Together with

Good Morning,

US banks are set to report Q2 earnings this week, Biden and NATO are offering support, but not membership, to Ukraine, the Saudis were denied the chance to take a 40% stake in Credit Suisse, cash investments are reaching record highs amid recession fears, and Gemini is suing Digital Currency Group.

The healthcare system is suffering from expensive and antiquated supply chains. Today’s sponsor, iRemedy, is working to solve this problem through their patented AI-based solutions. If you’re interested in investing in iRemedy, click here to learn more.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks closed lower on Friday as signs of wage inflation in June's job report raised fears of further Fed rate hiking

  • All three major averages capped a losing week

  • The Dow had its worst weekly performance since March

  • Average US-stock funds are up 12.4% YTD

• Traders locked in pricing for a 25 bps Fed rate hike this month, with a 20% and 40% chance of similar hikes in September and November respectively

• We'll receive June's CPI and PPI readings this week, a time which also marks the unofficial beginning of earnings season

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Thursday: PepsiCo, Delta

  • Friday: JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BlackRock, State Street, UnitedHealth

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US added 209k jobs in June for smallest gain in 2.5 years (RT)

• US remains top investment destination despite falling inflows (WSJ)

• Median pre-money Series C, D and E valuations for US startups showed signs of recovery in Q2 (AX)

• Banks sold record amount of ultra-safe mortgage-backed debt in H1 (FT)

• Big US banks are set to report biggest jump in loan losses since Covid (FT)

• Investment banks are lobbying to exclude underwriting activity from net zero targets (FT)

• Cash AUM reached a 'monster’ $7.8T last week (RT)

• HFs turned net-bearish on dollar bets for first time since March (BBG)

• Fed is trying to avoid repeat of 2019 issues in current QT program (BBG)

• Japan's current account surplus hit $13B to rise 100%+ YoY in May (RT)

• China consumer prices are on brink of deflation (BBG)

• China producer prices fell at fastest pace in 7.5 years in June (RT)

• 16% of asset managers will disappear by 2027, says PwC (FT)

• Jack Ma’s clash with China cost Ant and Alibaba $850B (BBG)

• China find Ant Group ~$1B in end to regulatory overhaul (RT)

• Fed is expected to launch its instant payment system FedNow Payments this month (WSJ)

• Countries are repatriating gold in wake of Russia sanctions (RT)

• Business schools are falling short in the fight against climate change (FT)

• Biden and NATO will offer support for Ukraine but not membership (RT)

• Saudi National Bank was denied taking 40% Credit Suisse stake (RT)

• China sets wide-ranging rules for $2.9T in private investment funds (RT)

• Barclays hired Jim Birchenough from Wells Fargo as chairman of global healthcare IB (RT)

• US soccer star Megan Rapinoe is retiring (NYT)

A Message From iRemedy

Invest in the Future of Healthcare

The medical supply industry is broken and professionals and patients are suffering as a result.

1. Supplies are too expensive making healthcare unaffordable 💰

2. Medicine and supply shortages are alarmingly the new normal 🚫

iRemedy is working to fix this through the use of their patented Artificial Intelligence based solutions. iRemedy’s CTO is the former VP of Technology at Amazon and he is attacking these problems by again developing breakthrough technologies.

iRemedy’s platform is protected by a portfolio of four issued patents with seven more pending. iRemedy was born into a world that conquers complex problems with state-of-the-art, machine learning, computer automation and AI-driven technology.

Our mission is to build the largest, smartest, publicly available medical supply catalog in the world. We solve complex shortage, pricing, contracting, and sourcing problems — by applying modern tech solution.

When you invest in iRemedy, you’re investing in the future of healthcare — an industry desperate for revolutionary modernization.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firms Blackstone and Veritas are competing against large defense companies such as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and Textron for Ball Corp’s aerospace business, which may be worth over $5B (RT)

• French luxury group Kering paid $3.8B to acquire the fragrance brand Creed (FT)

• Buyout shop TPG will acquire a unit of software provider Forcepoint from Francisco Partners for $2.5B (WSJ)

• Healthcare manufacturer Coloplast is acquiring Kerecis, a maker of fish-skin dressings for human wounds, in a $1.3B deal (BBG)

• Investment firm EQT does not plan to make a buyout offer for UK's Alfa Financial Software after it proposed buying the software company for $786M last month (RT)

• US PE firm Francisco Partners agreed to buy financial data provider Macrobond for almost ~$766M (FT)

