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Good Morning,

Smaller rate hikes may be coming soon, China's recovery is being set back by lockdowns, Credit Suisse is facing a $1.6B quarterly loss, Twitter disbanded its Brussels office, Germany is planning a 33% windfall tax on gas, coal, and oil firms, Spain is moving ahead to tax tf out of banks and energy companies, Ford recalled 634k vehicles, and SBF is still speaking at The New York Times' DealBook Summit despite wrecking the crypto market and misappropriating customer funds.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks closed higher in choppy session on Wednesday as Fed meeting minutes suggested potential for smaller future rate hikes

  • This adds weight to expectations the Fed will raise rates 50 bps instead of 75 bps

• The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.5% to a fresh 3-month high yesterday on encouraging Fed minutes

• The dollar swooped towards a three-month low yesterday on the same news

• Oil dropped to a two-month low as a price cap proposal eased supply concerns

Earnings

• Dr. Martens shares plunged ~23%, the most on record after the iconic bootmaker reported sales and earnings that missed analyst expectations, in a sign that middle-class consumers are feeling the pinch of higher living costs

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• November Fed meeting minutes revealed prospects for smaller rate hikes 'soon' (CNBC)

• US weekly mortgage demand rose 2.2% last week as interest rates continued to decline from highs (CNBC)

• China economic recovery is being set back by returning lockdowns (WSJ)

• Ghana plans to buy oil with gold instead of US dollars (RT)

• Biden officials will target nonbanks for tougher oversight (WSJ)

• The Fed and FDIC urged Citigroup to take urgent action to fix resolution plan (RT)

• Credit Suisse flagged $1.6B for Q4 losses as rich clients pull out (RT)

• Twitter disbanded its entire Brussels office (FT)

• Spain pushes ahead with controversial plan to impose windfall tax on banks and energy groups to try and mitigate the impact of inflation and higher energy costs (FT)

• US may soon authorize Chevron to boost Venezuela's oil output (RT)

• China locked down a key iPhone producing city amid record high daily Covid cases (AX)

• UK's finance ministry scrapped plans for veto over financial regulators (RT)

• Germany is planning a 33% windfall tax on gas, coal and oil firms (RT)

• All Volkswagen brands halted paid activities on Twitter (RT)

• Fintech Klarna is targeting profitability in 2023 after CEO claimed luck of job cuts timing (CNBC)

• Jeffrey Epstein accusers sued Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan alleging facilitation of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation (WSJ)

• Eastern European weapons industry is booming as allies arms Ukraine (RT)

• Ford recalled 634k vehicles worldwide over fire risks (RT)

• Foxconn offered workers $1.4k to contain protests at iPhone factory in China (TI)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is looking to raise ~$5B in equity from Middle East wealth funds for his conglomerate Adani Group in hopes to deleverage (BBG)

• Mobile operator Veon sold its Russian unit to some senior members of its management team in the country in a $2.1B deal (BBG)

• US insurer Liberty Mutual is considering the sale of its Europe business that could fetch $1B+ (BBG)

• India-based conglomerate Tata Group is in talks to buy packaged water company Bisleri in an up to ~$857M deal (RT)

• Abu Dhabi Ports Group purchased Spanish logistics firm Noatum for $680M (BBG)

• Japanese financial services company Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group agreed to buy the Philippines and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance company Home Credit for ~$621M (RT)

• Vista Equity Partners is considering buying software company Coupa Software (RT)

• US-based PE firm 777 Partners agreed to purchase a 64.7% stake in Bundesliga team Hertha BSC Berlin (BBG)

• London-based boutique banks FinnCap and Panmure Gordon ended talks about a potential combination (BBG)

• French football club Paris Saint-Germain is considering selling a minority stake in the team to a strategic partner (BBG)

• Crypto exchange Binance will bid to acquire bankrupt crypto lender Voyager (CD)

• Crypto lending giant Genesis approached Binance and Apollo Global Management seeking up to $1B in funding after experiencing a liquidity crunch amid the FTX fallout; the company has retained Moelis to serve as a financial advisor (TI)

VC

• Ramani, a startup digitizing the consumer-packaged goods supply chain, raised a $32M debt / equity Series A led by Flexcap Ventures (TC)

• Ukio, a short-term furnished apartment rental platform, raised a $28M Series A ($18M in equity / $10M in debt) led by Felix Capital (TC)

• Djamo, an Ivory Coast-based financial app, raised a $14M round led by Partech Africa, Enza Capital, Oikocredit, and more (TC)

• Dat Bike, a Vietnamese e-bike startup, raised an $8M round led by Jungle Ventures (TC)

• Harvey, a startup building a ‘copilot for lawyers,’ raised a $5M round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund (TC)

• Healthtech startup RedBrick AI raised a $4.6M round led by Sequoia India and Surge (TC)

• Pivo, a Nigerian freight carrier focused digital bank, raised a $2M seed round from MercyCorps, PrecursorVentures, VestedWorld, and more (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Credit Suisse shareholders approved a $4.2B capital raise, which will see Saudi National Bank take a 9.9% stake in the bank (CNBC)

• Americana, the Middle Eastern operator of KFC and Pizza Hut outlets, raised $1.8B in a dual listing in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi (BBG)

• Saudi Aramco Base Oil, a unit of the state-owned oil producer, received regulator approval for a Saudi IPO that could raise ~$1B (RT)

• Chinese nickel producer and trader Lygend Resources & Technology raised ~$470M in its Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

• UAE conglomerate International Holding Company plans to sell 20% of its technology unit in an IPO next year and is aiming for a Q1 ‘23 IPO of its healthcare platform Pure Health that could raise $1B+ (RT)

• Saudi Aramco's base oil subsidiary Luberef received regulatory approval for an IPO (RT)

Debt

• China's largest lender, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, extended credit lines totaling $92B to 12 Chinese property developers; other banks have similarly pumped $70B+ in total (FT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Crypto assets worth $740M have been recovered in FTX bankruptcy so far (CBS)

Fundraising

• Pact, an all-women led VC fund backed by Anne Hathaway, debuted with $36M to invest in early-stage startups across Europe (TC)

• EarlyLight Ventures, a VC focused on early stage startups, is planning to raise a $15M fund to invest in startups overlooked by traditional VC (TC)

Crypto Corner

• Binance will commit $1B for crypto recovery initiative (RT)

• Crypto investor Digital Currency Group revealed web of investments between units (FT)

• Blockchain VC funding halved in October (CT)

• Global regulators are set to target crypto platforms after FTX crash (RT)

• SBF will speak at The New York Times' DealBook Summit (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• Ledger. That's the name you need to remember. FTX just blew up and thousands of customers lost their crypto by keeping it on exchanges. The old mantra "Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins" is as relevant now as it ever has been. Now is the best time to act on self-custody. Secure your digital assets with Ledger this Black Friday & get free BTC. When you buy a Ledger Nano today, you can receive up to $30 of free Bitcoin.

• Liquid assets, literally. It’s great when your investments age like fine wine. But what if you could actually invest in fine wine? With Vint you can. Vint’s the real deal — and brings real people with decades of experience in the wine & spirits investment industries to do the hard work of sourcing incredible collections that enable you to diversify your investment portfolio. Cheers to investing in vino*

• Coinbase's debt may have been a canary in the coal mine, according to this Bloomberg report

• In case you missed it, we compiled a list of some of our favorite Black Friday deals this year after scouring the internet. Check it out here.

* See vint.co for full investment disclaimer. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

The Hiring Block 💼

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