firm was "entitled to an additional fee of $300,000 if the Schemes are approved by Warriedar Securityholders" (booklet, 26 Sep 2025). It was also corporate adviser to Corazon on the A$25.7M Chalice purchase from Westgold (19 May 2026), and joint lead manager on the raise (ASX).
• Verdict: a target-side adviser for a junior explorer facing a scheme.

10. Salient Corporate

Salient Corporate is a Cottesloe corporate adviser that acted for Great Boulder on its A$58.3M Peak Hill purchase from Westgold; "Salient Corporate are financial advisers to the Company in relation to the Acquisition and the Placement" (ASX, 4 May 2026).

• Licence and office: AFSL 499098, wholesale-only. Its site gives 6/589 Stirling Highway, Cottesloe, and describes itself as "an independent, boutique corporate advisory firm based in Western Australia".
• Verdict: one filed credit, on the buy side of a project purchase. A narrow but real entry.

11. Poynton Stavrianou

Poynton Stavrianou is a Perth corporate adviser that acted for the private sellers of MGC Group in GenusPlus's 2025 purchase; "Poynton Stavrianou acted as corporate adviser and Squire Patton Boggs acted as legal adviser to the Sellers" (ASX, 3 Apr 2025).

• Licence and office: AFSL 488739, wholesale-only, registered in Perth. Its head office is at Level 34, 1 Spring Street (contact).
• Verdict: the only filed 2025-26 credit we found for a Perth boutique acting for the private sellers in a WA services roll-up, and the reason it makes the list. MGC is a WA rail-systems contractor; GenusPlus paid A$10.25M upfront plus earn-outs of up to A$10.5M.

Which independent experts write the reports in WA schemes?

BDO and KPMG wrote the independent expert reports in the six WA scheme booklets we read, and both signed from Perth offices. An independent expert is not a sell-side adviser. It is paid a flat fee to tell shareholders whether a deal is fair and reasonable, or in their best interests (RG 111), so we list these firms separately.

• BDO Corporate Finance Australia (AFSL 247420, retail and wholesale; Perth office at Level 9, Mia Yellagonga Tower 2, 5 Spring Street). It was the independent expert on five WA booklets, each with its fee printed:

  • Spartan: A$170,000 (booklet, 4 Jun 2025).
  • Warriedar: A$55,000 (booklet, 26 Sep 2025).
  • Magnetic: A$120,000 (booklet, 29 Apr 2026).
  • Matrix: A$90,000 (booklet, 4 Jun 2026).
  • Vault: A$490,000, including work on the earlier Regis proposal (booklet, 6 Oct 2026).

  BDO also sells deals. Its own deal page, dated 4 Sep 2026, says its team "acted as lead adviser to the shareholders of Welltech" on its sale to Vysarn (BDO). Vysarn put the upfront price at A$50.0M, A$37.25M in cash and A$12.75M in Vysarn shares, with up to A$10M more deferred (presentation, 28 Jul 2026), and its ASX release names a different firm as its own adviser (ASX, 28 Jul 2026). The sale completed on 3 September 2026 (ASX).

• KPMG Financial Advisory Services (Australia) (AFSL 246901, retail and wholesale; Perth office at Level 8, 235 St Georges Terrace, per the De Grey booklet). It was the independent expert on De Grey, and the booklet shows its fee: "the Client has agreed to pay KPMG FAS $195,000".

When does a WA deal need a Sydney bank?

In the 2025-26 filings, Sydney and global banks join most WA deals above about A$600M: Jefferies on Magnetic, Macquarie Capital and Barclays on De Grey, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan on Gold Road, Goldman Sachs and RBC on Regis-Vault, and Macquarie Capital and RBC on Genesis-Vault. Spartan's A$2.4bn sale is the exception: Sternship and Euroz Hartleys ran both sides without a global bank. The best public clue to which office ran a mandate is what I call the Booklet Address Test. Turn to the corporate directory at the back of the scheme booklet: it names each adviser of record and the office address it gives for the deal. On De Grey (Azure, Barrenjoey), Spartan (Sternship) and Warriedar (Discovery), the target's advisers printed Perth addresses. On Vault, the target's adviser printed "RBC Capital Markets Level 59, 25 Martin Place Sydney". On Magnetic, it printed "Jefferies (Australia) Pty Ltd Level 20, 60 Martin Place, Sydney". These banks appear in WA filings but are not ranked on the Perth bench:

The pattern: above about A$1bn, WA companies usually pair a Perth adviser with a global bank, as Genesis did with Sternship and Macquarie Capital, Regis with Azure and Goldman Sachs, and Gold Road with Gresham and Goldman Sachs. Below about A$600M, the Perth bench mostly works alone. For the Sydney bench itself, see Best M&A Advisers in Sydney.

Who advises on selling a WA gold or lithium company?

For a WA gold company, the filed answer is Sternship Advisers (Spartan's sale to Ramelius, about A$2.4bn, March 2025), Azure Capital and Barrenjoey (De Grey's sale to Northern Star, about A$5bn, completed May 2025), Gresham (Gold Road's scheme with Gold Fields, May 2025), Euroz Hartleys and Argonaut, with Discovery Capital Partners and Longreach Capital on junior schemes. For lithium, I could not find a dated 2025-26 adviser credit on a WA deal in the filings we read.

Gold sellers split into three situations, and each has a filed precedent.

