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Good Morning,

Stocks were green today on news that everything is terrible, bonds rallied after the BoE announced emergency bond-buying measures, mortgage refinancing is down 84% YoY, EU executives want to impose more sanctions on Russia, Costco wants the $1.50 hotdog and soda combo to last forever, the US government is urging citizens to leave Russia immediately, and Lebron is buying a professional pickleball team.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all rose ~2% by yesterday’s close, each snapping a six-day losing streak

  • The 10Y Treasury yield dropped the most it has since 2020 to ~3.7%, after briefly topping 4%

• Today we’ll be receiving initial jobless claims numbers 

• UK bond prices soared on BoE’s emergency £65bn bond purchases over a 13 day period in an attempt to stabilize the gilts market (for those wondering... Gilts are UK government bonds)

Earnings

• Jefferies cited market conditions for a slowdown in performance in Q3 and plans to continue investing towards gaining market share after a “transitional” 2022 (BW)

• Vail Resorts posted better-than-expected Q4 results that were driven by acquisitions abroad and demand for advance passes, with full-year sales rebounding above pre-pandemic levels (MW)

  • Today: Bed Bath & Beyond, Micron Technology, Nike, CarMax

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Global bonds rally after Bank of England moved to buy debt (WSJ)

• Mortgage refinancing is down 84% YoY to a 22-year low as interest rates surge to 6.25% (CNBC)

• Opioid crisis cost the US nearly $1.5T in 2020 (RT)

• EU executive proposed an eighth batch of sanctions against Russia (RT)

• Lego sales jumped 17% in H1 2022 (CNBC)

• Costco’s CFO will try to keep its hot dog and soda combo at $1.50 'forever' (CNBC)

• Oracle will settle SEC foreign bribery charges for the second time for $23M (WSJ)

• US urged Americans in Russia to leave 'immediately' amid mobilization efforts (AX)

• Chevron sells global HQ, pares back in California amid Texas expansion (WSJ)

• LeBron James is buying a professional pickleball team (WSJ)

• J&J says new Band-Aid and Tylenol company to be named Kenvue (WSJ)

• Lionsgate explores spinning off studio instead of Starz channel (WSJ)

• MacKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezo's ex-wife) filed for divorce from science teacher husband (BBG)

• Deutsche Bank names trio as co-heads of financial sponsors (BBG)

• RBC named a new head of US technology IB (BBG)

• Grammy-winning rapper Coolio passed away at 59 (Variety)

• Tech IPOs in 2019 are up 38%, while those since 2020 have fallen by about as much (TI)

A Message From Titan

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Their solution? Launching a wealth management platform that allows non-accredited investors to invest in VC, real estate, and private credit funds with minimums starting at $500, NOT $500,000.

For example, Titan’s new VC offering, in partnership with Ark Invest, will allow non-accredited investors to gain exposure to some of the world’s most promising private companies, such as Epic Games and Flexport, which were most recently valued at $31 billion and $8 billion, respectively. 

Their real estate and private credit offerings will also offer exclusive opportunities in partnership with renowned investment groups. 

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Marlboro cigarette-maker Philip Morris said it is not considering withdrawing its $16B offer for cigarette alternative maker Swedish Match despite deteriorating global economic conditions (RT)

• Catering and gateway services provider SATS agreed to buy air cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services in a $2.1B deal (BBG)

• EQT agreed to buy business payments vendor Billtrust in an almost $1.7B deal (RT)

• Brookfield Asset Management, IT firm Network International, and TPG are among potential bidders for UAE lender Mashreqbank’s payment unit that could be worth $500-700M (BBG)

• Thoma Bravo and TPG have shown interest in purchasing cloud-based data platform Workiva (RT)

• SK Capital Partners agreed to buy Apotex Pharmaceutical, the Canadian generic drug company controlled by the family of murdered billionaire Barry Sherman (BBG)

• TotalEnergies may sell part of its 20% stake in Indian renewable energy producer Adan Green Energy to cash in on its recent jump in valuation (BBG)

• Singapore-based investment firm Sun Venture is considering buying the remaining shares it doesn’t own in PSGGourmet, the parent of restaurant chain PS.Cafe, at a ~$207M valuation (BBG)

• Ocelot, an engagement platform for students, received a $117M investment from K1 Investment Management (TC)

• Stockholm-based Pophouse Entertainment Group agreed to buy a 75% stake in the music catalog of late electronic dance DJ Avicii (BBG)

• Shell’s renewable energy division agreed to buy Daystar Power, an off-grid services provider in West Africa (BBG)

VC

• Satispay, an Italian payments startup, raised a $305M Series D at a $955M valuation led by Addition (TC)

• GrubMarket, an e-commerce platform connecting farmers and other food suppliers with customers, raised a $120M round at a $2B+ valuation from new backers, including General Mill’s venture arm (BBG)

