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Good morning,

Prince Andrew is now simply "Andrew", indexes were red across the board, several bank earnings today, Earth was HOT in 2021, Supreme Court blocks Biden at the rim, Delta (the airline, not the variant) had great revenue numbers, Navient cancelled a lot of student loans, PPI data came in lower than expected, and Elizabeth Warren blamed "greedy grocery stores" for inflation.

Happy Friday, folks 🤝

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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

Markets

• Gains in US equity markets from earlier in the week were erased Thursday, as the S&P and Nasdaq slid 1.4% and 2.5%, respectively

• Yesterday’s release of December’s PPI data showed that wholesale prices rose less than expected in the month (0.2% actual vs 0.4% expected) but still rose 9.7% in 2021

• Weekly jobless claims came in at 230K, well above the 200K estimate and the previous week’s 207K 

• The big thing for investors to watch today is the earnings reports from financial giants; these reports will provide key insight into how big banks are dealing with high inflation, the departure of ultra low rates, and the approaching tapering and rate hikes

Earnings

• Delta beat expectations and posted its highest revenue since 2019 in Q4 thanks to strong holiday bookings and business travel, but they’re expected to post a first-quarter loss driven by the omicron surge (CNBC)

• TSMC saw shares rise 5%+ yesterday after the chip-maker reported Q4 earnings that exceeded analyst expectations thanks to 19% and 24% YoY increases in EPS and sales, respectively; the company also announced plans to increase CapEx by $40B to address the chip shortage (IBD)

• What we’re watching today: JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, BlackRock

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Supreme Court blocks Biden admin’s Covid vaccine-or-testing rules for large private employers (WSJ)

• Student-loan processor Navient to cancel $1.7B worth of debt for 66,000 borrowers (WSJ)

• Right-wing militia group founder arrested in connection with role in Jan 6 Capitol attack (WSJ)

• Biden says US will get 500M more Covid-19 tests (WSJ)

• Temperature reports say 2021 was Earth’s sixth-hottest year on record (WSJ)

• White House nominee for Fed’s No. 2 official, Lael Brainard, says reducing inflation is ‘most important task’ for Fed (WSJ)

• Queen Elizabeth strips Prince Andrew of titles amid sex abuse court case (WSJ)

• Senator Sinema (D., Ariz.) says she won’t support rules to get rid of Senate’s 60-vote threshold (WSJ)

• Hyundai, Daewoo tie-up gets EU antitrust veto (RT)

• Biden deploys military medical teams to hospitals in six states as omicron disrupts essential services (CNBC)

• Virgin Galactic stock falls after announcing plans to add up to $500M in debt (CNBC)

A Message From Early Public Offering

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Deal Flow

M&A

• Vedanta Group said it’s willing to spend $12B to buy India’s state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum (BBG)

• Advent International is considering options for healthcare company BioDuro-Sundia including a sale at a potential $1.5B+ valuation (BBG)

• Affinity Equity Partners is considering a sale of Hong Kong-based garment label maker Trimco Group in a potential $1B+ deal (BBG)

• Citic Capital and FountainVest Partners are considering a sale of the Australian and New Zealand assets of pallet maker Loscam Asia Pacific that could raise $1B+ (BBG)

• KKR agreed to buy a property portfolio of ~14,400 residential and commercial units, mostly in eastern Germany, for ~$686M from Adler (BBG)

• Energy drinks maker Monster Beverage agreed to buy craft beer and hard seltzer producer CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective in a $300M deal (RT)

• The DCP Capital Partners-backed consortium has proposed to lower its offer for Chinese online recruitment firm 51job by ~28% (BBG)

VC

• Arc, a full-service finance platform for SaaS companies, raised $161M in funding led by NFX founder James Currier (BW)

• MycoWorks, a startup making a fungi-based biomaterial to replace leather, raised a $125M Series C led by Prime Movers Lab (TC)

• Indian B2C edtech startup LEAD School raised a $100M Series E at a $1.1B valuation led by WestBridge Capital (TC)

• Global Processing Services, an embedded finance and API payments platform, raised a $100M extension round from Temasek and MissionO (TC)

• Virtana, a provider of AI-driven monitoring solutions for hybrid cloud management, raised $73M in funding led by Atalaya Capital Management, Elm Park Capital Management, HighBar Partners, and Benhamou Global Ventures (PRN)

• SoSafe, a German cybersecurity startup, raised a $73M Series B led by Highland Europe (TC)

• No-code immersive game building platform Yahaha Studios has raised $50M across three funding rounds ahead of its launch this year; lead investors for each round are 5Y Capital, HillHouse, and Coatue (TC)

• Healthcare focussed intelligence company DexCare raised a $50M Series B led by Transformation Capital (BW)

• Data analytics and data engineering firm TheMathCompany received a $50M investment from Brighton Park Capital (BW)

• Technology-enabled healthcare consultancy Alira Health raised $40M in funding from Creadev (BW)

• Observable, a data collaboration company, raised a $35.6M Series B led by Menlo Ventures (BW)

• Proptech startup Unreserved raised a $33.85M seed round led by Ryan O’Connor (BW)

• ‘Save now, pay later’ startup Accrue Savings raised a $25M Series A led by Tiger Global (TC)

• UBITS, a startup aiming to be ‘the Netflix for corporate training’ in LatAm, raised a $25M round led by Riverwood Capital (TC)

• Swell, a startup giving e-commerce businesses APIs, storefronts, and dashboards, raised a $20M Series A led by VMG Catalyst and Headline (TC)

• E-commerce return underwriting startup Seel raised a $17M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (TC)

• Payment orchestration platform Gr4vy raised a $15M Series A led by March Capital (TC)

• Shield, an AI-powered communication compliance platform, raised a $15M Series A led by Macquarie Capital and OurCrowd (TC)

• Indian mobile-first gaming community platform Turnip raised a $12.5M round led by Greenoaks and Elevation Capital (TC)

• Lipa Later, a Kenyan BNPL startup, raised a $12 pre-Series A led by Cauris Finance, Lateral Frontiers VC, and GreenHouse Capital (TC)

• UK-based emerging markets digital bank creator Fintech Farm raised a $7.4M seed round led by Solid and Flyer One Ventures (TC)

• EV charging infrastructure startup HeyCharge raised a $4.7M seed round led by BMW i Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Engineering company Thyssenkrupp will hold a majority stake in its rebranded electrolysis unit Nucera, that will list this year at a potential $5.7B valuation (BBG)

• PE firm TPG raised $1B in first big 2022 IPO (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• Want to learn more about how 'Litquidity' grew from the best finance meme page on the internet to Bain Capital Venture's newest scout? Check out this piece written by Anne Sraders 🤝

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've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

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