Together with

Good Morning,

'Twas a pretty calm day in markets, with stocks regaining ground after last week's selloff and businesses continuing to reel from CrowdStrike's glitch. Meanwhile, a slew of failed M&A deals are making bankers rethink fee structures.

Barbecue with BILL—check out BILL's automated expense management platform and they’ll send you a Blackstone Omnivore Griddle.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks surged yesterday as investors bought back in after a major tech selloff

  • S&P had its best day since early-June

• Oil fell to a five-week low

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Tesla, Alphabet, Spotify, UPS, Visa

  • Wednesday: Chipotle, Ford, AT&T, IBM

  • Thursday: American Airlines

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Bankers are modifying fee structures to protect against failed M&As (RT)

• Wall Street banks are betting on pound to extend winning run (FT)

• Pension funds are pressuring PE over labor risks (FT)

• Geopolitics overtakes inflation sovereign wealth funds top worry (RT)

• BlackRock forecast active ETF assets to hit $4T by 2030 (FT)

• Firms quoted on London's junior exchange plunged to a 22-year low (FT)

• CrowdStrike warns of hacking threats as outage persists (WSJ)

• Business travel spending recovered everywhere but Asia and Europe (RT)

• Summer travel boom seems insufficient to fire up airline earnings (RT)

• Warner Bros. offered to match Amazon's bid for NBA TV rights (BBG)

• Reddit signed content partnerships with NFL, NBA, MLB, others (BBG)

• Car dealers beef up incentives as inflation hurts demand (FT)

A Message From BILL

Take a demo, get a Blackstone Griddle

Financial operations heating up? BILL Spend & Expense can help you take control. 

Automate expense reports, set budgets across teams, and get real-time insights into company spend. 

Take a demo to learn how and we'll give you a 28" Blackstone Omnivore Griddle—so you can take control of your next barbecue, too.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firm L Catterton approached $6.6B-listed toy maker Mattel with an acquisition offer (RT)

• Manufacturing firm Terex agreed to acquire a garbage-truck manufacturing business from peer Dover in a $2B all-cash deal (BBG)

• L Catterton acquired a stake in luxury outlet operator Value Retail from UK shopping center landlord Hammerson in a $1.9B deal (FT)

• Fairfax Financial will acquire retailer Sleep Country Canada in a $1.2B cash deal (RT) 

• Australia's Woodside Energy agreed to acquire US LNG gas developer Tellurian for $1.2B, including debt (RT) 

• Natural gas compression provider Archrock agreed to acquire peer Total Operations and Production Services from Apollo for $983M (WSJ) 

• Agilent Technologies agreed to acquire CDMO BIOVECTRA for $925M (BW)

• Japan's Yokohama Rubber will acquire Goodyear's OTR tire business for $905M (BBG) 

• Ex-UK finance minister Nadhim Zahawi is assembling a $776M bid for The Daily Telegraph (RT) 

• French PE firm Ardian acquired a majority stake in Italian biotech Masco in a $762M deal (RT) 

• PE firm Stonepeak will buy New Zealand aged care provider Arvida Group for $746M, excluding debt (RT) 

• QXO, a construction-materials distribution business, raised $620M in a private placement and added Jared Kushner as an independent director (WSJ)

• PE firms firms Verlinvest and Mistral Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Insomnia Cookies for $127M (BBG) 

• UPS will acquire Mexican delivery firm Estafeta (WSJ)

• Amazon acquired UK-based Bray Film Studios (FT) 

• New York Life Investment Management acquired six muni funds with $1.2B total AUM from Aquila Investment Management (BBG) 

VC

• GenAI startup Cohere raised a $500M round at a $5.5B valuation from Cisco, AMD, and Fujitsu (BBG)

• Grover, a German tech rentals platform, startup raised a $55.6M round from Cool Japan Fund and others (FN)

• Lithuanian crowdfunding platform Finbee Verslui raised a $37.8M round led by Pollen Street Capital (FN)

• Linx Security, an AI-based identity management startup, raised $33M across two rounds led by Index Ventures and Cyberstarts (TC)

• Egyptian fintech Dopay raised a $13.5M Series A led by Argentem Creek Partners (FN)

• CarbonBlue, a startup developing water-based CO₂ removal tech, raised a $10M seed round led by Ibex Investors and FreshFund (PRN)

• Fragment, a digital ledger API, raised a $9M seed round from Stripe, BoxGroup, and others (TC)

• Heeler Security, an application security startup, raised an $8.5M seed round led by Norwest Venture Partners (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Vodafone sold a 10% stake in Europe's Vantage Towers for $1.4B (RT) 

• Latvian carrier AirBaltic's potential H2 IPO may be delayed (BBG) 

• French media giant Vivendi plans to list its Canal+ broadcasting business in London and its Havas advertising agency in Amsterdam (BBG) 

• Anglo American Platinum is exploring a second listing in London after its spinoff from miner Anglo American (BBG) 

SPAC

• AI computing solutions firm Velocium will merge with Maquia Capital Acquisition Corp. in a $445M deal (YH) 

Debt

• JPMorgan bought ~$6B in mortgage warehouse loans from NYCB (RT)

• Standard Chartered-backed China Bohai Bank proposed to sell $3.5B of loans at a discount to shore up capital (BBG)

• Golub Capital led a ~$1B debt facility to support TA Associates' LBO of Community Brands-unit Momentive Software (BBG)

• HDB Financial Services, a unit of India’s HDFC Bank, is seeking to raise $300M through an offshore loan (BBG) 

• Oil pipeline operator Trans Mountain plans to sell bonds to refinance debt ahead of an eventual sale (BBG) 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Ukraine reached a deal with private creditors to restructure over $20B of international debt (BBG) 

• AMC Entertainment reached a restructuring deal with creditors to delay repayment of over $1.6B of debt (BBG) 

• PE firm TDR Capital risks losing control of Norwegian cruise line operator Hurtigruten if it fails to refinance a bond by August-end (BBG) 

• Four subsidiaries of German landlord Demire are filing for insolvency after failing to repay an $89M loan (BBG) 

• Bankrupt hospital operator Steward Health found buyers for two hospitals (BBG) 

Fundraising

• ICONIQ Capital raised ~$5.8B for a seventh venture fund (BBG) 

• European credit specialist AlbaCore Capital is seeking to raise over $2.2B for a new senior direct-lending fund (BBG) 

Crypto Corner

• Ether ETFs are set to start trading today (CNBC)

• CSOP launched Asia's first inverse Bitcoin ETF (BBG) 

Exec’s Picks

• The ARK Venture Fund is taking an asset class once reserved for the accredited, ultra-rich and making it available to all US investors. Gain exposure to a portfolio comprising names like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic with as little as $500. Learn more and invest today.

Financial Services Recruiting

NEW OPPORTUNITY

Smash Capital - Growth Equity Investor, Immediate Start, NYC or LA

• VC firm with $1.5B+ in AUM is hiring growth equity investors for an immediate start in NYC and LA

• The firm invests in technology companies across enterprise software, consumer internet, gaming, financial services, healthcare, and commerce

• Seeking experienced growth equity investors, with at least 2 years of experience from a top management consulting firm or investment bank and at least 2 years of software-focused buy side experience in growth equity, VC, or private equity

Meme Cleanser

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