Together with

Good Morning,

Powell expects more pain in the fight against inflation, EU energy ministers are meeting about sky-high gas prices, Japan pledged $30B for investments in Africa, Meta is settling its Cambridge Analytica lawsuit, the billion-dollar jackpot still hasn't been claimed, stalled M&A deals surpass over $150B, and SpaceX and T-Mobile will link Starlink satellites to cell phones.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 8/26/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• Stocks took a hit Friday after J Pow said in his Jackson Hole speech that the Fed won’t back off in its fight against inflation

  • All three major averages closed down 3%+

• On the economic data front, we will receive July’s job data today and the EU’s August CPI on Wednesday

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Tuesday: Best Buy, BMO, HP, Baidu, Chewy

  • Thursday: Broadcom, Lululemon, Signet Jewelers

• Full calendar here 

Headline Roundup

• Powell said bringing down inflation will require economic pain (AX)

• US is urging domestic refiners to build inventory and not increase exports (RT)

• Over $150B of M&As have been shelved since June (BBG)

• Chinese state media praised US-China audit deal as 'symbolic' for ties (RT)

• EU energy ministers will convene an emergency meeting amid record high gas prices (FT)

• UK energy bills to rise by 80% in October amid regulator hikes (CNBC)

• BlackRock labels Texas 'anti-competitive' over ESG blacklisting (FT)

• Germany's gas storage facilities are filling up faster than planned (RT)

• Japan pledged $30B in aid for development in Africa (RT)

• Breakfast traffic at restaurants remains unchanged YoY amid return to office (CNBC)

• SpaceX and T-Mobile plan to link Starlink satellites to cell phones (WSJ)

• Meta agreed to settle their Cambridge Analytica lawsuit (WSJ)

• Bed Bath and Beyond will announce its comeback strategy on Wednesday (CNBC)

• The $1.34B Mega Millions jackpot remains unclaimed after a month (YH)

• Audi will join Formula 1 as an engine supplier in 2026 (F1)

• Verstappen won the Belgian GP from P14 as Red Bull secured another 1-2 finish (F1)

A Message From Stream

Make investment decisions based on vetted market insights

Stream by AlphaSense helps investment research teams access unique, high-quality expert insights faster and more cost-effectively than most traditional expert networks.

• 19,000+ on-demand transcripts of interviews between experienced buy-side analysts and company experts provide first-hand perspectives on the companies and sectors that matter to you.

• Fastest-growing library in the industry, you're bound to find what you need, when you need it!

• Each interviewer is hand-picked with 500+ hours of industry interview experience.

Instead of using the same pool or experts for multiple interviews, we custom source and recruit experts for every request. Each expert has recent involvement in their industry and our rigorous vetting process helps create the highest quality interviews, so you can make truly informed decisions.

Start your 14 day free trial today!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Software company OpenText agreed to buy enterprise software company Micro Focus in a $6B deal (RT)

• Steel maker JV ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India will acquire certain infrastructure assets from Indian industrial conglomerate Essar for $2.4B (RT)

• Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas is soliciting bids for its 74% stake in South Africa’s largest gas station chain Engen, which could fetch ~$2B (BBG)

• Biggest Balkan retailer and food producer Fortenova is seeking an alternative buyer for Russian bank Sberbank’s 43% stake in the company; the deal could fetch up to ~$500M (BBG)

• Norwegian state-owned energy firm Equinor is considering selling a 28% stake in the North Sea's Statfjord field for up to $500M (RT)

• Australian REIT Charter Hall Retail will buy 49% of a parcel of 51 properties from Australia's biggest fuel supplier Ampol's subsidiary Z Energy for ~$80M (RT)

• PE firm Dymon Asia will buy German lifting equipment maker Salzgitter Maschinenbau's Singapore unit RAM SMAG Lifting Technologies for an undisclosed amount (RT)

• Pharmaceutical company Merck’s talks to buy cancer-drug maker Seagen have stalled amid price disagreements (BBG)

VC

• Indian car servicing app GoMechanic is in talks to raise a $100M investment round at a ~$700M valuation led by Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional (BBG)

• Social media platform SoMee secured a $50M investment commitment from GEM Digital (PRN)

• FourKites, a supply chain startup, raised $30M in financing as part of an ongoing round (TC)

• Pogo, a startup helping people monetize their data, raised $14.8M in funding: a $12.3M seed round led by JoshBuckley and a $2.5M pre-seed round (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Sports car maker Porsche secured up to $85B in investor pre-orders for its September IPO (BBG)

• Blackstone is planning to file for an IPO of its $2.5B Indian shopping mall portfolio that could raise ~$500M (BBG)

• Chinese digital education firm Jianzhi Education soared over 3,100% in its US IPO debut on Friday (BI)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Chinese banks Liaoyang Rural Commercial Bank and Liaoning Taizihe Village Bank received a provisional green light to enter bankruptcy proceedings (RT)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto fund Grayscale Investments told the SEC that XLM, ZEC and ZEN coins may be securities (CD)

• Over 320M people worldwide owned cryptocurrencies this year, including 46M from the US (DH)

• Texas crypto miners could require as much power as all of New York state (DN)

Exec's Picks

• NASA is launching its most powerful rocket ever in its Artemis 1 mission today. Check out Saturday's CNBC piece on the rocket to learn more about the mission.

• Launch House's Michael Houck recently highlighted 15 of Paul Graham's greatest essays for startups here, check it out.

• Amberjack created the world's most advanced dress shoes, and they were ranked the #1 best overall dress shoes in 2021 by Rolling Stone. The only downside is they constantly sell out – get yours today before they’re gone (or pre-order to ensure availability).

• Last week, we released our sell-side report with largely US investment banking data points. There have been a ton of requests for a London-based report and we're looking to gather intel from the community. If you work in IB (M&A, Coverage, LevFin, etc), please submit your data points here and we'll be able to produce a report in short order! As always, all info will remain anonymous and will not be shared with other parties.

The Hiring Block 💼

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out our job board on Pallet, where we curate highly relevant roles for you. We aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

Meme Cleanser

Thinking of starting your own newsletter? Beehiiv is the best platform for creators, period. Click here to get started building your own audience.