• A listed producer or developer selling the whole company. Sternship (Spartan), Azure and Barrenjoey (De Grey), and Gresham with Goldman Sachs (Gold Road) acted for targets, and Canaccord Genuity with SCP Resource Finance is acting for Ausgold on OceanaGold's pending A$776M scheme (August 2026). Euroz Hartleys acted for the acquirer Ramelius, and Canaccord with Sternship acted for Genesis.
• A miner selling a non-core project. Argonaut ran Westgold's three disposals (A$25.7M to A$64.6M). Azure sold Laverton for Focus Minerals (A$250M) and Edna May for Ramelius (A$300M).
• A junior explorer receiving a scheme. Discovery advised Warriedar on Capricorn's scheme, with Longreach advising Capricorn.

On lithium, honesty beats padding. WA lithium sales fell to A$4.5bn in 2025, about a fifth of their level three years earlier. The adjacent critical-minerals credit in our sample is Barrenjoey for Lynas and Macquarie Capital for Meteoric on a pending rare-earths scheme over a Brazilian project. If you are selling a lithium asset, ask every adviser on this page for a dated lithium credit and the filing behind it.

Who sells a mining-services (METS) or contracting business in Perth?

Sternship Advisers (GenusPlus's MPC Kinetic purchase, A$325M upfront, May 2026), Euroz Hartleys (SRG Global's A$85M TAMS purchase, October 2025) and Longreach Capital (NRW's Fredon purchase, EV up to A$200M, September 2025) hold the most filed mining-services credits, nearly all acting for the listed acquirer. For the seller's side, the credits are Poynton Stavrianou (filed) and Azure Capital and BDO (own-website).

The 2025-26 METS ledger is a roll-up story. GenusPlus announced three purchases between April 2025 and May 2026, with Sternship as corporate adviser each time: MGC Group (April 2025), Railtrain (A$36.5M upfront plus earn-outs, March 2026) and MPC Kinetic (A$325M upfront, May 2026). Euroz Hartleys advised SRG Global on TAMS (A$85M) and Bhagwan Marine on Riverside Marine (EV up to A$130M). Longreach advised NRW on Fredon (EV up to A$200M). MA Moelis, from Sydney, advised Southern Cross Electrical on Force Fire (A$36.3M upfront, up to A$53.5M in total).

Some listed acquirers also publish the multiples they paid, a rare piece of public pricing data for a private WA owner:

These are the acquirers' own figures, on different years and bases, so compare them with care. They show the listed roll-up buyers in this ledger paying roughly 2.6x to 4.3x EBITDA in 2025-26, with earn-outs carrying part of the price; our earn-out guide covers how to negotiate that part.

That tells a private owner something else. The acquirer's adviser is named in the ASX release; the private seller's adviser often is not. Of the deals above, only two releases named the seller's adviser: GenusPlus's MGC release (Poynton Stavrianou) and NRW's Fredon release (Findex, a Melbourne licensee). Azure lists its exclusive role for Maxim Group on Tasmea's A$254M EV purchase, and BDO lists its sell-side role on Welltech, but both credits are on their own websites. So if you own a A$20M to A$150M Perth contractor, interview one firm that has acted for the roll-up buyers, because it knows what they pay for, and one that has acted for a seller. Then ask both for the buyer list they would run.

Private equity or a listed strategic buyer? In the METS deals on this page that name an adviser, every acquirer was ASX-listed: GenusPlus, SRG Global, Bhagwan Marine, NRW, Southern Cross Electrical, Tasmea and Vysarn. The one private buyer was an investment vehicle of a consortium led by Cratus Group, which agreed to buy BTP from Perenti for A$100M (ASX, 21 Aug 2026), and that release names no advisers. So the filed precedent for a Perth METS seller is a listed strategic buyer; if an adviser pitches private equity, ask for its dated private-equity sale.

Who advises ASX juniors on small-cap mergers, schemes and project sales?

Discovery Capital Partners, Longreach Capital, Salient Corporate, Argonaut and Canaccord Genuity carry the small-cap credits, and they regularly sit across the table from each other: on Westgold's A$25.7M Chalice sale (May 2026), Argonaut advised the seller and Discovery advised the buyer, Corazon. I call this Both Sides of the Goldfield:

In a market this small, the adviser across the table has probably advised your neighbour. Ask each firm what it has done for the likely bidders in the last two years, and get its conflict position in the engagement letter.

For a merger of equals, the one WA precedent in our ledger is larger: Regis and Vault announced theirs on 5 May 2026, with Goldman Sachs and Azure Capital advising Regis and RBC advising Vault, and it was terminated after Regis declined to match Genesis's competing proposal on 13 July 2026.

Which Perth advisers take A$10M to A$50M mandates?

Poynton Stavrianou, Argonaut and Longreach Capital hold filed seller-side credits in the A$10M to A$50M band: MGC Group's private sellers (A$10.25M upfront, April 2025), Westgold's Chalice sale (A$25.7M, May 2026) and Capricorn's Big Springs sale (up to A$26.0M, July 2026). Sternship Advisers, Discovery Capital Partners and Canaccord Genuity advised buyers in the same band, and BDO has an own-website sell-side credit there. An A$30M company is not too small for a Perth adviser.

Below about A$10M, I found no filed adviser credit in the WA releases we read, so ask any firm for dated credits at your size before you sign.

Who should a WA target board hire after an unsolicited takeover approach?

Hire a financial adviser and a legal adviser before you respond, as Gold Road did when it named Gresham Partners and Corrs Chambers Westgarth in the same 24 March 2025 release that rejected Gold Fields' non-binding indicative offer. Then expect to need an independent expert (BDO and KPMG wrote the reports in the six WA scheme booklets we read), either because the law requires one or because a scheme is complex enough to warrant it. Gold Road is the clean precedent: six weeks later, on 5 May 2025, it announced a scheme implementation deed, with Gresham and Goldman Sachs advising.

