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Good Morning,

Investors dumped tech stocks at the fastest rate ever, investors are flocking to all sorts of bonds, EY deals staff are sick of their leaders, BOJ may exit negative rates, hedge funds are threatening to pull out of India investments, and Sam Altman returned to OpenAI’s board.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks retreated on Friday as tech and AI stocks went into reverse

  • The Dow had its worst week since October

• Futures contracts now reflect an 80% chance of a June Fed rate cut, and a ~25% chance of a May cut

• Gold prices surged to another record high

• Bitcoin briefly rose to a record high, crossing $70k for the first time 

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Oracle 

  • Tuesday: Kohl’s, ADM

  • Thursday: Adobe, Dollar General, Dick’s Sporting Goods

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• EY deals staff hit out at bosses after job cuts and sales slump (FT)

• Tech stocks see biggest weekly outflow ever (RT)

• US bond funds see biggest weekly inflow since mid-2021 (RT)

• High-grade bond funds see biggest weekly inflow since September 2020 (BBG)

• Global equity funds saw $6.5B of weekly inflows (RT)

• Hedge funds threaten to pull India investments due to regulatory crackdown (FT)

• Beijing’s ‘broker butcher’ sparks state-driven stock rally (FT)

• US job market data reduce hopes of early Fed rate cut (RT)

• Unemployment rate nonetheless rose to 3.9%, a two-year high (RT)

• BOJ leaning toward exiting negative rates (RT)

• Japan Q4 GDP revised upwards; economy avoids recession (RT)

• Big companies heed Saudi demand to set up regional HQs (FT)

• Europe faces ‘competitiveness crisis’ as US widens productivity gap (FT)

• Costco stock had its worst day in two years (RT)

• Sam Altman will return to OpenAI's board with three new directors (RT)

• Apple retreats in Epic feud, allows Fortnite return in EU (RT)

• Aramco hiked dividend 30% to $98B despite profit decline (RT)

• Nvidia on cusp of overtaking Apple as second-most valuable company (RT)

• BP's carbon emissions rose for the first time since 2019 (RT)

A Message From Litquidity Ventures

Announcing: Litquidity Venture Partners I and an opportunity to invest.

Last fall, I launched the Litquidity platform’s first venture fund focused on investing in Y Combinator-backed startups. We launched the fund to provide our investors with access to a curated pool of early-stage companies backed by the premier startup accelerator where we love the team, appreciate the business, and can add value through strategic alignment with the Litquidity platform.

We have already invested in the seed rounds of four exciting companies from YC’s Summer 2023 batch (Pointhound, Casca, Dili, and Coba) and are evaluating investments in the upcoming Winter 2024 batch. 

As you may already know, YC has a reputation for spawning tech giants, including Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart, Doordash and Twitch. Since 2005, YC has funded over 4,000 startups with a combined market valuation of $600B (source: YC).

While rounds for companies coming out of YC are often highly competitive, we have won allocation to coveted deals, in part because founders appreciate the strategic advantages we can provide across go-to-market, PR and access to the Litquidity network. 

If you’re interested in investing in our fund, please fill out our brief interest survey:

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Canada Pension Plan Investments (CPP) will acquire a 17.5% stake in the fixed-line network of Telecom Italia for up to $2.2B (RT) 

• PE firm Partners Group is exploring options including a sale for German renewable energy company VSB Group, which could be valued at up to $2B, including debt (RT) 

• Kering and EssilorLuxottica are among suitors for Marcolin, the Italian manufacturer of Tom Ford’s popular eyewear line, whose PE owners are seeking a valuation as high as $1.4B (FT) 

• Indonesian telecom Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison will begin a process to sell a minority stake in its fiber business in a deal that could value the asset at over $1B (RT) 

• Brazilian alternative asset manager Vinci Partners Investments will acquire Compass Group to create a combined entity managing over $50B (BBG) 