• Britain's biggest sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion will pay $545M to buy the remaining 49.9% stake in its Iberian business from Balaiko Firaja Invest and Sonae Holdings (RT)

• Concordia acquired $418M worth of shares in Rothschild & Co, paving the way for Concordia to take Rothschild private (RT)

• KKR bought a controlling stake in Telefonica’s fiber optic infrastructure in Peru for an undisclosed sum, but it will reduce the Spanish telecom firm’s debt by $218M (RT)

• Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to acquire Concentric, a US-based data-center service provider, to expand and help decarbonize (BBG)

• South Africa's Telkom rejected an offer led by its former CEO and the South African Government Employees Pension Fund to acquire a majority stake in the country’s third largest telecom (RT)

• New York-founded law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan and Boston-founded Nixon Peabody halted talks over a proposed merger (RT)

• Axiata Group, Malaysia’s biggest wireless carrier, plans to sell stakes in some of its businesses and list its technology units to reduce debt (BBG)

VC

• Connected fitness startup EGYM raised a $225M Series F led by Affinity Partners (FN)

• Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery raised a $200M Series D at a $1B valuation led by 42XFund (TC)

• Battery Smart, a provider of a battery swapping network for electric two and three wheelers, raised a $33M pre-Series B led by Tiger Global and Blume Ventures (FN)

• Steadily, a landlord insurance startup, raised a $28.5M Series B led by Zigg Capital (FN)

• Tandem Bank, a UK-based digital bank, raised $25.6M in funding from Quilam Capital (FN)

• Genialis, a computational precision medicine startup, raised a $13M Series A led by Taiwania Capital and Debiopharm Innovation Fund (BW)

• ChargeX, a Munich-based provider of a charging solution for electric cars, raised a $12.6M Series B led by UVC Partners (FN)

• Researchers at AI4Bharat, an Indian Institute of Technology initiative, are raising a $12M seed round from Peak XV and Lightspeed Venture for an AI startup (RT)

• South Korean fintech startup Utransfer raised a $4M round led by Forest Partners (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Chinese fintech giant Ant Group announced surprise share buyback at a $79B firm valuation, a 75% discount to its IPO (RT)

• Alibaba Group, which owns a third of Ant Group, is considering selling its shares in Ant group’s buyback program (BBG)

• PT Nusantara Sejahtera Raya, the operator of Indonesia’s largest movie theater chain Cinema XXI, is seeking to IPO and and raise $159M to expand operations (BBG)

• ClinChoice, a Goldman Sachs-backed clinical trial services provider, is considering a Hong Kong IPO as soon as next year (BBG)

SPAC

• Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona plans to list its digital unit Barca Media on the Nasdaq via creation of a SPAC at a $1.1B valuation (RT)

• Vietnamese EV maker VinFast plans to list on Nasdaq during the third quarter after merging with Black Spade Acquisition Co. (BBG)

Debt

• Toyota will issue $1.5B in sustainability bonds this week for EV and safety projects (NKK)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• SVB Financial Group sued the FDIC in a bid to recover $1.9B in cash (FT)

• Bankrupt retailer Bed Bath & Beyond ended its attempts to find a buyer for its entire Buy Buy Baby business and will seek to sell the brand’s IP instead (RT)

Fundraising

• Multistrategy investment firm EQT’s real-estate arm closed its EQT Exeter Industrial Value Fund VI at $4.9B (WSJ)

• Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group raised $610M for a real estate PE fund (RD)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto Exchange Gemini Trust filed a lawsuit against Digital Currency Group alleging fraud and deception due to a failed lending joint venture (BBG)

• According to the SEC, Coinbase acknowledged the possibility that federal securities laws would apply to its listings (CD)

• Tom Brady lost $30M in collapse of crypto giant FTX (ESPN)

Exec’s Picks

• Trung Phan wrote a good piece covering the rise of Taylor Swift’s $1B Eras tour.

• Ben Carlson explained why contrarian “investors” are usually wrong.

Litney Partners - Financial Recruiting 💼💼

If you're currently a junior investment banker looking to break into the buy side, considering lateraling to another investment bank, or have recently been impacted by widespread layoffs, it's time you check out Litney Partners, a partnership between Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm).

We aim to place strong candidates at leading private equity, hedge fund, venture capital, growth equity, and credit funds, as well as investment banks.

To get started, simply head over to the Litney website and create your profile by dropping your resume / filling out the form:

Meme Cleanser

Advertise with us // Visit our merch store // Invest alongside Lit Ventures // Book a call with Lit // Launch your own newsletter