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Carried Interest Lives Another Day

Amazon is getting deeper into everyone's homes after buying iRobot, SpaceX raised more capital, the Senate passed the "Inflation Reduction Act", and Carlyle Group's CEO is stepping down while the firm looks for a permanent successor.

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Good Morning,

Amazon is getting deeper into everyone's homes after buying iRobot, SpaceX raised more capital, the Senate passed the "Inflation Reduction Act", carried interest tax treatment is set to remain for the time being, and Carlyle Group's CEO is stepping down while the firm looks for a permanent successor.

The Lit Syndicate is about to pop off with deal flow. If you're accredited and want access to these deals, you can find the link at the very bottom of this email.

Wednesday is a big day, with the July CPI report dropping and providing more info on the state of inflation. You can bet on the outcome through Kalshi (today's sponsor).

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 08/05/2022 market close

Markets

  • Stocks were a mixed bag Friday as investors reacted to a surprisingly strong jobs report that shows the Fed likely won’t be able to shift away from interest-rate increases anytime soon

    • The labor market added 528k jobs in July, more than doubling analyst estimates, while unemployment returned to a pre-pandemic level of 3.5%

    • The S&P 500 and Dow rose 0.4% and 0.2% on the week, respectively, while the Nasdaq fell 0.1%

Earnings

  • DraftKings rose 9.8% after its Q2 revenue increased 57% YoY, exceeding expectations for both the top and bottom line (YHOO)

  • Cinemark posted a quarterly loss of $73.4M, much less than the $142.4M lost in Q2 2021 but still coming up short of expectations; its stock fell 13.4% (YHOO)

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Today: Tyson Foods

    • Tuesday: Ralph Lauren, Spirit Airlines, Coinbase, RCI Hospitality

    • Wednesday: Jack in the Box, Wendy’s, Walt Disney

    • Thursday: Cardinal Health 

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • China's IPO market is trouncing the world with a record ~$58B boom YTD (BBG)

  • China's trade balance hit a record high in July, as exports rose 18% YoY (RT)

  • A US appeals court ruled that AI systems cannot be considered an inventor under US patent law (RT)

  • Carlyle CEO Kewsong Lee steps down; co-founder Bill Conway to be interim CEO (BBG)

  • Berkshire Hathaway posted a $43.8B loss in Q2 (RT)

  • US regulators are considering whether to require large regional banks to add to the financial cushions that protect them in times of crisis, slowing down pending bank mergers (WSJ)

  • The Senate passed Biden’s sweeping climate and tax package (WSJ)

  • Ben & Jerry’s is attempting to block parent company Unilever from selling its Israeli business (WSJ)

  • Shale companies are reporting record profits but being forced to raise their budgets to deal with inflation (WSJ)

  • Leading business insurer FM Global will provide a 5% reduction in annual premium to its roughly 1.5k policyholders to spur them to better protect their property (WSJ)

  • US's killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri will complicate an attempt to free up $3.5B in frozen bank funds meant to aid Afghanistan (BBG)

  • Bank of England accused of failures on shadow banking system (FT)

  • Advertising slowdown spreads beyond tech giants to hit TV networks, publishers (WSJ)

A Message From Kalshi

Trade directly on inflation

The July inflation print is coming up on Wednesday, and it’s looking much cooler than it has been in the past. Markets are predicting only an 85 percent chance it’ll be positive, and a 46 percent chance it’ll be above 0.3%.

Luckily, there’s a way to make a low inflation print even sweeter, by trading on a new platform called Kalshi. It’s a CFTC regulated exchange that lets you take bets on world events and enjoy crazy profits if they’re true.

You can buy "Yes" or "No" shares tied to future events. As the event becomes more likely to happen, the value appreciates. You bet directly against other traders – there’s no “house”, just pay a small transaction fee on every trade you enter.

