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Good Morning,

Silicon Valley Bank had to raise $2.25B to shore up its balance sheet, Ark has topped $300M in fees since inception, investors are pulling money out of corporate bond ETFs, the remote work job market is shrinking, Apple is planning an India expansion, and Spotify has a TikTok-like redesign.

Looking to get your hands on a new Rolex or Patek? Check out Bezel, the most trusted marketplace for buying & selling luxury watches!

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major US indexes shed over 1.5% yesterday on a drag in bank stocks, labor market data, and anticipation of Friday's jobs report

  • S&P 500 bank index tumbled 6.6% in its biggest one-day drop in over two years to its lowest level since October

  • Fears of a run on Silicon Valley Bank are gathering steam after it launched a $2B+ share sale in response to losing ~$1.8B on a firesale of its fixed-income portfolio

  • Mega-cap banks like JPMorgan, BofA and Wells Fargo all fell 5%+

• Fed funds futures traders priced in a 60% chance of a 50 bps Fed rate hike this month

• Notable crypto stocks including Coinbase slid between 7-11% following Silvergate's announcement to liquidate

Earnings

• Oracle beat Q3 EPS estimates but just missed on revenue despite an 18% YoY jump in sales after failing to meet optimistic cloud business growth expectations; their stock fell 5.6% (BBG)

• JD.com's US-listed shares fell 11%+ on a sharp drop in Q4 revenue growth due to strict Covid controls and forecasts of slow consumer recovery amid China's recent end to lockdowns (YH)

• Ulta Beauty topped Q4 EPS and revenue estimates on resilient demand for beauty products as shoppers continued to budget for affordable luxuries during the holiday season; the firm expects earnings and sales to continue growing in H1 2023 (CNBC)

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Big Four US banks lost $52B in market value following Silicon Valley Bank's stock rout (WSJ)

• US January/February layoffs hit highest level since 2009, with tech accounting for over one-third of 180k+ job cuts (RT)

• White House unveiled its $6.8T 2024 budget (AP)

• Investors pulled near record sums from corporate bond ETFs in February (FT)

• US weekly jobless claims jumped 10%+ but remain historically low (WSJ)

• Remote work job market is shrinking (WSJ)

• Canadian firms speed pace of bond sales despite rising yields (BBG)

• Apple is planning a massive India expansion (BBG)

• JPMorgan must hand over CEO Dimon's records in Epstein lawsuit (RT)

• UAE founder’s son Sheikh Tahnoon was named chair of the ~$1T Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (RT)

• Cathie Wood’s flagship Ark fund topped $300M in fees despite losses (FT)

• Citigroup will ‘recalibrate’ IB headcount as needed (BBG)

• Ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng was sentenced to 10 years in prison for helping embezzle/launder from Malaysia's 1MDB wealth fund (FT)

• GM offers buyouts to majority of US salaried workers in cost-cutting drive (CNBC)

• Johnson & Johnson will cut over 350 employees (FBT)

• Morning Brew cut 40 staffers in second layoff round (AX)

• Spotify debuted a TikTok-like redesign (TC)

• Launch House, the community-oriented startup accelerator, is pausing operations and is planning on pivoting to a new business model (TWTR)

A Message From Bezel

Find The Perfect Watch for You

The investment banker rite of passage: your bonus hits, it’s time to make a big purchase, and you decide to treat yourself to a new watch.

But what do you want? A Rolex? Patek? Audemars Piguet? What size? What dial color?

Figuring out your perfect watch is hard, but Bezel makes it easy.

Bezel is the most trusted marketplace for buying and selling luxury watches, with experts standing by ready to help you find your perfect watch. You can shop, search, and filter by brand, price, case size, material, and dial color, and if Bezel doesn’t have the specific model that you’re looking for, they will source it for you in 3-5 days.

But don’t take my word for it, check out this customer review:

“You can tell these guys just love watches and really know their stuff. The Concierge Team took a lot of time with me asking the right questions that helped me discover the route I wanted to go.”

Buying the perfect watch doesn’t have to be hard, get your next time piece on Bezel, available both here and in Apple’s App Store!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Russian oligarch Andrei Kosogov will acquire Russia’s largest private lender Alfa-Bank from Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven in a $2.3B deal (FT)

• Greece's Public Power Corp. will buy Italy's biggest utility Enel's Romanian operations for ~$2B, including debt (RT)

• 3D printing company Nano Dimension offered to buy the remaining stake it doesn't already own 3D printing solution firm Stratasys for $1.1B (RT)

• Firms including KKR, MBK Partners and Brookfield Asset Management are interested in a minority stake in industrial gas company AirFirst, which South Korea's IMM Private Equity aims to sell for $1B (RT)

• British events organizer Informa will acquire B2B events group Tarsus for $940M (RT)

• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is nearing a deal to acquire a stake in Indian eyewear startup Lenskart for ~$500M (BBG)

• Indian telecoms giant Reliance Jio will buy US-based communications equipment maker Mimosa Networks for $60M (RT)

• Abu Dhabi state-backed Al Nawwar Investments will acquire FTX's stake in VC firm Sequoia Capital for $45M (BBG)

• Italian soccer league Serie A will ask its 20 clubs if they want to kick-off a process to study proposals by PE firms and banks interested in investing in the league’s media business (RT)

VC

• QurAlis, a biotech startup working on treating ALS, raised an $88M Series B led by EQT Life Sciences, Sanofi Ventures, and Droia Ventures (FN)

• Gene therapy startup Ring Therapeutics raised an $86.5M Series C led by Alexandria Venture Investments, Altitude Life Science Ventures, and others (FN)

• Mentoring software platform MentorcliQ raised $80M+ in funding from PSG, Rev1 Ventures, and Plymouth Growth (TC)