The three roles and when each is needed:

• Financial adviser. Firms with Perth offices and dated target-side credits are Sternship Advisers (Spartan), Azure Capital and Barrenjoey (De Grey), Discovery Capital Partners (Warriedar) and Gresham (Gold Road).
• Independent expert. Under RG 111 Table 1, the target in a takeover must commission one when the bidder's voting power is at least 30% or the two companies have a common director (section 640). The same triggers make a report mandatory for a scheme. Otherwise, RG 111 notes, "Scheme companies often commission an expert report when transactions are complex or effect a takeover." The expert's test differs by route. A takeover offer is "fair" if the price "is equal to or greater than the value of the securities", assuming 100% ownership, and "reasonable" if fair, or if there are other sufficient reasons to accept. A scheme is assessed as "in the best interests of the members".
• Independent technical specialist. For a mining target, the expert usually relies on one. Warriedar's booklet lists Valuation and Resource Management at A$45,000 for that report, and SRK's report sits inside BDO's report on Vault.

If a dispute follows, the Takeovers Panel received 689 applications between March 2000 and December 2024, and on average takes 17.7 days to decide (Takeovers Panel statistics). For the US-style view of an unwanted approach, see our explainer on what a hostile takeover is.

Who advises on oil, gas, LNG and energy deals out of Perth?

Azure Capital and Gresham, both with Perth offices, hold the energy M&A credits we found. Azure's include three named in filings, set out in our energy guide: adviser to Carnarvon Energy on its stake of up to 19.9% in Strike Energy, whose gas assets are in WA's Perth Basin (July 2025); to Cue Energy's independent board committee on Horizon Oil's 2026 takeover bid; and to the seller of the A$460M Limestone Coast North battery in South Australia (February 2025). Its sale of ACEnergy's Yanco battery (July 2026) and its role as joint financial adviser to Zenith Energy on KKR's purchase (June 2025) come from its own website, as does Gresham's role for KKR on the same deal (2026). Asset-level energy deals rarely name advisers in ASX releases.

• Azure Capital's transactions page lists the July 2026 sale of ACEnergy's Yanco battery energy storage system in New South Wales to BW ESS, where it was exclusive financial adviser. It also lists a A$430M project financing for Foresight's 130MW Kondinin Wind Farm in WA (September 2026), where it was financing adviser. That second one is not M&A.
• Gresham's transactions page lists "Advisor to KKR on the acquisition of Zenith Energy" and Stonepeak's acquisition of Allgas, both dated 2026 with no month.

Two WA rules shape any gas deal. Under the WA Domestic Gas Policy, LNG exporters make available domestic gas equal to 15% of each project's LNG exports. Since 2024, new or expanded onshore projects reserve 80% of production for the domestic market until 31 December 2030 and 100% after that. Petroleum title transfers need approval and registration under the state petroleum Acts (WA dealings and transfers). For the full energy bench across Australia and New Zealand, see Best Energy M&A Advisers in Australia and New Zealand. For the US desks, see our US energy M&A adviser guide and the Houston guide.

What is the dated adviser-of-record ledger for WA in 2025-26?

The ledger lists 28 WA-relevant deals announced between December 2024 and October 2026. Advisers are named in a primary filing except where a row says "own website only", and roles are printed as each filing gives them.

Primary sources for every row are linked in the firm profiles above, plus these announcement, completion and status releases: De Grey announcement, 2 Dec 2024 (which names Macquarie Capital for Northern Star and Azure, Barrenjoey and Barclays for De Grey), De Grey completion, Spartan implementation, SCEE/Force Fire, Alkane close, Warriedar implementation, Fredon completion, Magnetic implementation, Tasmea/Maxim and Genesis/Vault.

Who did we leave off, and why?

Each name below fails one of the three tests, or its WA credit is in a different role.

• Grant Samuel lists only Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong on its contact page. It holds an AFSL but has no Perth office.

• Petra Capital lists only Sydney and Melbourne (contact). It has no Perth office.

• "Hartleys" as a separate firm. Euroz completed its acquisition of Hartleys on 8 October 2020. A list that prints both is counting one firm twice.

• "Azure Capital, part of Wilsons." This is wrong. Azure has been a Natixis affiliate since May 2019, and Wilsons Corporate Finance is a separate firm.

• Macquarie Capital has major WA credits but sits in the sidebar, because I could not verify that its deal team for these mandates is in Perth. Macquarie Group's Perth office is verified; the deal team's location is not.

• Bell Potter has one joint FA credit (Alkane) and otherwise lead-manager roles, and its corporate team's location is unverified. It sits in the sidebar.

• Deloitte Corporate Finance appears in the De Grey booklet only as investigating accountant, an assurance role. It was also Gold Road's independent expert, as Gold Road's chair told the scheme meeting on 22 September 2025 (archived release). That is an independent-expert role, not M&A advice, and we could not retrieve Gold Road's booklet, so we print no fee.

• RSM, PwC and EY appear in the 2025-26 WA filings we read only in due diligence or tax roles: RSM for Genus on MPC Kinetic, PwC on SRG/TAMS, and EY for SCEE on Force Fire. We do not rank them as M&A advisers on that evidence.

