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Good Morning,

Binance (allegedly) commingled funds, there hasn’t been any progress on the debt ceiling, Apple inked a big deal with Broadcom, China opposes a US-Taiwan trade agreement, Microsoft beefed up ChatGPT and Bing, Musk said Twitter advertisers are back, and Branson’s Virgin Orbit is liquidating.

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

• US stocks finished sharply lower as investor jitters grow over a lack of progress in US debt limit talks

• 1 Month T-Bill yield hit a record high of 5.888%

• Investors await minutes from the Fed's May meeting for clues on the central bank’s next move on interest rates

Earnings

• Lowe’s beat Q1 expectations despite net income decreasing to $2.26B from $2.33B in the same period a year ago, but they lowered their FY outlook to reflect softer-than-expected consumer demand for discretionary purchases (MW)

• BJ’s Wholesales matched Q1 profits estimates but missed on revenue after sales only increased by 5% to $4.72B; their stock slid 7% to a four-month low (MW)

• Dick’s beat Q1 expectations with adjusted EPS of $3.40 vs estimates of $3.13, and the retailer maintained momentum despite a broader pullback in consumer discretionary spending (BBG)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Kohl’s, Nvidia, Snowflake, American Eagle

  • Thursday: Royal Bank of Canada, Best Buy, Dollar Tree, Ralph Lauren, Costco

  • Friday: Big Lots

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• No signs of progress from White House, Republicans in 'tough' debt ceiling talks (RT)

• US economic growth hits highest monthly increase in more than a year (WSJ)

• Apple inks multi-billion-dollar deal with Broadcom for US-made chips (RT)

• Microsoft beefs up ChatGPT and Bing in wide-ranging AI product launch (RT)

• China opposes trade agreement reached between US and Taiwan (RT)

• California seeks EPA approval to ban sales of new gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 (RT)

• Elon Musk says advertisers have returned to Twitter (MW)

• JPMorgan pledges $200M to suck carbon from the sky (BBG)

• Google will roll out new AI tools for advertisers and marketers (BBG)

• DeSantis to launch 2024 campaign with Elon Musk on Twitter (YF)

• Peloton aims to rebrand as a fitness company for all with focus on app, tiered subscription pricing (CNBC)

• Uber to offer autonomous ride-hailing and delivery using Waymo’s robotaxis (CNBC)

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!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Choice Hotels International is seeking to buy Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which would create one of the largest budget hotel conglomerates in the US; Wyndham had a $5.7B market cap as of Monday (RT)

• Billionaire Rajiv Jain’s GQG raised its stake in the Adani conglomerate by 10% to $3.5B (BBG)

• Georg Fischer, a Swiss manufacturing company, is weighing a counteroffer for Finnish plumbing-equipment manufacturer Uponor after it rejected a $2.1B bid from Aliaxis (BBG)

• ATM and financial software vendor NCR, which is breaking up into two companies, is considering a sale of its $2B+ digital banking business (RT)

• Billionaire Patrick Drahi increased his stake in BT Group to 25% through purchase of $1.2B worth of shares (BBG)

• Shutterstock will buy the digital sticker library Giphy from Meta for $53M after the UK antitrust authorities forced the social media giant to divest the company (BBG)

• Tiger Global is in advanced talks to buy a $40M stake in the Indian cricket team Rajasthan Royals (BBG)

• Small-launch firm rocket Rocket Lab will acquire bankrupt satellite launch firm Virgin Orbit's California HQ for $16M (RT)

• Equatorial Energia and CPFL Energia are considering a purchase of a power distribution firm owned by Italy's Enel (RT)

• Chile’s professional football league is seeking bids for a stake in its media rights, following the footsteps of European football leagues (BBG)

• Activist investor TCS Capital Management built a 4% stake in service-recommendation site Yelp and is calling on the firm to explore a sale (WSJ)

VC

• AI safety and research company Anthropic raised a $450M Series C led by Spark Capital (RT)

