This wasn't on my bingo card....

Investment house Soul Patts is set to merge with Brickworks, forming a $14 billion ASX-listed investments, private capital, property and building products giant, Street Talk understands.

Sources said stockbroker Aitken Mount Capital Partners pitched a $500 million equity raising to fund managers over the weekend as the foundation of the merger.

Perpetual is understood to have put its name forward for a significant minority of the funding, which sources said could be done at a nil discount to Soul Patt’s share price. L1 Capital, Ausbil Investment Management, and Cooper Investors are also expected to contribute.

Soul Patts, formerly Washington H. Soul Pattinson, is a diversified investment manager with stakes in New Hope Group, TPG Telecom and Ironbark Asset Management, among other things. Brickworks is one of Australia’s biggest brick making groups with a history stretching back to 1934.

Soul Patts owns a 43.3 per cent stake in building products group Brickworks valued at $2 billion. Brickworks owns 26 per cent of Soul Patts, worth $3.5 billion. The merger will see the end of a 60-year-old cross-shareholding, first negotiated at Eastwood Rugby Club in Sydney’s north-west to achieve diversification and protect both firms from hostile takeovers.