• Registered firms with no credit in our sample. These WA corporate-finance firms appear on ASIC's register as licensees or authorised representatives, but none had a 2025-26 adviser-of-record or IER credit in the filings we read:

  • Pitcher Partners Corporate Finance (WA) (an authorised representative under AFSL 326514)
  • RSM Corporate Australia (AFSL 255847)
  • Moore Australia CF (WA) (AFSL 240773)
  • HLB Mann Judd Corporate (WA) (AFSL 250903)
  • Stantons CF (AFSL 448697)
  • PKF Perth Capital (AFSL 291385, the licence under which the PCF Securities and PCF MinesOnline entities are registered)

  That is a statement about our sample, not a finding that they are inactive.

• Out-of-state advisers on WA deals. Candour Advisory, Vysarn's adviser on Welltech, is an authorised representative of an Adelaide licensee. Findex, Fredon's adviser, is a Melbourne licensee.

• Placement brokers. Many micro-cap filings name a lead manager for a raise. That is capital raising, not M&A advice, and we do not pad the list with it.

• Doorway pages. "M&A firm Perth" landing pages carry no AFSL or authorised-representative number and name no Perth deal. We name none, because the example we were given now resolves to a parked domain and we could not read it.

• Name collisions. Longreach Capital Advisors (Sydney, under AFSL 246747) is not Longreach Capital (Subiaco, AFSL 497333).

How do I verify an M&A adviser in Australia?

Check four things before you sign: the licence number, the office, the filed credits and the role.

1. Licence or authorised-representative number. Ask for it, then find it in ASIC's monthly licensee dataset and authorised representative dataset on data.gov.au, or on ASIC Connect's professional registers. A corporate authorised representative (CAR) acts under someone else's licence. Sternship Advisers is CAR 001255209 under Sternship Capital's AFSL 493204. That is normal and fine, as long as the licence covers the advice.
2. The wholesale-only tell. Read the licence conditions. Seven of the licences behind the ranked firms are wholesale-only: Azure, Sternship Capital (Sternship Advisers' licensor), Gresham, Longreach, Salient, Barrenjoey and Poynton Stavrianou. So are the sidebar licences of Macquarie Capital, Jefferies and MA Moelis. The two independent experts, BDO and KPMG, hold retail authorisations. That fits ASIC RG 112.11: an expert report "usually constitutes financial product advice", and "in most cases" an expert whose report "will be made available to retail investors will hold an AFS licence" (RG 112).
3. The Booklet Address Test. The register shows only the principal locality. To prove a Perth office, find the firm in a scheme booklet's corporate directory, or read its contact page.
4. The Stale Tombstone check. Firm websites go stale or get things wrong. Euroz Hartleys labels Ramelius-Spartan backwards. Argonaut's De Grey testimonial reads like an M&A credit, but its role was raising capital. Cross-check every claimed deal against the "Advisers" paragraph of the ASX announcement, which names who advised whom.

What do Perth M&A advisers charge?

No Perth firm publishes a fee scale, but WA scheme booklets print real fees, and they show a pattern I call the Success-Fee Skew: financial advisers are paid mostly on completion, independent experts are paid a flat fee either way.

Warriedar's fee table (booklet section 11.9, 26 Sep 2025):

Warriedar also expected A$110,000 of other transaction costs whatever the outcome, and total costs of about A$1.21M if the schemes were implemented.

On a much larger deal, De Grey expected about A$35.8M of external transaction costs if its scheme was implemented and about A$4.2M if not. It disclosed that "certain of De Grey's financial advisers' fees are calculated by reference to the closing price of Northern Star Shares on ASX on the Implementation Date." Spartan expected about A$1.8M of costs before the scheme meeting, "payable regardless of whether or not the Transaction is implemented."

Independent expert fees in the six WA scheme booklets we read ran from A$55,000 (BDO, Warriedar) to A$90,000 (BDO, Matrix), A$120,000 (BDO, Magnetic), A$170,000 (BDO, Spartan), A$195,000 (KPMG, De Grey) and A$490,000 (BDO, Vault, including work on the earlier Regis proposal).

For a private sale, no Australian dataset I could verify publishes success-fee percentages. Our M&A adviser fees guide covers the US survey curve and Lehman mechanics as a reference point. Whatever you are quoted, get four things in writing: the retainer, whether it is credited against the success fee, the minimum fee, and the tail period after termination.

Scheme of arrangement or takeover bid: which suits a WA sale?

For an agreed, all-or-nothing sale of an ASX-listed WA company, use a scheme: every completed sale of an ASX-listed target in our ledger was implemented by one. A takeover bid is the route when the bidder wants to go straight to shareholders.

• Scheme vote. A scheme needs approval by "at least 75% of the total number of votes which are cast at the Scheme Meeting" and, unless the court orders otherwise, "a majority in number (more than 50%)" of shareholders present and voting. The court then approves it. Those words are from the Vault booklet, describing section 411. Magnetic's shareholders approved its scheme on 3 June 2026, and the Supreme Court of Western Australia approved it on 9 June (ASX).
• The 20% rule. Section 606 of the Corporations Act bars acquisitions that take a holder "from 20% or below to more than 20%", or that increase a holding from a starting point above 20% and below 90%, unless an exception in section 611 applies. A formal takeover bid is the usual exception. At 90% a bidder can compulsorily acquire the rest: the Spartan booklet says that if Ramelius reached a 90% relevant interest it intended to "compulsorily acquire the remaining Spartan Shares."
• Dual track. Ramelius ran a scheme and a takeover bid in parallel for Spartan and withdrew the bid on 23 July 2025 after the scheme succeeded.
• Timing from the ledger. Spartan took about four and a half months from announcement to implementation (17 March to 31 July 2025). Magnetic took about four (16 February to 22 June 2026). Warriedar took four (24 July to 25 November 2025). Gold Road took under five from its scheme deed to effectiveness (5 May to 26 September 2025). Across 334 M&A transactions on Peony, the average deal took about 8.6 months to close. A listed scheme's public phase is shorter because diligence happens before signing: the Regis-Vault deed defined Regis's disclosure material to include its data room contents "as at 5.00pm on 1 May 2026", four days before announcement.

