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PE giants are increasingly investing in each other's deals, Trump's antitrust enforcers are being lenient on mega M&A deals, private credit firms are pitching more leverage to beat out banks, and Jamie Dimon had some harsh things to say about Democrats, Europe, and market bulls.

In part one of M&A corner, Greenhill's Kevin Costantino discusses the recent PE-driven resurgence in dealmaking as well as high-profile moves in Delaware's business politics. It's another short but insightful listen.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks rose as traders continued to shrug off tariff threats to embrace the TACO trade 

  • S&P and Nasdaq notched fresh ATH

  • Small caps Russell 2000 turned positive YTD

• UK's FTSE 100 hit a fresh ATH

• Europe's Stoxx 600 hit a one-month high

• China's CSI 300 rose to its highest since March

• Bitcoin hit another ATH 

Earnings

• Delta beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates due to stabilized bookings following earlier demand drops, strong growth in higher-priced seats, and a 10% YoY revenue increase from its Amex partnership (CNBC)

• Levi Strauss issued a Q2 beat-and-raise as it expects robust growth to offset tariff impacts, which it plans to partially absorb for now (CNBC)

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• The hawks and doves are at a crossroads.

• Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi. Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100.

Headline Roundup

• Jamie Dimon warned of risk of higher Fed rates (BBG)

• Jamie Dimon says Europe is losing (FT)

• Jamie Dimon called Democrats 'idiots' for DEI and ideology focus (BBG)

• Bessent says Trump and Soros have 'impatience' in common (BBG)

• PE giants are investing in each other's deals (BBG)

• Private credit firms are pitch more leverage to win deals over banks (BBG)

• Investors brace for first US earnings quarter under Trump tariff war (RT)

• Trump's antitrust enforcers 'get out of the way' of mega M&A deals (BBG)

• Saudi royal runs $250B firm gatekeeping access to mega deals (BBG)

• France sees Europe's biggest jump in distressed firms (BBG)

• Indian IPOs are set to raise $18B in H2 surge (BBG)

• Dutch pension funds are set to sell $150B of Europe government bonds (FT)

• Hong Kong's push to defend dollar peg is just getting started (BBG)

• Blackstone and UK's Legal & General partnered on private credit (BBG)

• JPMorgan is considering cutting China and India from EM bond index (BBG)

• Citadel Securities and Virtu clash over new options exchange (FT)

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with Trump (CNBC)

• UK regulator is investigating Deloitte for audits of collapsed fintech Stenn (FT)

• Ex-ASML staffer got three years for sharing trade secrets with Russia (BBG)

• xAI's Grok chatbot went rogue (WSJ)

• Nestle's France HQ was raided in mineral waters investigation (BBG)

• Indeed and Glassdoor plan to cut 1.3k jobs in AI-focused restructuring (BBG)

• UK will end paper shares after 400 years (BBG)

• Dubai developers hit Miami and Sydney after 70% boom at home (BBG)

• Wells fargo ended credit-card partnership for rewards on rent (WSJ)

• The original Birkin bag sold for $10M at auction (WSJ)

• Manhattan rents hit another ATH (BBG)

• El Chapo's son is expected to plead guilty in US (FT)

• Wall Street financiers rush to build anti-Mamdani mayor war chest (WSJ)

A Message from Mizuho

Market certainty drives businesses to take action, and returning confidence has led to a flurry of transactions across several sectors. In part one of this installment of M&A Corner, Mizuho | Greenhill's Co-Head of Corporate Finance and Head of Greenhill International, Kevin Costantino, sat down with Stephen Amdur, Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, to discuss the recent resurgence in dealmaking and what is driving it. Together, they discuss:

• The uptick in deal activity as private equity sponsors are becoming more comfortable with new market conditions following an extended period of uncertainty

• How Mizuho | Greenhill has navigated inconsistent markets to successfully advise our clients on recently announced deals

• New statute changes in the state of Delaware and how they will impact businesses looking to incorporate there

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Indonesian telecom tower giant Mitratel is considering reviving a $5.5B merger with rival Tower Bersama Infrastructure

• Candy maker Ferrero International agreed to acquire WK Kellogg, the cereal business spunoff from Kellogg, for $3.1B at a 31% premium

• Aerospace and defense tech provider Leonardo bid $1.9B for truck manufacturer Iveco Group's defense unit, the lowest among offers

• Gambling company Flutter Entertainment will buy Boyd Gaming's 5% stake in FanDuel for ~$1.76B at a $31B valuation, giving it complete ownership of the online betting operator

• PE firm Main Post Partners acquired a minority stake in smoothie chain Smoothie King at an over $1B valuation

• Glencore and Chandra Asri Group’s JV Aster Chemicals and Energy is in exclusive talks to acquire ExxonMobil’s 59 gas stations in Singapore in an over $1B deal

• India's Manipal Health Enterprises acquired a majority stake in India's Sahyadri Hospitals from Canada's OTPP for ~$700M

• Blackstone raised its bid to acquire UK's Warehouse REIT for $666M, offering a 3.6% premium over Tritax Big Box's previous cash-and-share proposal

• Monogram Capital Partners will re-acquire meat snack manufacturer Western Smokehouse Partners in a $500M deal 

