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Good Morning,

Calamitous day in financial markets yesterday...

Credit Suisse had a rollercoaster 24 hours, the UK expects to avoid a recession this year, short sellers have built positions worth $16B+ against European banks, BofA is benefiting from the SVB failure, First Republic's credit rating was downgraded to junk, and the US threatened to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don't sell their stakes.

Check out today's partner, The Milk Road, to keep up with the biggest stories in crypto, every single day.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks dipped again yesterday as encouraging inflation data failed to distract investors from renewed prospects of a banking crisis

• The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 3% in its worst day in a year, one day after recording its best day in a year

• UK's FTSE 100 also notched its worst day in a year

• Canada's TSX index fell 1.6%

• Bank stocks led the decline on news of Credit Suisse's biggest investor backing out of further support

Earnings

• Adobe beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates and lifted its FY profit forecast on strong growth in its Digital Media segment; their stock jumped 4.4% AH (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: FedEx, Dollar General

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US PPI unexpectedly fell of 0.1% in February, with retail sales also down (CNBC)

• ​​UK expects to avoid a recession this year (CNBC)

• Short sellers built positions worth over $16B against European banks (RT)

• Credit Suisse shares tanked after its biggest investor ruled out further investments (CNBC)

  • Credit Suisse shares then surged in Thursday morning European trading after Swish National Bank pledged funding (BBG)

• Swiss central bank pledged liquidity backstop to Credit Suisse 'if necessary'; CS remains nonetheless well capitalized (FT)

• US Treasury is reviewing US banks’ exposure to Credit Suisse (BBG)

• CDS on US banks rose to their highest since late last year (RT)

• Trading volume in US-listed options on Credit Suisse hit a record high (RT)

• Fed will consider tougher rules for midsized banks after SVB and Signature failures (WSJ)

• FDIC returned $40B in US Treasury funds to reverse SVB-related withdrawal (RT)

• Fitch and S&P cut First Republic’s credit rating to junk (BBG)

• New SVB CEO urged top VC clients to move deposits back (RT)

• Deutsche Bank sees deposit inflows in 'flight to quality' (RT)

• Goldman will collect $100M+ in fees for its purchase of SVB's infamous $21B bond portfolio (NYT)

• BofA received over $15B in deposits after SVB collapsed (BBG)

• 49% of Americans favor government bailouts of banks (RT)

• Y Combinator won’t raise another continuity fund, will cut 20% of staff (TI)

• US threatened to ban TikTok if Chinese owners don't sell ownership stakes (WSJ)

• CLSA will double its Southeast Asia IB team by 2028 (BBG)

• Virgin Orbit paused operations and furloughs nearly all staff as it seeks funding (CNBC)

• Ex-Wells Fargo's retail bank head is facing prison after pleading guilty in fake accounts scandal (RT)

• DOJ arrested Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui over an alleged $1B fraud scheme (AX)

• Buffalo Wild Wings is being sued for falsely advertising 'boneless wings' as wings (WP)

A Message From The Milk Road

The Only Crypto Newsletter I Read

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Abu Dhabi AI firm G42 agreed to buy a $100M+ stake in TikTok owner ByteDance at a ~$220B valuation (BBG)

• Telecom operator T-Mobile US agreed to buy Ka’ena Corp, the owner of actor Ryan Reynolds-backed budget service provider Mint Mobile, for up to $1.35B (RT)

• A consortium including investment firms Sixth Street and BGH Capital offered to buy New Zealand payments company Pushpay for $1B, sending shares up ~14% (RT)

• Helios Investment Partners is looking to sell a stake in Crown Agents Bank, a UK provider of cross-border payments, at a reported ~$1B valuation (RT)

• I Squared Capital is considering selling a 30% minority stake in India's Think Gas Distribution in a deal that could value the firm at over $1B (BBG)

• FDIC tapped Piper Sandler to relaunch the auction of SVB and try to sell it in entirety (RT)

• First Republic Bank is exploring strategic options including a sale (BBG)

