Leveraged Little Leagues

PE is looking to LBO little league sports, Apple and Nvidia are set to invest in OpenAI, Intel is in its flop era, X might be banned in Brazil soon, and the Dow closed at a new all-time high.

Author

Litquidity Capital
August 30, 2024

Good Morning,

PE is looking to LBO little league sports, Apple and Nvidia are set to invest in OpenAI, Intel is in its flop era, X might be banned in Brazil soon, and the Dow closed at a new all-time high.

Be sure to check out a message from Litquidity below regarding how the community can work together post-Summer.

Time to kick off Labor Day Weekend. See you all on Tuesday (no Exec Sum on Monday)!

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 08/29/2024 market close.

Markets

  • US stocks closed mixed as investors digested revised economic data

    • Dow rose to a fresh record high

    • Rate futures markets see a 32% chance of a 50 bps Fed rate cut in September with a 25 bps cut fully priced in

  • US Treasuries are up 1.7% MTD, on track for a fourth-straight monthly gain for their best run in three years

Earnings

  • Dell missed Q2 revenue estimates but beat on earnings thanks to an 80% increase AI in server sales (CNBC) 

  • Best Buy jumped 14% after a Q2 beat-and-raise as consumer electronics demand returns to growth (CNBC) 

  • Dollar General cratered 32% after missing Q2 earnings and revenue estimates and cutting its FY outlook on the back of 'financially constrained' consumers (CNBC)  

  • lululemon beat Q2 earnings estimates but missed on revenue for the first time in two years and lowered its FY guidance after a botched product launch and slowing growth in America (CNBC) 

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • US Q2 GDP growth was revised upwards to 3% (AP)

  • Tokyo core inflation rose 2.4% YoY (RT)

  • German and Spanish inflation fell more than expected in August (FT)

  • Private Equity is coming for youth sports (BBG)

  • Asia firms' earnings outlook rose by most since 2021 on AI chip boom (RT)

  • Vanguard supported zero ESG shareholder proposals this year (FT) 

  • Top HSBC CEO contender Nuno Matos departed the bank (FT)

  • Elon Musk’s X braced for ban in Brazil amid fight with judge (FT)

  • Intel is exploring options to cope with historic slump (BBG)

  • China and UAE pledge to increase cross-border ETF investing (FT)

  • Inverse leveraged Nvidia ETFs saw inflows ahead of earnings (RT)

  • Banks and tech firms are adopting Meta's Llama AI (RT)

  • ChatGPT hit 200M weekly users (RT)

  • OpenAI, Anthropic sign deals with US for AI research and testing (RT)

  • Shell will cut 20% of workers in O&G exploration units (RT)

  • Two oil execs were sentenced to 6+ years for $1.8B 1MDB fraud (BBG)

  • 401(k) millionaires hit a record high (BBG)

A Message From Litquidity

Labor Day Weekend is here, which means summer is coming to an end (booooo) but that means Fall and football season are upon us (wooooo).

As we head back into the office and prepare to crush deals again, I wanted to remind you guys of ways the Litquidity network can help make your lives easier and more rewarding. We’re here to deliver memes, news, jobs, and deals. See below for ways to work with us. Look forward to connecting and working with you all!

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Interested in advertising across the Litquidity brand portfolio that reaches over 2M unique individuals? Fill out our partnership form here.

Litquidity Ventures

We've been on an absolute tear securing allocations into high profile funding rounds led by Tier 1 VCs and growth investors.

If you’re an accredited investor or qualified purchaser and want to gain access to the deal flow, pls fill out this quick form

If you are a startup currently raising capital and are interested in an investment from Litquidity, pls send an email to [email protected]

Litney Partners

If your firm is currently seeking experienced investment bankers & institutional investors (private equity, hedge fund, credit, etc), shoot me an email at [email protected] so we can find a way to work together!

If you are a candidate looking for a job across IB, PE, HF, Credit, VC, Family Office, and Corp Dev, drop your resume at our portal and we'll be in touch with relevant opportunities!

Merch

Check out our Labor Day sale on our merch store with 20% off selected items, including bucket hats, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and more. The sale will be live today through Sept. 8th!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Natural gas transmission company ONEOK agreed to acquire GIP's 43% stake in EnLink Midstream for $3.3B and GIP's equity interest in Medallion Midstream for $2.6B (WSJ) 

  • China Resources-subsidiary CR Longdation offered to purchase a Hong Kong shopping mall from New World Development for $1.2B (BBG) 

  • The owner of Maersk agreed to acquire Swedish engine products maker Concentric for $840M (BBG) 

  • Dell is again exploring a sale of $800M-listed cybersecurity firm SecureWorks (RT) 

  • Suitors including Samsung are interested in Nokia's mobile networks assets (BBG) 

  • DraftKings agreed to acquire live-game betting site Simplebet (BBG) 

  • Telecoms firm Altice is considering selling its Portuguese infrastructure assets separately (BBG) 

VC

  • OpenAI is in talks to raise several billion at a $100B+ valuation led by Thrive Capital and with participation from Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft (WSJ)

  • Self-driving startup Wayve raised a Series C extension led by Uber as part of a $1.05B round (TC)

  • GenAI coding startup Magic raised a $320M round from CapitalG, Atlassian, Jane Street, Sequoia, and others (TC)

  • Codeium, an AI-powered coding assistant startup, raised a $150M Series C at a $1.25B valuation led by General Catalyst (TC)

  • Miris, a spatial computing startup for streaming, raised a $26M seed round led by IAG Capital Partners (PRN)

  • Social music platform Hangout raised an $8.2M seed round from Founders Fund, Elizabeth Street Ventures, 468 Capital, and f7 Ventures (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Indian airline IndiGo's co-founder Rakesh Gangwal sold ~$1.3B worth of shares (BBG) 

  • South African grocery retailer Pick n Pay aims to raise $450M in an IPO of its discount grocery chain Boxer (RT) 

  • Bill Ackman plans to revive the IPO of Pershing Square USA (FT)

  • German quick commerce giant Delivery Hero is planning a local IPO for its Emirati subsidiary Talabat (RT) 

  • Indian conglomerate Tata shelved plans for an IPO of its entertainment content distribution platform Tata Play after buying out minority investors (BBG)  

SPAC

  • VivoPower's EV battery unit Tembo E-LV will merge with Cactus Acquisition Corp. 1 in a $904M deal (RT) 

Debt 

  • European asset manager LCM Partners will join KKR in a deal to buy $2B of loans from Orange Bank (BBG) 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Ukraine secured an $11B debt relief deal in one of the fastest and biggest sovereign debt workouts in modern history (FT)

  • LatAm airline owner Abra is nearing a $1.3B loan deal with credit firm Castlelake to avoid a bond default (BBG) 

  • Brazilian airline Azul is weighing options from an equity offering to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to address approaching debt obligations (BBG) 

  • Complete Solaria received court approval to acquire bankrupt rival SunPower's assets (BBG) 

  • Bankrupt health care system Steward Health Care found buyers for four of six Massachusetts hospitals (BBG) 

Fundraising

  • MM PE firm Abry Partners raised a $1.6B continuation fund for a private credit vehicle (BBG) 

Crypto Corner

  • Trump plans to make the US the 'crypto capital' of the world (BBG) 

  • Australia leads the world in crypto ATM growth as kiosks pour in (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

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