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Good Morning and Happy Belated to the US of A,

After spending the last few days celebrating America’s birthday in the best way possible (stimulating the Montauk economy), the Exec Sum team returned to a pleasant surprise: 250,000 Exec Sum subscribers 📈📈📈

Thank you, all 250k of you, for trusting us as your go-to source for daily financial news. Next stop: 1 million. Now back to your regularly scheduled newsletter:

Taylor Swift’s tour is set to earn $1B+ in sales, the PCE index rose 3.8% in May, Credit Suisse private bankers were told to update resumes amid manager selections, Meta unveiled its Threads app to take on Twitter, and cocaine was found in the White House.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stock and bond markets were closed Tuesday for the Fourth of July holiday

• All three major US indexes closed slightly higher in a shortened July 3rd trading session Monday

  • The Nasdaq is up over 30% YTD for its best annual first half in 40 years

  • The S&P had its best monthly performance since October while the Dow had its best month since November

  • The S&P and Nasdaq notched fourth consecutive positive months

• The 2Y-10Y yield curve hit its deepest inversion since 1981

• Investors are awaiting the Fed's June meeting minutes today, alongside other economic data this week

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Thursday: Levi Strauss

  • Friday: AZZ, Urban One

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Fed favorite PCE index rose 3.8% YoY in May (CNBC)

• Tesla beat Q2 delivery estimates as price cuts pay off (RT)

• Greenhill boss set for $78M payout in sale to Mizuho (FT)

• Goldman Sachs may exit partnership with Apple (WSJ)

• Spotify is in talks to test full-length music videos in app (BBG)

• SCOTUS rejected Biden student loan forgiveness plan (WP)

• Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is set to earn a record-breaking $1B in sales (CNBC)

• BoE considers forcing foreign banks to replace branches with subsidiaries (FT)

• UBS is racing to expand its US wealth managing business (RT)

• Credit Suisse private bankers told to update resumes amid manager selection (​​BBG)

• America's highest paid CEOs aren't from the S&P 500 (WSJ)

• US judge restricts Biden officials from contact with social media firms (CNBC)

• Twitter CEO backs widely criticized tweet-reading rate limits (RT)

• Xi urges open supply chains after curbing exports of key metals (BBG)

• Investors have spent ~$200M trading worthless Bed Bath & Beyond shares (FT)

• US looks to curb China’s access to cloud computing (WSJ)

• Airbus trials new wing designs in technology race with Boeing (RT)

• Meta unveils Threads app to take on Twitter (NYT)

• Lazard fired an MD for inappropriate behavior over the weekend (RT)

• Cocaine was found in the White House (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• The boards of Housing Development Finance Corp and HDFC Bank approved July 1st as the effective date of the two companies’ $40B merger, which will produce the world's fourth-largest bank (CNBC)

• Abu Dhabi and Austria’s OMV are in talks to possibly combine Borouge and Borealis to create a chemicals and plastics company worth over $30B (BBG)

• Adobe's $20B buyout of cloud-based designer platform Figma may face a deeper investigation from Britain's competition regulator (RT)

• PE firm GTCR is nearing a deal to acquire a majority stake in payments processor Fidelity National Information Services at a $15B-$20B valuation (RT)

• Abcam, a $5.7B biotech supplier currently exploring a sale, has attracted interest from US life sciences companies Danaher and Agilent Technologies (BBG)

• Bausch + Lomb agreed to buy a portion of Novartis’ portfolio of eye medicines for as much as $2.5B (BBG)

• A $1.8B project by defaulted Chinese developer Shimao failed to find a buyer at a forced auction (BBG)

• KKR increased its offer for valve-maker Circor International to $1.7B in its bidding competition with Arcline Investment Management (RT)

• Aerospace and defense company L3Harris Technologies is exploring a sale of its avionics business, which could fetch ~$1B (BBG)

• Leading science instrument producer Thermo Fisher is the lead bidder to buy biopharmaceutical data provider CorEvitas from Audax in a sales process that could value CorEvitas at ~$1B (BBG)

• Malteries Soufflet, a branch of French agribusiness InVivo, signed a deal to acquire United Malt Group for $999M (RT)

• Australian leading packer and grower of fruit and vegetables Costa Group received a $927M indicative offer from US PE firm Paine Schwartz Partners for all shares it didn’t already own (RT)

• Consumer health giant Haleon is exploring a potential divestment of its Nicotinell nicotine gum, which could be worth as much as $800M (BBG)

• Canada's OMERS and Dutch pension investor APG agreed to buy Netherland-based energy infrastructure firm Kenter in a $764M deal (RT)

• Carlyle Group is buying a majority stake in Anthesis in a deal that values the sustainability consultancy at $508M (BBG)

• PE firm SSW Partners is exploring the sale of its automotive technology company Veoneer’s passive safety business, which could fetch as much as $500M (BBG)

• Cyanide maker Draslovka is considering an equity fundraising worth ‘hundreds of millions’ to support new mining technology (RT)

• Golden Gate Capital reached a deal to acquire supplier of high-voltage connectors DMC Power from middle market investment firm Bridgepoint Capital for ~$350M (BBG)

• Danish brewer and beverage group Royal Unibrew agreed to buy soft drinks maker Vrumona from Heineken for $327M (RT)

• Lloyds Banking Group’s private rental subsidiary Citra Living is buying 604 rental homes from Britain’s largest homebuilder Barratt Developments for $213M (RT)

• Aquaback Technologies, a wastewater treatment startup based on energy efficient distillation, received a $110M investment from GEM (FN)