• Envisics, a startup building in-car holographic tech, raised a $50M+ Series C at a $500M valuation from by Hyundai Mobis, InMotion Ventures, and Stellantis (TC)

• Cognosos, a provider of real-time location services and process optimization software, raised a $25M round led by Riverwood Capital (FN)

• Cloud forensics and incident response platform Cado Security raised a $20M round led by Eurazeo (BW)

• Geothermal Engineering, a UK-based developer and operator of geothermal plants, raised a $17.9M round led by Kerogen Capital and Thrive Renewables (FN)

• Iktos, a startup harnessing AI for drug discovery, raised a $16.4M Series A led by M Ventures and Debiopharm Innovation Fund (PRN)

• Proven, a developer of ZK proofs, which enable exchanges, stablecoins, asset managers, and custodians to prove solvency, raised a $15.8M seed round led by Framework Ventures (BW)

• Banking-as-a-Service startup Synctera raised $15M in funding led by NAventures (TC)

• Mythic, a startup building an analog processor for edge AI devices, raised a $13M round led by Atreides Management, DCVC, Lux Capital, and others (BW)

• Yoti, a London-based digital identity startup, raised an $11.9M round from Lloyds Banking Group (FN)

• Zenhub, a project management service built around GitHub, raised a $10M Series A led by Yaletown Partners (TC)

• Bachelorette trip planning app Bach raised a $9M Series A led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital (TC)

• Recruiting platform HeadRace raised a $6.8M seed round led by Greylock, Susa Ventures, and Breyer Capital (FN)

• Dutch quantum processor startup QuantWare raised a $6M seed round led by Forward.One (TC)

• Cyber security startup SOCRadar raised a $5M Series A led by 212 (FN)

• Gyroscope, a decentralized all-weather stablecoin startup, raised a $4.5M seed round led by Placeholder VC and Galaxy (FN)

• Tweed, a white-label cryptocurrency wallet and payment solution, raised a $4M seed round led by Accel (TC)

• ufurnish.com, a UK-based search / discovery platform for home furniture and furnishings, raised a $4.1M seed round from Amanda Burton, Ciara McElligott, and others (FN)

• Sora Finance, a SaaS platform for credit management and liability optimization, raised $3.9M in funding from Peterson Ventures, New Era Capital Partners, and more (FN)

• Carbon nanomaterials startup DexMat raised a $3M seed round led by Shell Ventures (FN)

• Patterns, a platform abstracting away AI model engineering, raised a $2.5M pre-seed round from Y-Combinator and Lenny Rachitsky (TC)

• trawa, an AI powered platform providing renewable / affordable electricity to businesses, raised a $2.5M pre-seed round led by Speedinvest and Magnetic (FN)

• Houseware, a provider of a revenue analytics workbench that enables anyone to build internal data apps on Snowflake, raised a $2.1M round led by Tanglin Venture Partners (FN)

• Recombinant protein-focused biotech startup Tiamat Sciences raised a $2M seed extension round led by 8090 Industries (PRN)

• Aisot Technologies, a spin-off from ETH Zurich building portfolio insights for equity and crypto markets, raised a $1.9M seed round led by Haute Capital Partners (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Silicon Valley Bank launched a $2.25B share sale, including $1.25B of common stock and $500M of mandatory convertible preferred shares, after suffering a large loss on its fixed-income portfolio (FT)

• Saudi oil and gas driller ADES picked Lazard to advise on a potential $1B IPO in H1 2023 (BBG)

• PE firm General Atlantic will buy $500M of common stock in Silicon Valley Bank in a separate deal (FT)

• Oilfield services firm Atlas Energy raised $324M in an IPO priced below a marketed range (BBG)

• Lithium Royalty raised $109M in the biggest Canadian IPO since May (BBG)

• High-end baby gear retailer PishPosh delayed its IPO after pricing it to raise $9.1M (BBG)

• UAE-based money exchange firm Al Ansari plans to sell a 10% stake in a Dubai IPO (BBG)

Debt

• Canadian pipeline company Enbridge issued $3B in the US dollar debt market including $2.3B in sustainability-linked bonds (BBG)

• Turkey raised $2.25B in dollar bonds in its first post-quake debt sale (BBG)

• TD Bank Group sold $1.65B of covered bonds in Australian dollars (BBG)

• TransCanada PipeLines sold a $1.63B domestic bond, one day after it raised $1.25B by issuing US-dollar denominated debt (BBG)

• Canadian auto-parts company Magna raised $1.6B by selling bonds in euro, dollar and Canadian-dollar bond markets to finance their $1.3B purchase of driver-assistance business Veoneer (BBG)

• World’s most valuable edtech startup Byju’s plans to raise $250M via convertible notes that will convert into equity at 20% discount to its planned IPO price (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• A NY judge rejected a bid by Lehman Brothers' bankrupt European unit to claw back $485M from bond insurer Assured Guaranty over canceled transactions during the financial crisis (RT)

Fundraising

• BlackRock plans to raise $1.1B+ from HNW Europeans for two new PE funds (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• The Fed is gathering a 'specialized team of experts' to help supervise crypto sector (CD)

• NY AG alleged Ether is a security in lawsuit against crypto exchange KuCoin (CD)

• Crypto VCs are urging portfolio companies to pull funds from Silicon Valley Bank (TBC)

Exec's Picks

• Catherine Liu covered the rise of hedge-fund-like university endowments and their impact on student costs in this Business Insider piece.

• How to Invest is a master class on investing featuring conversations with the biggest names in finance, from the legendary cofounder of The Carlyle Group, David M. Rubenstein. Check out his latest book here.

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:

Meme Cleanser

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