New phone, who dis?

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Litquidity Capital
November 14, 2024

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Good Morning,

FBI raided the home of Polymarket's founder, Citadel warned headhunters to not pitch fake jobs, Amazon launched a Temu and Shein competitor, ECB wants banks to better manage PE risk, and Seven and i proposed the largest-ever MBO offer in history.

Invest in institutional-caliber private markets with 10 East, a membership-based investment platform offering targeted exposure to PE, VC, and more.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 11/13/2024 market close.

Markets

  • US stocks closed relatively flat as investors digested October's CPI report

    • Traders raised bets of a 25 bps December rate cut to 80%

  • FTSE 100 closed at its lowest since August

  • Pound continued to slide to its lowest since August

Earnings

  • Cisco beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates and raised its FY forecast despite posting its fourth-straight quarterly revenue decline as the firm shifts focus to cybersecurity, cloud systems and AI-driven products (CNBC) 

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: Walt Disney, Applied Materials

    • Friday: Alibaba

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • US CPI rose 2.6% YoY (CNBC)

  • US debt interest costs declined for the first time since August 2023 (RT)

  • China's dollar bond sale yields priced same as US Treasuries (BBG)

  • ECB wants banks to better manage PE and private credit risk (RT)

  • Bank CEOs expressed confidence in deals and consumer finances (RT)

  • Banks sold $23.5B of bonds yesterday in the most since 2016 (RT)

  • US green bond sales are nearing a record high (BBG)

  • China CSI A500 index sparks fresh interest from global managers (FT)

  • UK regulator backtracked on plan to 'name and shame' companies (FT)

  • Citadel warned headhunters to not pitch fake jobs (BBG)

  • Seven & i's $58B take-private offer is the biggest MBO offer in history (RT)

  • FBI raided and seized devices from Polymarket CEO's home (NYP)

  • Amazon launched Amazon Haul to take on Temu and Shein (CNBC)

  • D.E. Shaw took a $108M short bet on pharma giant Bayer (RT)

  • AMD will cut 4% of jobs to focus on AI chips (RT)

  • India's Adani Group will invest $10B in US energy following Trump win (RT)

  • US labor board banned mandatory anti-union meetings (RT)

  • US accused China of vast cyber-espionage against telecoms (BBG)

  • F1-owner Liberty Media's CEO will step down (BBG)

A Message From 10 East

Where Sophisticated Investors Access Private Markets

10 East is a co-investment platform where sophisticated investors access private market investments alongside a veteran team with a 12+ year track record of strong performance across over 350 transactions. The firm is led by Michael Leffell, former Deputy Executive Managing Member of Davidson Kempner.

Members have the flexibility to participate on a deal-by-deal basis across private equity, credit, real estate, and venture capital.

Benefits of 10 East membership include:  

  • Flexibility – members have full discretion over whether to invest on an offering-by-offering basis. 

  • Alignment – principals commit material personal capital to every offering.  

  • Institutional resources – a dedicated investment team that sources and diligences each offering.

There are no upfront costs or commitments associated with joining 10 East.

Exec Sum readers can join 10 East with complimentary access here.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Charter Communications agreed to buy Liberty Broadband in a ~$14B all-stock deal

  • Frontier Communications shareholders approved the $9.6B sale to Verizon despite opposition from some large shareholders

  • Coterra Energy agreed to acquire Permian Basin assets from Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources for $3.95B in cash and stock

  • Canada's PSP-owned airport operator AviAlliance agreed to acquire three UK airports from Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial and Macquarie for $1.9B

  • Mizuho Financial Group will acquire a 15% stake in tech conglomerate Rakuten's credit card arm for $1.1B

  • Germany’s BioNTech will acquire Chinese biotech Biotheus in a $950M deal

  • Food delivery startup Wonder will acquire Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway for $650M

  • Shell is seeking to sell a majority stake in its carbon offsets business

  • Malaysian oil field services firm Bumi Armada is considering buying MISC's offshore energy business