Which approvals and taxes can change a Perth deal in 2026?

Six gates matter for a WA sale. The ACCC and FIRB are federal. Landholder duty, the Mining Act and heritage law, and the domestic gas policy are state. The CGT small business concessions are federal tax. Each is summarised below with its primary source. Treat this as orientation, not legal or tax advice.

Does my deal need ACCC notification under the 2026 regime?

Notification is mandatory for acquisitions put into effect on or after 1 January 2026 that cross the thresholds; voluntary notification opened on 1 July 2025 (Competition and Consumer (Notification of Acquisitions) Determination 2025). The two main tests:

• Large corporate groups (s2-1). The acquirer group and target have combined Australian revenue of A$200M or more, and either the target's Australian revenue is A$50M or more or the transaction value is A$250M or more.
• Very large corporate groups (s2-2). The acquirer group's Australian revenue is A$500M or more and the target's is A$10M or more.

Two more tests matter in WA. Creeping or serial acquisitions are caught by adding up the target revenue of related acquisitions over three years (s2-3). An asset purchase that falls short of buying a whole business, such as a project or tenement package, uses lower transaction-value thresholds: A$200M where the combined-revenue test is met, and A$50M for a very large acquirer group (s2-4). There is a carve-out for some land acquisitions, but "quasi-land right" is defined to include "a mining, quarrying or prospecting right", and the carve-out treats those rights narrowly, so take advice before assuming a tenement deal is exempt. The regime is already shaping WA deals: on 27 August 2026 Vault announced that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission "has determined that the Scheme is not required to be notified to the ACCC" (ASX). The notification determination sets the fee for a notification at A$56,800, and a further A$475,000 to A$1,595,000 if the notification goes to a Phase 2 review, depending on deal value; under the Act, Phase 1 ends 30 business days after it starts and Phase 2 ends 90 business days after it starts (s51ABZI).

Will a foreign buyer need FIRB approval?

Usually, for a mining asset. The 2026 monetary thresholds, applying from 1 January 2026:

• Private investors from non-FTA countries: more than A$347M for a substantial interest (20% or more) in an entity, and $0 for mining or production tenements.
• Private investors from certain FTA partners: more than A$1,498M for non-sensitive businesses and A$347M for sensitive ones. For tenements, the A$1,498M threshold applies only to Chile, New Zealand, Peru and the United States; Hong Kong is A$75M; all others are $0.
• Foreign government investors: $0, including 10% or more of a mining, production or exploration entity.

In January to March 2026, FIRB approved 311 commercial proposals worth A$79.7bn, and Treasury's median processing time for approved commercial proposals was 35 days (FIRB quarterly report). WA examples: Gold Road announced FIRB approval on 21 May 2025, 16 days after its scheme deed with Gold Fields (archived release). Alkane received FIRB confirmation on 26 June 2025, about two months after signing with Mandalay (ASX). For the investor side of the market, see Australian investors and New Zealand investors.

Does WA landholder duty apply to a share sale?

It can, and mining companies are squarely inside it. A landholder is any corporation or unit trust with WA land assets of A$2M or more, and "land assets include land, mining tenements, derivative mining rights and things fixed to land" (WA Government, landholder duty). Duty applies to acquiring "a 90% or greater interest in a landholder that is listed on the ASX" or "a 50% interest in a landholder that is not listed". It is assessed at the general rate of duty on the value of the acquirer's interest, and lodgment is due within two months. The revenue office says it will in some cases ask the Valuer-General to value land, including tenements. I could not retrieve the current rate scale, so I do not print it.

Do tenement transfers, native title and heritage agreements change the deal?

Yes, they become conditions precedent. Alicanto's purchase of Mt Henry-Selene from Westgold was conditional on "Ministerial consent being obtained under the Mining Act 1978 (WA) to transfer the tenements (to the extent that such consent is required under the Mining Act in respect of each tenement)". It was also conditional on the consent of the Ngadju native title holders to the assignment of existing heritage agreements (ASX, 17 Dec 2025). On heritage, "an amended Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 came into effect on 15 November 2023", and "Section 18 Consents will transfer where there is a change in land ownership" (WA Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage). I could not verify the specific Mining Act sections or when consent is mandatory for each tenement type, so read the condition as "consent where the Act requires it" and ask your lawyer.

How do the CGT small business concessions work for a WA owner?

They are federal, in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. The gateway is either the maximum net asset value test, where the CGT assets must not exceed A$6,000,000 just before the sale, or CGT small business entity status, meaning aggregated turnover under A$2M. The asset must also pass the active asset test. If you qualify, four concessions are available:

• The 15-year exemption, for an asset held continuously for at least 15 years by an owner who is 55 or over and retiring, or permanently incapacitated.
• The 50% reduction.
• The retirement exemption, with a lifetime limit of A$500,000.
• The roll-over.

Model them before choosing between a share sale and an asset sale, with your tax adviser.

Which data room should a Perth seller use?

