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Good Morning,

Fed officials see rates close to their peak, the China stimulus rally lasted just 10 minutes, JPMorgan won a ruling that leveraged loans aren’t securities, Apple is backing California’s right-to-repair bill, mortgage rates hit 7.23%, T-Mobile US is laying off 5,000 employees, and Zillow is offering 1% down payments to lure struggling homebuyers.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks tanked as investors digested Nvidia’s earnings report and awaited Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech

  • The Nasdaq led indices with a 1.9% drop

• Asian stocks rallied after strong Nvidia earnings, led by Hong Kong’s HSI

Earnings

• Dollar Tree stock fell 13% despite beating Q2 analyst revenue and earning estimates; it reported a decline in gross margins due to consumers buying lower-priced products and inventory loss due to theft (BRRN)

• TD Bank Group stock fell ~4% after slightly missing Q3 analyst earnings estimates (FP)

• Intuit beat Q4 analyst earnings and revenue estimates and provided mixed forward guidance (I)

Headline Roundup

• Fed officials see rates close to peak, differ on how close (BBG)

• Powell’s pivotal speech Friday could see a marked shift from what he’s done in the past (CNBC)

• China stimulus rally lasts just 10 minutes, showing trader gloom (BBG)

• JPMorgan wins ruling that leveraged loans are not securities (BBG)

• Apple backs California right-to-repair bill in major policy (CNBC)

• Mortgage rates hit 7.23%, highest since 2001 (WSJ)

• Rising insurance costs start to hit home sales (WSJ)

• Zillow offers 1% down payment to lure struggling homebuyers (BBG)

• Nvidia’s AI surge is just getting started (WSJ)

• With Tesla push, India mulls import tax cut if EV makers build locally (RT)

• VinFast, Arm, and other index orphans miss out on billions from passive investors (WSJ)

• T-Mobile US to lay off 5,000 employees (WSJ)

• TD bank says its cooperating with a US Justice department probe (BBG)

• Hawaiian Electric faces securities suit following Maui fire (BBG)

• Weight-loss drug Wegovy also works against heart failure (WSJ)

• Viasat reports second satellite malfunction in a matter of weeks (CNBC)

• Putin says Prigozihn ‘made some mistakes’ in a first remarks since plane crash that likely killed the Wagner boss (CNBC)

• Lionel Messi lifts MLS to new heights, but the league needs more than ‘the GOAT’ to grow (CNBC)

A Message From Litquidity & BOND

What’s up everyone! If anyone here is an accredited investor or qualified purchaser and has interest in seeing private opportunities in the Padel space, please fill out a brief investor survey so we can keep you in mind on upcoming deal flow.

Working on some exciting stuff in this space and would love to have the Litquidity / Exec Sum community participate in the upside of the fastest growing sport globally!

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firm Roark Capital Group will acquire Subway in a ~$9.6B deal, beating a late challenge led by TDR Capital and Sycamore Partners (BBG)

• PE firm I Squared Capital is in exclusive talks to acquire Deutsche Bahn’s Arriva in a deal that could value the transport business at ~$1.7B (BBG)

• An investor consortium led by Recco Control Technology and Dazheng Group Investment Holding reaffirmed their ~$1.6B offer for Hollysys Automation Technologies (BBG)

• French multinational utility ENGIE will acquire the battery storage business of Broad Reach Power from EnCap Energy Transition and Apollo Funds in a deal valued at over $1B (BW)

• PE firm PAI Partners will buy Alphia from its owner J.H. Whitney Capital Partners in a deal that values the pet food manufacturer at ~$1B (RT)

• Crescent Point Energy Corp. will sell its North Dakota Oil assets for $500M to a private operator (BBG)

• Sony Interactive Entertainment is buying high-end headphone maker Audeze to improve its Playstation sound experience (BBG)

• Fashion retailer Shein partnered with SPARC Group, a JV between Forever 21 owner Authentic Brands and mall REIT Simon Property Group, giving Shein a ⅓ stake in SPARC and making SPARC a minority shareholder in Shein (RT)

• Qatar Sports Investments, the owner of Paris Saint-German FC, acquired World Padel Tour (BBG)

• Rolex will buy luxury retailer Bucherer, allowing it to expand into consumer sales (BBG)

VC

• AI startup Hugging Face raised a $235M Series D at a $4.5B valuation from Salesforce, Nvidia, Google, Amazon, and more (TC)

• Modular, a startup creating a platform for developing and optimizing AI systems, raised a $100M round led by General Catalyst (TC)

• Ikigai Labs, a startup providing a generative AI platform for tabular data, raised a $25M Series A led by Premji Invest (FN)

• ZeroEyes, a creator of AI-based gun detection video analytics platform, raised a $23M round led by Octave Ventures (FN)

• Holy, a German-based D2C brand offering healthy alternatives to soft drinks, raised an $11.4M Series A led by Left Lane Capital (FN)

• Aperio, an operational data quality startup, raised a $9M Series A-1 led by Momenta (FN)

• Kenoa Health, a healthcare startup using AI, raised a $7M Series A-1 led by Riverside Acceleration Capital (FN)

• Genetic medicine startup ExcepGen raised a $4M round led by RA Capital Management (FN)

• Recruitment startup Weekday raised a $2.2M round led by Venture Highway (FN)

• Singapore-based healthtech startup Neurowyzr raised a $2.1M seed round led by Jungle Ventures and Peak Ventures (FN)

• Pi-xcels, a Singapore-based provider of digital receipt solutions, raised $1.7M in funding led by Wavemaker Partners (FN)

• Craftgate, a payment orchestration platform, raised a $1M round led by D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Healthcare payments tech firm Waystar Technologies confidentially filed for an IPO that could value the firm at up to $8B (RT)

• Vietnamese internet company VNG Corp seeks to raise $150M in its US listing (RT)

• Saudi Arabian car rental company Lumi plans to float 30% of its shares in a local IPO (RT)

SPAC

• In its stock market debut after its SPAC combination, digital mortgage lender Better.com fell over 93%, closing at a $484M market cap (TC)

• SANUWAVE Health, a provider of FDA-approved wound care products, will merge with SEP Acquisition Corp. in a $128M deal (GNW)

Debt

• PE firm Roark Capital Group will borrow $4.9B from 7 banks to fund its acquisition of Subway through temporary financing that’s expected to be converted into a whole-business securitization (BBG)

• Private credit firms are in talks to provide a $3.3B loan to Thoma-Bravo-owned Hyland Software to allow it to refinance debt (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• A group of funds, including BlackRock, King Street Capital and Brigade Capital, that lent cash to WeWork is exploring the possibility of a bankruptcy filing (RT)

• Indian budget airline SpiceJet told a court that it was struggling to stay afloat after it was ordered to pay its former owner for money owned (RT)

Fundraising

• Lexington Partners is looking to raise $4B for Lexington Co-Investment Partners VI, which will buy businesses in partnership with buyout funds (WSJ)

• Questa Capital Management, a venture growth equity firm investing in healthcare, closed its Questa Capital Partners III at $397M (FN)

Crypto Corner

• Mastercard and Binance will end their four crypto card programs in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bahrain (RT)

• Bitstamp, one of the oldest crypto exchanges, will end its crypto staking services in the US amid an SEC crackdown on staking (BBG)

• FTX founder SBF will likely not have access to Adderall (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

• Eric Newcomer wrote an excellent piece on how Chamath Palihapitiya’s reputation has been crumbling since the SPAC bubble popped.

• The Economist explained how China’s economic issues won’t be solved anytime soon under their autocratic government.

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