• Exxon Mobil is considering selling its majority stake in Italy’s main regasification terminal as part of a strategy to divest from non-core assets (RT)

VC

• Digital payments platform Stripe raised a $6.5B+ Series I at a $50B valuation from GIC, Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, and more (TC)

• Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart raised a $500M extension round at a $4.5B valuation from the ADIA (TC)

• Mediar Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on fibrosis, raised $105M in financing which included a $85M Series A led by Novartis Venture Fund and Sofinnova Partners (PRN)

• Recruitment marketplace Medwing raised a $47M Series C from Northzone, Cathay Innovation, Cherry Ventures, and more (TC)

• Verity, a startup deploying inventory drones at IKEA stores, raised a $32M Series B led by A.P. Moller Holding (TC)

• Fire1, a Dublin-based home monitoring startup for heart failure, raised $25M in funding led by Andera Partners and Novo Holdings (BW)

• Green Li-ion, a lithium ion battery recycling startup, raised a $20.5M pre-Series B led by TRIREC (PRN)

• Medical imaging startup Perspectum raised a $19M Series C extension led by Oppenheimer (BW)

• Protai, a proteomics startup building a drug discovery platform, raised a $12M seed round from Grove Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, and Maj Invest Equity Fund (PRN)

• Fount, an experiment-driven health and performance optimization startup, raised a $12M Series A led by Amity Ventures (BW)

• Zed, a startup building a code editor focused on collaboration, raised a $10M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures (TC)

• Intelligent fluids, a startup developing safe / sustainable cleaning fluids, raised a $10M Series B led by WAVE Equity Partners (PRN)

• Indian gaming platform BuyStars raised a $5M pre-Series A led by Lumikai (RT)

• Healium, a virtual and augmented reality biofeedback startup, raised a $3.6M+ seed round from Impact Venture Capital, Ambition Fund II, and more (PRN)

• Nanite, a startup working on gene delivery technologies for the lung, raised $2M from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Indonesian metal and mining firm Harita Nickel started taking orders on an IPO that could raise up to $647M (BBG)

• Eco-Shop Marketing, a budget retail chain in Malaysia, is considering a Malaysia IPO that could raise up to $180M (BBG)

• Chinese shipping company Seacon Shipping plans to raise up to $62.26M in a Hong Kong IPO (TW)

• Brazilian miner Vale is considering a spinoff or IPO of its base metals business after it completes the sale of a 10% stake (BBG)

Debt

• UK unveiled a bigger-than-expected $290B bond-sale plan (BBG)

• Credit Suisse will borrow up to $54B from Swiss National Bank to "strengthen its liquidity" and plans to repurchase up to ~3B francs of senior debt, after Saudi National Bank ruled out further investment into CS (BBG)

• India plans to sell green bonds worth $3B by March 2024 (ET)

• Santander US delayed the sale of $942M of subprime auto ABS amid on-going banking turmoil (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• SVB is exploring bankruptcy as option for asset sales (RT)

Crypto Corner

• Binance halted deposits/withdrawals for UK customers (BBG)

• Crypto ‘mixer’ ChipMixer laundered $700M for customers including Russian and North Korean spies (FRB)

• Fed digital payment system FedNow will debut in July (CNBC)

• UK will add crypto declaration in tax forms (CD)

Exec's Picks

• After the Patagonia hype has ceded, yuppies now flock to Crocs. At least according to the founders of Fintalent.io, a community for freelance M&A and Private Equity consultants. Being a finance bro is all about over-understating… Join the platform and work on freelance M&A projects

• The Wall Street Journal published a video breaking down how Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 36 hours.

• ChatGPT-4 just dropped. Bloomberg has a quick video breaking down everything you need to know about it (BBG)

• Former US Congressman Barney Frank defended his decision to take a board seat at Signature Bank, saying, "I need to make some more money."

• In light of Credit Suisse's troubles, we've made a fitting mug for their "Debit Suisse" rebrand. See below:

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