• An undisclosed state-backed company will buy a 50% stake in Evergrande’s insurance unit Evergrande Life Assurance (BBG)

• GM is buying Israel-based software startup Algolion to detect early battery defects (RT)

• Little-known baby retailer Dream on Me Industries tentatively won the auction for Bed Bath & Beyond’s Buy Buy Baby with a bid of $15.5M (CNBC)

• PE firm L Catterton, which is backed by LVMH, sold leading Italian bicycle brand Pinarello to an unnamed family office (RT)

VC

• Avaada Group, an integrated energy platform, raised $1.3B in funding from Brookfield Renewable, Global Power Synergy, and others (PRN)

• Streaming data platform Redpanda Data raised a $100M Series C led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (FN)

• Korean e-commerce startup Alwayz raised a $46M Series B led by DST Global (TC)

• Unit21, a risk and compliance infrastructure company, raised a $45M Series C led by Tiger Global (FN)

• Nuvocargo, an NYC-based USA Mexico cross-border shipping startup, raised a $36.5M Series B at a $250M+ valuation led by Tresalia Capital, Amador Holdings, Tiger Global and others (FN)

• Global digital transformation consulting company KaarTech raised $30M in funding from A91 Partners (PRN)

• Kenyan e-health startup MyDawa raised a $20M round from Alta Semper Capital (TC)

• Slang.ai, an AI-powered phone answering product, raised a $20M Series A led by Homebrew (FN)

• RevRoad, a venture services firm, raised $15M+ in funding led by private investors (FN)

• JuliaHub, a startup specializing in technical computing and scientific machine learning, raised a $13M round led by AE Industrial Partners HorizonX (FN)

• Boxhub, a New York-based online marketplace for shipping containers, raised a $12.4M Series A led by AlleyCorp (FN)

• Camena Bioscience, a synthetic biology company providing genes to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, raised a $10M Series A led by Mercia (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• $60B+ Chinese fast fashion giant Shein is in talks with banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan and exchanges over a US IPO (RT)

• Buyout fund Cinven and Canadian pension fund CPPIB hired Morgan Stanley to prepare an IPO of the Spanish hotel room company Hotelbed, which is valued at $4.9B-$6B (RT)

• Yahoo, which was taken private by Apollo in a $5B deal, plans to make a return to public markets (BBG)

• German defense supplier Renk is advancing plans to raise capital, either through an IPO or private share sale, and could seek to value the business as much as $3.3B (BBG)

• Singapore payments company Nium, which is valued at ~$2B, plans to IPO in the US within 2 years (BBG)

• Dubai-based Advanced Inhalation Rituals, a large shisha molasses producer taken private for $1.4B in 2020 by UK investment firm Kingsway Capital, is planning an IPO next year (RT)

• Battery maker REPT Battero Energy is aiming to raise up to $1B in a Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

• Brazilian food processor BRF launched an up to $930M follow-on share offering which will allow Saudi state-owned agri firm SALIC to pursue their intent to invest (YF)

• Gold miner PT Amman Mineral Internasional will debut in Jakarta in an IPO that raised $711M (BBG)

• Industrial real estate developer Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta raised $388M in its IPO, the most money in US markets by a Mexico company in 11 years (BBG)

• Autonomous vehicle sensor maker RoboSense Technology is planning to IPO in Hong Kong (BBG)

• AI chipmaker Black Sesame International Holding plans to IPO in Hong Kong (BBG)

• Autostreets Development, China’s largest used car marketplace, is planning a Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

Debt

• Negotiators for Venezuela are holding settlement talks with bondholders and creditors owed billions of dollars (RT)

• Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol sold $1.5B worth of bonds in a two-part bond deal (LF)

• India’s Byju’s restarted talks with some lenders to restructure its $1.2B term loan after the edtech firm breached certain terms of the debt agreement (BBG)

• Spanish gambling company Cirsa is seeking to raise $710M via a debt sale (YF)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Italy's top four insurers Generali, Intesa Sanpaolo Vita, Poste Vita, UnipolSAI and Germany's Allianz agreed to a multi-billion dollar rescue deal for Eurovita to take on $10.9B worth of its insurance policies (RT)

• Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is leading a $1.5B plan to rescue cash-strapped French retailer Casino through a cash injection for equity (RT)

• The EU commission demanded that troubled gas importer Uniper divest its Dutch business to obtain regulatory approval for a rescue deal (RT)

• Jim Neff, the founder/CEO of cargo airline Western Global Airlines, bought the cargo airline’s deeply distressed secured debt as the company veers toward a Chapter 11 bankruptcy (YF)

Fundraising

• Renewable energy-focused NextEnergy Capital raised $480M for its fifth investment fund focused on solar and battery storage assets (RT)

• UK-based early-stage media technology VC GMG Ventures rebranded to Mercuri and raised $81M for its second fund (TC)

Crypto Corner

• Nasdaq refiled BlackRock's bitcoin ETF application with SEC (RT)

• Exchange operator Cboe refiled an application with the SEC to launch a bitcoin ETF by asset manager Fidelity and will work with Coinbase to prevent market manipulation (RT) 

• South Korean parliament passed 19 crypto-related bills on nonpublic information, market manipulation, and trading practices after a spate of crypto scandals (BBG)

• South Africa will require all crypto exchanges in the country to operate with a license by year-end (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

• This Bloomberg piece explained the $100B wealth migration to the US Southeast over the last two years.

• Ben Cohen covered how Modelo overtook the competition in this Wall Street Journal article.

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