• Goldman Sachs acquired the Mercure Ambassador hotel and other retail assets in South Korea for $190M

• Citadel Securities acquired Morgan Stanley's US equity options market-making unit

• Portugal launched a plan to sell a 49.9% stake in national carrier TAP as part of its latest privatization effort

• Cosmetics chain Ulta Beauty acquired UK high street cosmetics retailer Space NK, which operates 83 stores in UK

• Automotive company Mack de Venezuela acquired Unilever’s Venezuelan ice cream business

• Angeles Equity-backed Agile Occupational Medicine will merge with Kain-backed Akeso Occupational Health to create one of the largest independent occupational healthcare providers in US

VC

• Amazon is considering another multibillion-dollar investment in AI startup Anthropic 

• iCapital, a private markets fintech platform, raised over $820M at a $7.5B valuation led by T. Rowe Price and SurgoCap Partners

• AI chip startup Groq is in talks to raise $300M-$500M at a $6B post-money valuation

• Rent rewards platform Bilt Rewards raised a $250M round at a $10.8B valuation led by General Catalyst

• Airalo, a startup providing mobile connectivity for international travelers, raised a $220M round at a $1B valuation led by CVC

• Varda Space, a startup using space to make drugs, raised a $187M Series C led by Shrug Capital and Natural Capital

• MaintainX, a predictive maintenance and asset management platform, raised a $150M Series D at a $2.5B valuation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, DE Shaw Ventures, and more

• Harmonic AI, the math AI startup founded by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, raised a $100M Series B at an $875M valuation led by Kleiner Perkins

• Cambridge Aerospace, a stealth UK startup developing Iron Dome-like defense systems, raised ~$100M in early funding at a targeted $400M valuation

• Hunterbrook Global, a hedge fund powering trading decisions from an in-house newsroom, raised funds at a $100M valuation from Ford Foundation and Floating Point

• Ionic Mineral Technologies, a vertically integrated US producer of advanced materials for the energy, defense, and technology sectors, raised a $29M Series B

• Engineering General Intelligence platform Foundation EGI raised a $23M Series A led by Translink Capital

• Cloud storage management platform Datafy raised a $20M seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners 

• QuiX Quantum Quantum, a Dutch startup developing photonic quantum computing hardware, raised a $17.5M Series A led by Invest NL and EIC Fund

• Supply Wisdom, an AI-powered risk intelligence SaaS platform, raised a $14M Series B led by Jurassic Capital

• Ryft, a cloud data management platform, raised an $8M seed round led by Index Ventures

• Lithium startup Electroflow is aiming to raise an $8M seed round 

• Goodrays, a UK CBD drinks brand, raised a $6.7M Series A led by Guinness Ventures

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• State Bank of India is planning an up to $2.9B share sale for next week 

• US DOD invested $400M for a 15% stake in $7.4B-listed US rare earths producer MP Materials, in an unusual deal aimed at breaking Chinese dominance of critical minerals

Debt

• Japanese telecom giant NTT sold $17.7B of dollar and euro bonds in the largest-ever global debt offering by an Asian firm

• Nissan launched a $4.5B dollar and euro bond sale offering a record-high coupon as it seeks to recover from a major annual loss

• Morgan Stanley is marketing $950M in leveraged loans to refinance debt of software platform BetaNXT

• Dartmouth College is issuing $456M in bonds, joining a wave of elite colleges tapping the debt markets

• Goldman Sachs is working to raise $292M in debt to finance renovations of Spanish football club Real Betis Balompie's stadium

• Developer Vanbarton Group secured a $250M loan from an Eldridge Capital unit to convert the former Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York HQ into luxury apartments

• Fiber internet provider Wire 3 raised $235M in private credit led by Guggenheim

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Thames Water rejected Lord Rupert Redesdale's last-ditch financial rescue offer, choosing to proceed with a creditor-led plan involving $6.8B in new funding to restructure ~$27B in debt and raise fresh equity

• ReGen Healthcare submitted a bid to acquire bankrupt nursing home operator Genesis Healthcare, which operates 175 facilities and carries $2.2B in debt

• Macquarie-backed LNG developer WaveCrest Energy is in limbo after all staff departed in June

Fundraising / Secondaries

• BlueFive Capital raised $2B for one of the largest funds raised by a Gulf-based investor

• Ex-Citadel PM Gilberto Marcheggiano debuted macro hedge fund Agave Capital Management with ~$1B AUM

• Morgan Stanley Investment Management raised over $280M for its first standalone VC FOF

• Italian multi-asset manager EQUITA Capital raised $187M for its third private credit fund targeting the DACH region and Spain

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• EU criticized Malta's lax crypto rules

• China's Ant Group is working to add Circle's stablecoins

• Crypto scammer Truglia was sentenced to 12 years for stealing $22M in Bitcoin

• Florida is probing Robinhood’s crypto trading promotions

• Check out our Crypto Sum newsletter for the full stories on everything crypto!

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Read about the recent Wall Street recruitment wars pitting banks against PE firms. A war sparked by Jamie Dimon himself.

Derek Thompson wrote about a really interesting phenomenon: the decline of parties in America. The college kind, not the political kind…

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We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, credit, and investment banking.

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.