• ReNAgade Therapeutics, a company building an RNA medicine platform, raised a $300M Series A led by MPM BioImpact and F2 Ventures (BW)

• Builder.ai, a mobile app development startup backed by Microsoft, raised $250M in a Series D funding round led by the Qatar Investment Authority (BBG)

• South African digital banking platform TymeBank raised a $77.8M pre-Series C led by Norrsken22 and Blue Earth Capital (TC)

• Tissium, a medtech startup developing biomorphic programmable polymers, raised a $50M Series D led by Fonds Stratégique des Transitions (FN)

• Quanta Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology, raised a $50M Series D led by Avidity Partners (FN)

• Payments and banking infrastructure provider Episode Six raised a $48M Series C led by Avenir (TC)

• ClearMotion, a software-defined chassis startup, received a $32M investment from NewView Capital, Acadia Woods, BAI Capital, and more (FN)

• Accelergen Energy, a solar and storage developer, raised $30M in funding from Leyline Renewable Capital (FN)

• BandLab Technologies, the parent company of social music creation platform BandLab, raised a $25M Series B1 led by Cercano Management (TC)

• Infinite Uptime, an Indian industrial IoT startup, raised an $18.9M Series B-3 led by Tiger Global (TC)

• Logik.io, a startup consumerizing B2B buying experiences, raised a $16M Series A led by Emergence Capital (FN)

• Datasembly, a startup providing retailers and CPG companies with big data analytics, raised a $16M Series B led by Noro-Moseley Partners (TC)

• Steno, a tech-enabled provider of legal support services, raised a $15M Series B led by Left Lane Capital (PRN)

• Lifeforce, a clinically integrated health optimization platform, raised a $12M Series A led by M13 and Peterson Ventures (BW)

• Amify, a provider of technology-enabled Amazon optimization and advertising solutions, raised a $10M Series B led by Mercury Fund, Cincy Tech, and SAAS Ventures (PRN)

• r.e.m. beauty, the award-winning beauty brand founded by singer and actress Ariana Grande, received a $10M investment from Sandbridge Capital (PRN)

• Travel insurance startup Faye raised a $10M Series A led by Munich Re Ventures (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Bain Capital is targeting a November IPO of Virgin Australia Airlines that could raise ~$665M (BBG)

SPAC

• Travel technology innovator NextTrip Holdings is merging with Genesis Growth Tech Acquisition Corp. (MW)

Debt

• Vedanta Group, promoter of metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta, signed a five-year $850M loan from JPMorgan and Oaktree (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Vietnamese property giant No Va Land Investment Group is in talks with creditors, including Credit Suisse, to restructure part of its $1B foreign debt (RT)

• Bankrupt pharma company Purdue received court permission to sell its consumer health business to a subsidiary of Arcadia Consumer Healthcare for $397M (RT)

Fundraising

• PE firm GTCR raised its largest fund ever at $11.5B to acquire companies in the technology, healthcare and consumer sectors (RT)

• VC firm QED Investors raised $925M across two new funds to invest in early stage fintech startups and growth rounds for later stage companies (TC)

• Matrix Partners India extended its new India fund’s target size from $450M from $525M (TC)

• India's Aurum Equity Partners launched a new PE fund with a $250M target (DSA)

• VC firm Neo raised $235M across two funds, $180M to be invested in seed deals via accelerator programs and $55M for later stage companies (TC)

Crypto Corner

• A former insider accused crypto exchange giant Binance of commingling customer funds and company revenue in 2020/21 (RT)

• International securities watchdog IOSCO unveiled its global approach to regulating cryptocurrency and digital assets (RT)

Exec’s Picks

• ~200,000 job cuts are pushing new grads from tech to Wall Street, according to Bloomberg.

• Insider published its third annual Seed 100 list of the best early-stage investors of 2023.

Litney Partners - Financial Recruiting 💼

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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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