Use a data room your buyers and their lawyers will accept, sized to the deal. In WA, the data room is not a side detail: it becomes part of the legal record. Three things in the 2025-26 filings show why:

• The scheme deed defines disclosure by the data room. In Lynas's deal for Meteoric, "Target Disclosure Materials" means "the documents and information disclosed in the Data Room, the index of which has been initialled by, or on behalf of, the parties", plus the disclosure letter (ASX, 1 Oct 2026). Regis's deed with Vault fixed its data room contents "as at 5.00pm on 1 May 2026" (ASX). The room's index and its cut-off time become part of the deal's legal record.
• The independent specialists read your room. SRK's tenement tables in the Vault booklet cite "Vault dataroom, TENGRAPH (WA)" with "WA tenure effective 23 July 2026" (booklet). The Spartan specialist's tables cite "Spartan data room, 2025". De Grey's specialist worked from "a virtual dataroom containing various De Grey Mining Ltd and independent consultant technical reports". Your JORC files and block models can end up cited in a public booklet.
• The platforms vary. The Alkane-Mandalay arrangement agreement, dated 27 April 2025, defines Alkane's room as one "established by Alkane on SecureDocs" and Mandalay's as one "established by Mandalay on firmex.com" (arrangement agreement).

Which data room platforms do Australian investment banks and corporates use for M&A? No public survey answers that: on large bank-run processes the incumbents are Datasite, which has owned Sydney-founded Ansarada since 2024 (see our Datasite vs Ansarada comparison), and Intralinks, while smaller processes vary, as the SecureDocs and Firmex rooms on Alkane-Mandalay show. Our Sydney guide's data-room section is the canonical answer, with a platform table and pricing.

What a WA room needs: per-bidder separation when the bidders are neighbours in the same goldfield; staged disclosure, with the tenement schedule and resource summary open early and contracts, native-title and heritage agreements behind a later gate; per-viewer dynamic watermarks; signed NDA gates; and page-by-page analytics to see which bidder actually opened the JORC files before the indicative bid date. Our guides to running multiple bidders, clean teams and divestiture rooms cover the mechanics.

I run Peony, a data room company, so here is the segmented view.

• When Peony fits. A Perth boutique running a private METS sale, a junior's project sale or a A$10M to A$300M process. The Data Room plan costs US$52 per admin per month, billed annually (US$75 monthly). It includes unlimited rooms and storage, dynamic watermarks with each viewer's name, email and timestamp, an Advanced NDA that produces a signed PDF for both parties with an audit trail, granular permissions, auto-indexing, AI room generation and AI document Q&A. Data rooms start on Business at US$30 per admin per month (up to three rooms per admin), which adds email authentication, allow and block lists by email or domain, screenshot protection and download prevention. Deal Team at US$64 (minimum four admins) adds redaction, an advanced Q&A module and archive download. Viewers are free on every plan. The Free tier covers tracked document links with page-by-page analytics and password protection but includes no data rooms.
• When to use something else. On a multi-billion scheme where the bank and counsel have standardised on Datasite or Intralinks, use what the deal team uses. If Australian data residency is a board requirement, put it in the request for proposal for every vendor and get it in writing.

Peony holds 4.8 on G2 and 4.9 on Capterra, and 8,000+ customers use it today. For a general survey, see the best data rooms for M&A.

Frequently asked questions about Perth M&A advisers

Who are the best M&A advisers in Perth in 2026?

Eleven firms pass our three tests: an ASIC licence or authorised-representative number, a real Perth office, and a dated 2025-26 adviser credit in a deal filing. Tier one, Perth-headquartered: Sternship Advisers (nine ASX-filed credits since March 2025, including Spartan's sale to Ramelius), Azure Capital (De Grey, Edna May), Euroz Hartleys (Ramelius, SRG Global, Bhagwan Marine), Argonaut (Westgold's three divestments) and Longreach Capital (NRW, Capricorn). Tier two, national firms with a Perth office: Gresham (Gold Road), Canaccord Genuity (Genesis, Sentinel) and Barrenjoey (De Grey, Lynas). Tier three, small-cap specialists: Discovery Capital Partners, Salient Corporate and Poynton Stavrianou. BDO and KPMG appear as independent experts, a different role. On the biggest schemes, Sydney-based banks join in: RBC and Jefferies advised the Vault and Magnetic targets from Martin Place addresses.

Which Perth firms actually advised on the 2025-26 WA gold takeovers?

The filings name them. De Grey's sale to Northern Star (about A$5bn): Azure Capital and Barrenjoey for De Grey, both at Perth addresses in the booklet, with KPMG as independent expert. Spartan's sale to Ramelius (about A$2.4bn): Sternship Advisers for Spartan, Euroz Hartleys for Ramelius, BDO as independent expert. Gold Road's sale to Gold Fields (equity about A$3.7bn): Gresham Partners and Goldman Sachs. Magnetic's sale to Genesis (about A$639M): Canaccord Genuity and Sternship for Genesis, Jefferies from Sydney for Magnetic. Warriedar's sale to Capricorn: Discovery Capital Partners for Warriedar, Longreach Capital for Capricorn. The pending Genesis-Vault scheme: Sternship and Macquarie Capital for Genesis, RBC for Vault, with the scheme meeting set for 11 November 2026.

Should I hire a Perth boutique or a Sydney bank to sell my WA mining company?

Decide on deal size and buyer set, then run the Booklet Address Test: the corporate directory at the back of a WA scheme booklet prints each adviser's office. On De Grey, Spartan and Warriedar the target's advisers sat at Perth addresses (Azure and Barrenjoey in the CBD, Sternship and Discovery in West Perth). On Vault and Magnetic the target's advisers, RBC and Jefferies, printed Martin Place, Sydney addresses. Below roughly A$300M, most adviser credits in our 2025-26 ledger went to firms with a Perth office. Above A$1bn, WA companies usually pair a Perth adviser with a global bank, as Genesis paired Sternship with Macquarie Capital and Regis paired Azure Capital with Goldman Sachs; Spartan's A$2.4bn sale, run by Sternship and Euroz Hartleys alone, was the exception.