  • Crypto ETF issuer Bitwise acquired Ethereum staking service Attestant

  • Arca and BlockTower Capital agreed to merge into one crypto investment platform

VC

  • AI cloud-computing startup CoreWeave closed a $650M secondary sale at a $23B valuation to Jane Street, Magnetar, Fidelity and Macquarie 

  • Ruby Re, a third-party reinsurance startup, raised a $480M round from AllianceBernstein, EnTrust Global, and Enstar Group 

  • CHAOS Industries, a defense and critical industry technology startup, raised a $145M Series B led by Accel 

  • Zero Gravity Labs, a startup developing a decentralized AI OS, raised a $40M seed round from Hack VC, Delphi Digital, Polygon, and more 

  • AI-powered healthcare training platform Stepful raised a $31.5M Series B led by Oak HC/FT 

  • Starfish Space, a startup building satellite servicing spacecraft, raised a $29M round led by Shield Capital 

  • Robin AI, a legal AI for businesses, raised $25M from PayPal Ventures, Willets, Cambridge University, and more

  • Accelsius, a two-phase liquid cooling system for data centers, raised a $24M Series A led by Innventure

  • Trolley, a global payouts platform, raised a $23M Series B led by Wavecrest Growth Partners

  • Arbolus, a startup building an expert insights platform, raised a $20M growth round led by Composition 

  • AI-powered creative world-building platform Odyssey raised an $18M Series A led by EQT Ventures 

  • GITAI, a space robotics startup, raised a $15.5M Series B extension led by Maezawa Fund

  • Neon, a D2C platform for games, raised $14M from Renegade Partners, Thrive Capital, a16z Speedrun, and more

  • Career coaching marketplace Leland raised a $12M Series A led by Forerunner Ventures 

  • DLP startup MIND raised an $11M seed round led by YL Ventures 

  • Prelude, a French startup focused on SMS verification, raised an $8M seed round led by Singular and Seedcamp 

  • Bluespine, an AI-driven claims cost reduction platform for self-insured employers, raised a $7.2M seed round led by Team8 

  • Zeplyn, an AI assistant for financial advisors, raised a $3M seed round led by Leo Capital 

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Swedish fintech Klarna filed for a US IPO at a $14.6B valuation

  • Japanese regional utility Kansai Electric plans to raise $3.3B in a share sale

  • Venture Global LNG plans to file for a $3B IPO

  • CVC-backed Japanese personal-care business FineToday plans to raise ~$570M at a $1.4B valuation in a Tokyo IPO

  • Indian food delivery platform Swiggy rose 17% after raising $1.3B in India's second-biggest IPO this year

  • Italy sold a 15% stake in Italian lender MPS in a $1.16B placement

  • Saudi Arabia's PIF plans to sell a 2% stake in Saudi Telecom for ~$1B

  • Liberty Media will spin off most assets to sharpen focus on Formula 1 

Debt

  • HSBC raised $6.5B in a bond sale

  • Africa's biggest data center firm Teraco Data Environments is seeking to raise $442M through a syndicated loan

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Carlyle-backed data management software firm Veritas US is nearing a deal to restructure $4B of debt maturing next year

  • Car financing firm Vroom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with plans to restructure $290M of debt

  • CDS Superstores will acquire 70 Homebase stores, along with the brand and IP, after the UK home improvement retailer entered administration

Fundraising

  • D.E. Shaw raised $1B for its latest private credit fund

  • European VC Bek Ventures raised a $250M fund to invest in Eastern Europe and Turkey

Crypto Corner

  • Coinbase launched Coinbase 50 index as crypto equivalent to S&P 500 (CN)

  • Robinhood added four new tokens including Solana for US users (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

With Bitcoin topping $90k, Roger Nusbaum shared his thoughts on how to think about Bitcoin as an investment.

Retiring Morningstar VP John Rekenthaler published his last piece sharing the lessons he learned from watching markets for 37 years.

Luke Kawa wrote a great piece explaining why we're in the golden age of gold.

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