Readers of Exec Sum receive priority access. Take your bets on inflation now!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Pharmaceutical company Pfizer is in advanced talks to buy sickle-cell drugmaker Global Blood Therapeutics for ~$5B (WSJ)

  • Drugstore and insurance giant CVS Health Corp will bid for healthtech company Signify Health, which has a market cap of $4.7B (WSJ)

  • Ex-Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol and Canadian investment group Fairfax Financial made a cash bid for asset manager Atlas, which valued the firm at ~$3.6B (BBG)

  • European energy giants TotalEnergies and RWE are interested in US energy company Consolidated Edison’s sale of their renewable energy assets, which could be valued at over $3B (BBG)

  • Macquarie Group is nearing a deal to buy utility company Suez's UK waste business for ~$2.5B (BBG)

  • BP, Shell and BlackRock are among a few parties weighing a takeover of green energy producer Nature Energy, which could be valued at $2B+ (BBG)

  • Amazon will buy Roomba vacuum-maker iRobot for $1.65B (BBG)

  • Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel sold his 1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $870M (RT)

  • Indian automotive manufacturer Tata Motors agreed to acquire Ford Motor Co.’s plant in the western Indian for $92M (BBG)

  • Shipping giant Maersk will buy smaller logistics firm Martin Bencher Group at a $61M valuation (BBG)

  • British clothing and housewares chain Next is in talks to acquire a minority stake in troubled retailer Joules for ~$18.1M (BBG)

  • Hong Kong-based Insurance giant AIA Group is in talks to purchase prime location Shanghai office SIIC Center in an effort to expand business in China (BBG)

VC

  • Elon Musk's SpaceX raised $250M in equity from five unnamed investors; it did not disclose the valuation in this funding round (CNBC)

  • Sibel Health, a medical technology company that wirelessly monitors vital signs, raised a $33M Series B led by the Steele Foundation for Hope (PRN)

  • Project Solar, a non-bureaucratic solar panel installer, raised a $23M Series A led by Left Lane Capital (TC)

  • Epigenic Therapeutics, a biotech company dedicated to developing next generation gene editing therapy, raised a $20M pre-Series A and Angel round from investors including Morningside VC, Kingray Capital, Trinity Innovation Fund, and TigerYeah Capital (PRN)

  • LiveEO, a real-time satellite analytics platform, raised a ~$19.5M fundraising round led by MMC Ventures (TC)

  • xFarm Technologies, a SaaS startup with a digital platform to improve farmers’ efficiency, raised a ~$17.3M Series B led by Swisscom Ventures (GD)

  • Zenno Astronautics, a company developing sustainable spacecraft flight technology, raised a ~$6.6M seed round led by GD1 and Nuance Connected Capital (TC)

  • Farmley, a full-stack nuts and dry fruits startup, raised a $6M Series A led by DSG Consumer Partners and Alkemi Growth Capital (YS)

  • Beacon Power Services, a startup improving electricity access for sub-Saharan African cities, raised $2.7M seed round led by Seedstars Africa Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Motor parts maker Euro Group picked JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Rothschild to advise on its planned Milan IPO (BBG)

  • Hong Kong’s Magic Empire Global soared ~5,800% above its IPO price, in the seventh such wild price surge this year (BI)

Fundraising

  • PE firm Siguler Guff raised $1.97B for a new fund, Small Buyout Opportunities Fund V LP, which will invest in lower middle market companies (PRN)

Crypto Corner

  • Crypto fundraising hits $30.3B in H1 2022, outpacing all of 2021 (CT)

  • Bankrupt crypto broker Voyager plans to resume cash withdrawals to customers on August 11 (BBG)

  • Binance-owned exchange WazirX had its bank balances frozen by Indian authorities as part of a money-laundering probe (TB)

Exec's Picks

  • Exponential is a new platform that allows users to discover new DeFi pools, get a custom risk analysis on your wallet, and invest in one click. They're in early beta, which can be accessed here.

  • Summer is hot af and mfs are out here wearing vests in 90 degree weather to cover sweat stains and man boobs. You can solve sweat stains by checking out Mizzen + Main's performance dress shirts (basically tailored dress shirts with the feel of golf polos). Check em out here.

  • If you're looking for resources to learn about web3, check out this tweet thread from Misha DaVinci.

The Hiring Block

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out our job board on Pallet, where we curate highly relevant roles for you. We aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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