I own a Perth mining services business worth around A$50M. Who can sell it?

Start with the firms that have closed mining-services deals since April 2025. Sternship Advisers was corporate adviser to GenusPlus, a serial buyer, on MGC, Railtrain (A$36.5M upfront plus earn-outs) and MPC Kinetic (A$325M upfront). Euroz Hartleys advised SRG Global on TAMS (A$85M) and Bhagwan Marine on Riverside Marine (EV up to A$130M). Longreach Capital advised NRW on Fredon (EV up to A$200M). Those are buy-side roles, which shows you whom the acquirers trust, and GenusPlus and SRG Global disclosed paying roughly 2.6x to 4.3x EBITDA. For a seller's mandate, the filed credit is Poynton Stavrianou, which acted for MGC's private sellers, and two firms list seller credits on their own websites: Azure Capital on Maxim Group's sale to Tasmea (EV A$254M) and BDO on Welltech's sale to Vysarn (A$50.0M upfront). Interview at least one of each kind and ask every firm for its buyer list.

Is my A$20M Perth business too small for an M&A adviser?

No. Perth advisers hold filed 2025-26 credits on WA deals between A$10M and A$50M. On the seller's side, Poynton Stavrianou acted for MGC Group's private sellers (A$10.25M upfront plus earn-outs, April 2025), Argonaut sold Chalice for Westgold (A$25.7M, May 2026) and Longreach Capital sold Big Springs for Capricorn (up to A$26.0M, July 2026). Sternship Advisers, Discovery Capital Partners and Canaccord Genuity advised buyers in the same band, and BDO lists a sell-side credit on its own website for Welltech's sale to Vysarn (A$50.0M upfront). Below about A$10M I found no filed adviser credit in the WA releases we read, so ask any firm for dated credits at your size before you sign.

We received a takeover offer for our ASX-listed gold explorer. Which advisers should our board appoint?

Appoint a financial adviser and a legal adviser before you respond. Gold Road named Gresham Partners and Corrs Chambers Westgarth in the same 24 March 2025 release in which it rejected Gold Fields' non-binding indicative offer, and it signed a scheme implementation deed six weeks later. Perth firms with dated target-side credits are Sternship Advisers (Spartan), Azure Capital and Barrenjoey (De Grey), Discovery Capital Partners (Warriedar) and Gresham (Gold Road). Under ASIC RG 111 an independent expert's report is mandatory when the bidder holds 30% or more or shares a director with you, and scheme companies often commission one anyway. In the WA scheme booklets we read, BDO and KPMG wrote the reports for fees between A$55,000 and A$490,000, and Deloitte Corporate Finance was Gold Road's independent expert.

What is the difference between a financial adviser and an independent expert in an Australian scheme?

They do opposite jobs. The financial adviser works for the board: it values the company, runs or answers the process, negotiates price and terms, and is usually paid a retainer plus a success fee. Warriedar's adviser was paid A$100,000, with A$300,000 more if shareholders approved. The independent expert works for the shareholders: under ASIC RG 111 it says whether a takeover offer is fair and reasonable, or whether a scheme is in shareholders' best interests, and it is paid a flat fee whatever the outcome, from A$55,000 (BDO on Warriedar) to A$195,000 (KPMG on De Grey) to A$490,000 (BDO on Vault, including work on the earlier Regis proposal). Both independent-expert firms on our list hold retail authorisations, which fits ASIC RG 112: a report sent to retail shareholders is usually financial product advice.

What will a Perth M&A adviser charge to sell my company?

No Perth firm publishes a fee scale, but WA scheme booklets print real numbers. Warriedar's booklet of 26 September 2025 lists its financial adviser, Discovery Capital Partners, at A$100,000, plus A$300,000 if shareholders approved, beside A$55,000 for the independent expert, A$45,000 for the independent technical specialist and A$380,000 for lawyers; Warriedar expected total costs of about A$1.21M if the scheme went ahead. De Grey expected about A$35.8M of external costs if its scheme was implemented and about A$4.2M if not. The gap between those two figures is the cost that depends on completion. For a private sale, ask for the retainer, the success-fee scale, the minimum fee and the tail period in writing before you sign.

How do I check an M&A adviser's AFSL or authorised representative number in Australia?

Ask for the number, then check it yourself. ASIC publishes the full licensee list and the authorised representative list as monthly CSV files on data.gov.au, and the same records are searchable on ASIC Connect's professional registers. A licensee row shows the licence number, the entity, the start date and the principal locality, and the licence conditions show whether it is limited to wholesale clients. Many boutiques act as corporate authorised representatives: Sternship Advisers, for example, is CAR 001255209 under Sternship Capital's AFSL 493204. Match on the number, not the name, because a Sydney entity called Longreach Capital Advisors is not the Perth firm Longreach Capital (AFSL 497333). The register shows principal locality only, so prove the Perth office from a booklet's corporate directory or the firm's contact page.

Do I have to notify the ACCC about my acquisition under the 2026 merger rules?

