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Good Morning,

Salesforce beat earnings after activist investor pressure, US high-yield corporate bond performance declined in February, fewer US firms see China as an investment priority, Senate overturned a federal rule on ESG investments, Vanguard closed its UK financial advice arm, Eli Lilly is slashing insulin prices, and Litquidity just dropped it's 2023 sell-side compensation report (more info below).

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks slipped further yesterday as raw material prices from manufacturing data added to inflation fears

  • The S&P and Nasdaq fell for a second straight session

• US 10Y yield topped 4% for the first time since November

• German 10Y and 2Y bond yields hit 10+ year highs on hot inflation expectations

• Dollar index fell 0.5%, weighed down by commodity currencies that benefited from China's strong manufacturing activity data

• Russian rouble slid to a 10-month low, down 20% from December, on falling energy prices

Earnings

• Salesforce beat Q4 EPS and revenue estimates and forecast a better-than-expected Q1 which came as respite amid ongoing activist pressure from Elliott, ValueAct and Third Point; their stock jumped 14%+ AH (CNBC)

• Royal Bank of Canada beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates on a surge in trading that offset softening results in retail banking; it reiterated forecasts for a moderate recession and increased bad loan provisions (BBG)

• Lowe's beat Q4 EPS estimates but missed on revenue as the home-improvement sector comes under pressure from cautious recession-wary consumers; their stock fell 5.5% (CNBC)

• Kohl's posted an unexpected Q4 loss and revenue miss as it tries to turn sales around while catering to increasingly frugal middle-income consumers; the firm also offered a weak FY forecast (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: TD Bank Group, Costco, Best Buy, Dell, Broadcom, Nordstrom, Victoria's Secret

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• ECB's top three shareholders are conflicted on rate paths (RT)

• US manufacturing contracted for a fourth-straight month, but raw material prices rose (RT)

• Long-robust US labor market shows signs of cooling (WSJ)

• US high-yield corporate bond performance declined in February (AX)

• Mortgage demand is at a 28-year low (CNBC)

• Home foreclosures are ticking back up (AX)

• Fewer US firms see China as an investment priority (WSJ)

• Swiss prosecutors charged four bankers with helping to hide millions for Putin (FT)

• Senate overturned a federal rule on ESG investments; Biden will veto (CNBC)

• China sales boom as lockdowns end (RT)

• China is willing to play 'constructive' role in debt talks (RT)

• Bridgewater will cut 100 jobs amid restructuring and AI push (BBG)

• Elliott Management nominated several directors for Salesforce board (CNBC)

• Venus Williams joined PE firm Topspin Consumer Partners as operating partner (BBG)

• Vanguard closed its UK financial advice arm after less than two years (FT)

• Blackstone blocked investor withdrawals from its $71B REIT in February (RT)

• Eli Lilly will slash insulin prices and cap patient costs (WSJ)

• Alphabet-owned Waymo cut 8% of staff in second lay-off round (TI)

• Just Eat Takeaway took a ~$5B writedown on its peak-pandemic multibillion-dollar mergers that created Europe’s biggest food delivery group (FT)

• TikTok will limit screen time for teens (TV)

• Activision allegedly fired staff for using 'strong language' about WFH policy (RT)

• Gender pay gap 'barely' improved in two decades (FRB)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Investment bank Macquarie is in the early stages of exploring a $6B+ takeover bid for British money manager M&G (RT)

• EQT’s Active Core Infrastructure Fund, together with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, agreed to buy Radius Global Infrastructure in a $1.43B deal (RT)

• CATL sold its almost 5% stake in Australian lithium producer Pilbara Minerals for $405.86M (RT)

• Chinese social network Weibo raised its stake in Shanghai-listed media marketing firm Inmyshow Digital Technology Group through the purchase of its subsidiary ShowWorld Hong Kong for $314.7M (RT)

• Hotel chain Melia is considering selling some assets in the Caribbean to reduce its debt by up to $213M (HI)

• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to buy a 49% stake in California oil venture Aera Energy (RT)

• Bondholders including BlackRock and Carlyle launched a sale process for a 37% stake in French fashion group SMCP, clearing way for a full takeover (RT)

