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Good Morning,

HSBC’s CEO unexpectedly resigned, PE firms are halting stake sales amid boycotts, US is cracking down on PE ownership of homes, energy and mining M&A is ripe for a boom, Tesla short-sellers got crushed, and Apollo was accused of a massive insurance fraud.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks closed higher yesterday as investors prepared for major earnings and the Fed's policy meeting

  • Money markets are pricing in ~35 bps of rate cuts this year

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 2% to become April's best-performing major index globally 

• Oil dropped on progress in Gaza cease-fire talks

• Yen recovered 2%+ versus the dollar after BOJ intervened in FX markets

Earnings

• Domino’s shares jumped ~6% after Q1 growth in US same-store sales exceeded analyst estimates (YF)

• Sofi shares plummeted ~10% despite reporting better-than-expected Q1 earnings and revenue due to Q2 forecasts that missed analyst estimates (WSJ) 

• Paramount posted a Q1 revenue miss but earnings beat driven by a streaming and advertising boost, but all attention was on their CEO departure related to a prospective Skydance merger (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Amazon, PayPal, AMD, Starbucks, Eli Lilly, McDonald’s, 3M, Coca-Cola

  • Wednesday: Mastercard, Qualcomm, Pfizer, CVS, KKR

  • Thursday: Apple, Coinbase, DraftKings, Apollo Global Management

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Apollo allegedly acquired $20B in illegal life insurance policies on strangers (BBG)

• General Atlantic and CVC halt SEA deals as Gaza war boycotts intensify (FT)

• US is cracking down on PE ownership of homes (WSJ)

• HSBC CEO Noel Quinn unexpectedly resigned (BBG)

• Brokerages shift Fed rate cut expectations to September (RT)

• Global upstream expected to see $150B worth of M&A by year-end (RT)

• Mining M&A spree is just getting started (WSJ)

• German inflation curbs investors’ ECB rate cut expectations (FT)

• Tesla short sellers have lost over $5B in post-earnings rally (YH)

• Korean investors near $4B losses on China-linked exotic notes (BBG)

• PBOC is concerned about bond market bubbles and economic gloom (BBG)

• US lifts Q2 borrowing above forecasts to $243B (BBG)

• Proxy advisors recommend against BlackRock CEO pay proposal (RT)

• Major proxy advisor recommends against Morgan Stanley executive pay proposal (RT)

• NYCB delayed its annual shareholders meeting by two weeks (RT)

• California to cut medicine prices with deal on opioid overdose drugs (FT)

• FCC fined major telecoms ~$200M for sharing customer data (WSJ)

• Musk wins China’s backing for Tesla FSD (WSJ)

• Turkish grocery delivery firm Getir pulls out of US and Europe (RT)

• Oracle has more employees in California than Texas despite moving HQ (BBG)

• Humza Yousaf resigned as Scotland’s first minister (FT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Skydance Media, which is in talks to merge with $8.6B Paramount Global, offered a $3B cash infusion to the combined entity to assuage investors against the merger (NYT)

• Reinold Geiger, the billionaire owner of L’Occitane International, offered to take the skincare company private for $6.4B (BBG) 

• Japan's Ono Pharmaceutic will acquire cancer drugmaker Deciphera Pharmaceuticals for $2.4B (RT) 

• UMB Financial agreed to acquire rival Heartland Financial USA for ~$2B in an all-stock deal poised to be this year’s largest regional bank deal (BBG) 

• Fulton Financial plans to sell a $2B investment securities portfolio held by Republic First, the failed lender it acquired days ago (BBG) 

• Blackstone agreed to acquire Hipgnosis Songs Fund in a $1.6B cash deal, beating out Apollo-backed music investor Concord in a bidding war (FT)

• TotalEnergies emerged as one of the contenders for $1.1B AES Brasil Energia competing against China Three Gorges and Sao Paulo-based Auren Energia; AES is seeking ~$1.4B for its Brazilian assets (BBG) 

• Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is in talks to sell its $200M stake in Canadian oil and gas producer Aspenleaf Energy, which is valued at $800M (BBG) 

• SES and Intelsat revived discussions on a potential merger to create a satellite giant after a previous attempt failed last year (BBG) 

• Fitness chain Barry’s Bootcamp is exploring options including a sale and may seek a $700M+ valuation (BBG) 

• Crypto firm Tether acquired a $200M majority stake at a $350M valuation in US brain implant company Blackrock Neurotech (RT)

• MM Warburg, a bank at the center of Germany’s tax scandal, is reviewing options including a sale (BBG)

VC

• Blaize, an AI computing developer providing edge computing solutions, raised $106M in funding led by Bess Ventures, Franklin Templeton, and others (FN)

• Thintronics, an electronic materials startup, raised a $23M Series A led by Maverick Capital and Translink Capital (FN)

• Proptech startup Backflip raised a $15M Series A led by FirstMark Capital (TC)

• Turnkey, a provider of wallet infrastructure for crypto developers, raised a $15M Series A led by Lightspeed Faction and Galaxy Ventures (FN)

• Electric boat startup X Shore raised an $9.1M round from major existing shareholders (EU)

• Log10, a platform allowing developers to build and scale LLM-powered applications, raised a $7.2M seed round led by TQ Ventures and Quiet Capital (FN)

• Indigitall, a Spanish SaaS solutions for personalized digital communications between brands and customers, raised a $6.6M Series A led by Data Point Capital, GoHub Ventures, and Adara Ventures (FN)

• BioIntelligence Technologies, a startup reducing waste in industrial bioprocesses, raised a $5M round led by Amplify Capital (FN)

• Klineo, a French digital health startup, raised a $2.2M seed round led by BPI (EU)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Spanish beauty/cosmetics firm Puig is aiming for a top-of-the-range $15B valuation in its IPO due Friday (FT)

• Cruise operator Viking is seeking to raise up to $1.33B at a $10.8B valuation in an upsized US IPO (RT)

• Carlyle is working with JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley for a potential IPO or sale of aircraft maintenance services provider StandardAero at a ~$10B valuation, including debt (BBG) 

• Coca-Cola is preparing a potential dual IPO of its African bottling business as soon as next year in Amsterdam and Johannesburg at an $8B+ valuation (BBG) 

• High-end supermarket chain Spinneys' Dubai IPO is expected to price at the top of the range to raise $375M (BBG) 

• Vegan food brand Impossible Foods is planning a listing, capital raise or sale by 2027 (RT)

Debt

• Boeing raised $10B through a six-part bond sale that attracted $77B of orders (BBG) 

• KKR is in talks with private credit funds including Blackstone for a ~$525M debt package to support its bid for Perpetual’s custody and wealth management units (BBG) 

• Abu Dhabi SWF ADQ is planning a debut dollar bond sale (BBG) 

• Hospital staffing firm Sound Inpatient Physicians is in advanced talks with a group of creditors to extend maturities of certain debt (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Chinese distressed developer CIFI reached an agreement with a key creditor group on some terms of a restructuring plan that could reduce debt by up to 85% or $3.3B-$4B (BBG) 

• WeWork and major financial backers including SoftBank agreed to a new restructuring deal to exit bankruptcy, spurning a competing financing proposal from co-founder Adam Neumann (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto investment products saw a third consecutive week of outflows (BBG) 

Exec’s Picks

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• FT Alphaville published an insightful piece on why CVC’s IPO was such a hit.

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