Possibly. Notification became mandatory for acquisitions put into effect on or after 1 January 2026; voluntary notification opened on 1 July 2025. Under the 2025 notification determination you must notify if the acquirer group and target have combined Australian revenue of A$200M or more and either the target's Australian revenue is A$50M or more or the transaction value is A$250M or more, or if the acquirer group's Australian revenue is A$500M or more and the target's is A$10M or more. Separate tests cover serial acquisitions over three years and asset purchases short of a whole business, which use lower value thresholds of A$200M or A$50M, and the land carve-out has its own rules for mining, quarrying and prospecting rights, which the determination calls quasi-land rights. Vault announced on 27 August 2026 that the ACCC had determined its scheme with Genesis did not need to be notified. The notification fee is A$56,800, Phase 1 runs 30 business days and Phase 2 runs 90.

A foreign buyer wants to acquire my WA mining company. Will the deal need FIRB approval in 2026?

Very likely, but the threshold depends on where the buyer is from. From 1 January 2026 a private foreign investor from a non-FTA country needs approval to take a substantial interest (20% or more) in an Australian business worth more than A$347M, and its threshold for mining or production tenements is $0. Investors from certain FTA partners get A$1,498M for non-sensitive businesses, but for tenements that higher figure applies only to Chile, New Zealand, Peru and the United States, with A$75M for Hong Kong. Foreign government investors start at $0, including for 10% or more of a mining, production or exploration entity. Timing varies: Gold Road, advised by Gresham and Goldman Sachs, announced FIRB approval 16 days after signing with Gold Fields, Alkane waited about two months on Mandalay, and Treasury's median for approved commercial proposals in January to March 2026 was 35 days.

Does WA landholder duty apply when I sell shares in a company that holds mining tenements?

It can. WA treats a company or unit trust with WA land assets worth A$2M or more as a landholder, and land assets include mining tenements, derivative mining rights and things fixed to land, not only freehold. Duty is triggered when someone acquires a 90% or greater interest in a listed landholder or a 50% interest in an unlisted one. It is assessed at the general rate of duty on the value of the acquirer's interest, and it must be lodged within two months of the acquisition; WA's revenue office says it will in some cases ask the Valuer-General to value land, including tenements. Raise it early, because it changes the cost of a share sale for whoever bears it. I could not retrieve the current WA rate scale, so confirm the rate with RevenueWA or your tax adviser.

I'm retiring after more than 15 years running my business. Can I use the CGT small business concessions when I sell my WA business?

Possibly, if you pass a gateway test. Under Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 you pass the first gateway if the net value of your CGT assets is no more than A$6M just before the sale, or if you are a CGT small business entity, which for this purpose means aggregated turnover under A$2M; the asset must also pass the active asset test. If you qualify, four concessions are available: the 15-year exemption (asset held for at least 15 years, and you are 55 or over and retiring, or permanently incapacitated), the 50% reduction, the retirement exemption (lifetime limit A$500,000) and the small business roll-over. They are federal rules, so they work the same in Perth as in Sydney. Model them with your tax adviser before you choose between a share sale and an asset sale.

Our board has agreed to sell our ASX-listed WA company. Is a scheme of arrangement or a takeover bid better?

For an agreed, all-or-nothing sale, recent WA deals used schemes. A scheme needs at least 75% of the votes cast and, unless the court orders otherwise, a majority in number of shareholders voting, then court approval; Magnetic's shareholders voted on 3 June 2026 and the Supreme Court of Western Australia approved the scheme on 9 June. A takeover bid goes straight to shareholders; section 606 of the Corporations Act bars moving past 20% unless an exception in section 611 applies, a formal bid being the usual one, and at 90% the bidder can compulsorily acquire the rest. Ramelius ran both in parallel for Spartan and withdrew the bid once the scheme passed. Spartan took about four and a half months from announcement to implementation, and Magnetic about four.

What should the data room contain for a WA mining or METS sale, and how do I keep it from competitor bidders?

For a mining asset: the tenement schedule and Mining Act consents, native-title and heritage agreements (Alicanto's Mt Henry purchase was conditional on Ngadju consent to assigning heritage agreements), JORC resource files and block models, and royalty and offtake contracts. Independent specialists read the room directly: SRK's tenement tables in the Vault booklet cite the 'Vault dataroom'. For a mining-services business: customer contracts with change-of-control clauses, safety records and key staff terms. In recent WA scheme deeds the data room's contents, with a disclosure letter, form the disclosure material, so index it carefully. I built Peony for this: the Data Room plan (US$52 per admin per month, billed annually) gives unlimited rooms, per-viewer dynamic watermarks, signed NDAs with an audit trail and page-by-page analytics; data rooms start on Business at US$30, and 8,000+ customers use Peony.

Related resources

• Best M&A Advisors: the master hub of city and sector guides
• Best M&A Advisers in Sydney: the Sydney bench and the banks that run national mandates
• Best Energy M&A Advisers in Australia and New Zealand: oil, gas, LNG, power and renewables
• M&A adviser fees: the US survey curve and Lehman mechanics
• Best M&A Advisors in Calgary: another resources city's bench
• Best Energy M&A Advisors: the US energy desks
• Investors in Australia: the venture and growth side
• Investors in New Zealand: the trans-Tasman investor side
• Sell-side due diligence: preparing the file before you go to market
• Vendor due diligence checklist: what buyers will ask for
• Data room folder structure guide: indexing a room before the teaser
• Upstream oil and gas divestiture data room: tiered technical disclosure for resource assets
• How to structure an earn-out in an M&A sale: the deferred and earn-out pieces of METS deals

This article reflects my views as of 7 October 2026 and is informational, not legal, tax or investment advice. Licence data is from ASIC's October 2026 datasets; deal statuses were checked against ASX announcements on 7 October 2026, and pending deals can change. I am the co-founder of Peony, a data room company, and I have flagged that interest where Peony is mentioned.