• Clean energy storage startup Moxion Power raised a $100M Series B led by Tamarack Global (BW)

• Sitetracker, a startup providing deployment operations management software for critical infrastructure providers, raised $96M: a $66M Series D led by Energize Ventures and a $30M RCF from BridgeBank (PRN)

• Coalesce, a startup offering data transformation tools to enterprises, raised a $26M Series A led by Emergence Capital

• InHome Therapy, a home therapy services startup, raised a $22M round led by TT Capital Partners (BW)

• Coral, the makers of Anchor - the most popular Solana development framework, raised a $20M round from FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto (PRN)

• Plant-based food company Wicked Kitchen raised $20M in funding led by Woody Harrelson, Ahimsa VC, and NRPT (PRN)

• Tegus, a research platform for institutional investors, received a $20M investment from Positive Sum (PRN)

• Healthcare technology company careviso raised a $17M Series B led by Ballast Point Ventures (BW)

• Qnovia, a pharma company focused on developing inhalable therapeutics, raised a $17M Series A led by Blue Ledge Capital (BW)

• EverestLabs, an AI system which sorts recyclables, raised a $16.1M Series A led by Translink Capital (TC)

• Invisible AI, a startup building computer vision solutions for manufacturing, raised a $15M Series A led by Van Tuyl Companies (PRN)

• Hofy, a startup helping companies remotely manage enterprise equipment, raised a $15M Series B led by CNP (TC)

• Incident analysis platform Jeli.io raised a $15M Series A led by Addition (BW)

• Bionic clothing innovator CIONIC raised a $12.5M Series A led by BlueRun Ventures (BW)

• Numida, a Ugandan digital lender, raised a $12.3M pre-Series A: $7.3M in equity led by Serena Ventures and $5M in debt from Lendable Asset Management (TC)

• Stockly, a startup helping companies sell out-of-stock items via other retailers, raised a $12M Series A from Eurazeo, Daphni, and several angel investors (TC)

• Flora, a tech-driven sustainable ecommerce platform, raised a $9M seed round led by Lux Capital, Climate Capital, and Gokul Rajaram (BW)

• Regie.ai, a startup using OpenAI’s GPT-3 to create sales and marketing content for brands, raised a $10M Series A led by Scale Venture Partners (TC)

• Femtosense, a startup helping make AI processing for edge devices more affordable, raised an $8M Series A led by Fine Structures Ventures (BW)

• VeriFast, an AI-powered verification platform for mortgage underwriting, raised a $3.5M seed round led by M3 Financial Group (BW)

• Scout, an investing platform with curated themes, raised a $2.6M seed round led by Chingona Ventures (PRN)

IPO

• Porsche priced its IPO at the top end of the target range, putting the IPO on track to become one of Europe's largest in more than a decade. The offering preferred stock values Porsche at ~$73B and it will begin trading on the Frankfurt exchange today (WSJ)

• Business travel startup TripActions filed confidentially for an IPO next year (TI)

Debt

• A group of banks led by Bank of America and Barclays are struggling to attract investors for a ~$3.9B debt package to finance Apollo Global Management's buyout of Lumen Technologies' telecom and broadband assets (BBG)

• Battery-swapping company Gogoro signed a $345M, 5-year credit facility led by Mega International Commercial Bank (TC)

Fundraising

• PE firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice raised ~$10B for its latest $20B Fund XII LP (WSJ)

• Crypto HF Pantera Capital is looking to raise $1.25B for a second blockchain fund (BW)

• Scale Venture Partners, a VC firm focused on Series A to B enterprise tech startups, raised a $900M Fund VIII (TC)

• Sei, a layer-1 blockchain designed for trading, launched a $50M fund to support decentralized finance applications on its platform (TC)

• Designer Fund, a San Fransisco-based design and venture partner that invests in pre-seed to Series A tech startups, raised a $40M Fund III (PRN)

Crypto Corner

• Ethereum project Ribbon Finance launched a crypto options exchange to boost growth (CD)

• Someone borrowed $1.3M in Ethereum using Mutant Ape NFTs as collateral (DC)

Exec's Picks

• Every day, economists and talking heads give bad predictions about the economy, interest rates, and the stock market. The problem is that none of these economists put their money where their mouth is, so their accuracy doesn't matter. We launched a new newsletter, Eight Ball, to solve this problem. With Eight Ball, we use data provided by real-time prediction markets to see where investors are forecasting interest rates, oil prices, GDP growth, and more. If you want economic forecasts with actionable insights, subscribe to Eight Ball here!

• Katie Gatti Tassin wrote an interesting piece yesterday about the increase in housing prices over the last 50+ years. She asked a great question: Are Houses More Expensive Today, or... Way Bigger?

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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