• BlackRock will acquire SpiderRock Advisors, an asset-management and technology firm that manages ~$4.8B of assets (BBG) 

• TPG is in talks to acquire German metering company Techem from Partners Group (BBG) 

• Saudi Telecom emerged as the highest bidder for mass media firm Altice’s Portuguese business (BBG) 

• Owners of Japfa, the second-largest poultry maker in Indonesia, are seeking $150M in loans as they consider taking the Singapore-listed company private (BBG) 

• Audi will acquire a 100% stake in Sauber’s F1 Team to accelerate entry into F1 (BBG)

VC

• IO Research, the developer of Solana-based decentralized physical infrastructure network io.net, raised a $30M Series A led by Hack VC (FN)

• Biobot, a startup specializing in robotic prostate biopsy and treatment solutions, raised a $24M Series B led by Tony Tan (FN)

• Baanx, a London-based provider of payment services, raised a $20M Series A from Ledger, Tezos, Chiron, and British Business Bank (FN)

• Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, a German direct air capture startup, raised an $11.5M pre-Series A from Earlybird Venture Capital, Green Generation Fund, Carbon Removal Partners, and more (FN)

• Utila, a startup providing a platform for institutions to handle crypto assets, raised an $11.5M seed round from NFX, Wing VC, Framework Ventures, and more (FN)

• Crypto data infrastructure platform Sonarverse raised a $7M seed round led by BlockTower Capital (FN)

• Mexican solar installer Niko raised a $3.3M seed round at a $16M post-money valuation led by Picus Capital and 468 Capital (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• JSC Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam chose Citigroup to help arrange a share placement that may raise ~$1B (BBG) 

• Reddit and its investors are seeking to raise as much as $748M in its IPO (BBG) 

• Astera Labs, an Intel-backed semiconductor solutions provider, is seeking to raise as much as $534M at a ~$5B valuation in its IPO (BBG) 

• Retail trading platform eToro is seeking a valuation of over $3.5B as it considers a US or UK IPO (FT) 

SPAC

• Japanese recycling startup Jeplan plans to merge with AP Acquisition Corp. in a $429M deal (BBG)

Debt

• Luxury fitness company Equinox raised $1.8B in fresh financing from investors led by Sixth Street and Silver Lake to refinance maturing loans and support its growth strategy (BBG) 

• Citigroup held discussions with private credit firms about providing fresh capital to Peloton Interactive to potentially refinance the company’s debt; proposals include a loan of at least $750M (BBG) 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Signa Prime Selection, the luxury property unit in the insolvent Signa conglomerate, will lay out plans to pay back creditors in a bid to avert liquidation (BBG) 

• Lenders to KKR-controlled Accell hired Houlihan Lokey to help assess options for the struggling Dutch bike maker (BBG) 

• Canadian businessman Doug Putman is exploring a rescue bid for The Body Shop, which filed for bankruptcy in US and Canada (BBG) 

Fundraising

• Investment firm Stonepeak raised $3.3B for its Stonepeak Asia Infrastructure Fund, its first fund dedicated to Asia (RT)

Crypto Corner

• Binance will face a revived investor lawsuit in the US over crypto losses (RT) 

• BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF accumulated ~200k Bitcoin in less than two months, surpassing Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy (CD) 

Exec’s Picks

• WSJ published an interesting take on “Jamie Dimon and Ray Dalio’s warning of an economic disaster that never came.”

• FT published their global inflation and interest rates tracker. See how your country compares.

Litney Partners - Financial Recruiting 💼💼

If you're currently a junior investment banker looking to break into the buy side, considering lateraling to another investment bank, or have recently been impacted by widespread layoffs, it's time you check out Litney Partners, a partnership between Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm).

We aim to place strong candidates at leading private equity, hedge fund, venture capital, growth equity, and credit funds, as well as investment banks.

To get started, simply head over to the Litney website and create your profile by dropping your resume / filling out the form:

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