• Swiss consumer company Nestle has kicked off the sale of its peanut allergy medicine Palforzia (BBG)

• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and KKR are among suitors weighing bids for energy company Vattenfall’s district heating business in Berlin (BBG)

VC

• Epigenetic-focused biotech Chroma Medicine raised a $135M Series B led by GV (FB)

• Insurance and investment software developer Equisoft raised a $125M round led by Investissement Quebec (TC)

• Chef-to-consumer marketplace Shef raised a $73.5M Series B led by CRV (PRN)

• National housing company Homz raised a $50M pre-seed round led by Nanban Ventures (BW)

• Sesamm, a startup helping companies navigate ESG goals, raised a $37M Series B-2 led by Opera Tech Ventures and Elaia (TC)

• Drug discovery infrastructure startup TandemAI raised a $35M Series A led by Qiming Venture Partners (BW)

• Quantifind, a provider of AI-powered financial crimes risk management solutions, raised $23M in funding led by DNS Capital (PRN)

• Hexa, a 3D asset visualization and management platform, raised a $20.5M Series A led by Point72 Ventures, Samurai Incubate, and others (PRN)

• Qwak, a MLOps platform, raised a $12M Series A-1 from Bessemer Venture Partners (TC)

• Savant Labs, a startup building an automation platform for data analysts, raised an $11M seed round led by Cota Capital (PRN)

• Cloud storage platform Impossible Cloud raised a $7.5M seed round led by HV Capital and 1kx (BW)

• Zarta, a creator platform focused on pay-per-view video content, raised a $5.7M seed round led by a16z (TC)

• ether.fi, a liquid staking protocol, raised $5.3M in funding led by North Island Ventures, Chapter One, and Node Capital (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Abu Dhabi National Oil Co will increase its IPO offering in its natural gas unit Adnoc Gas to 5% to raise $2.5B in the biggest IPO this year so far (BBG)

• Property developer China Vanke raised $498.2M in a Hong Kong share sale (RT)

SPAC

• Trump-backed Digital World Acquisition Corp will appeal against a Nasdaq delisting notice (RT)

• Peter Theil and Richard Li backed SPAC Bridgetown 3 Holdings is dropping plans for an IPO (MW)

Debt

• HSBC raised $2B from an additional Tier 1 8% coupon bond (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Crypto lender Voyager's customers voted in favor of its chapter 11 bankruptcy plan (RT)

Fundraising

• India-based Nexus Venture Partners raised $700M for their Nexus Ventures VII fund to build startups across AI, SaaS, fintech and commerce in India and US (ET)

• Northleaf Capital Partners raised $675M for its latest global PE solutions fund (FIN)

• UK-based HF Fasanara Capital is looking to raise $500M for a fund to finance soccer team trades (BBG)

• Venture Guides, a VC founded by ex-BCV MP Ben Nye, raised $215M to invest in seed and Series A infrastructure software firms (TC)

• Second Alpha Partners raised $170M for its fifth secondaries PE fund (BOI)

• New Markets Venture Partners raised $160M for a fund to back startups focused on education and workforce development (FRB)

• Czech Republic plans to create a ~$60M fund of funds to back three independent VCs (SFT)

• Fan token project Chiliz announced a $50M incubator and accelerator program for early-stage blockchain projects (CT)

Crypto Corner

• Investors have pull ~$6B out of Binance's stablecoin following regulatory crackdown (RT)

• Over 400 Bitcoin ATMs went off the grid in under 60 days (CT)

• Australia announced a CBDC Pilot and study for a digital currency (DC)

• Crypto distribution is uneven among banks as prudential exposure rises (CT)

• Snoop Dogg joined crypto casino Roobet as ‘Chief Ganjaroo Officer’ (DC)

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• Bloomberg covered how the SPAC fad is ending with a pile of bankruptcies and fire sales.

• Binance can't keep its story straight on its misplaced $1.8B of USDC, according to CoinDesk's David Morris.

• Litquidity's Wall Street sell-side 2023 compensation report just dropped. Check out the condensed version here.

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