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Good morning,

Inflation came in HOT with a 7% YoY increase, workers made more money and got poorer anyway, markets were green again, Turks hope Bitcoin can save them, Saudi Wealth Fund wants to buy lots of stocks, TPG goes public today, and China's 'zero-covid' policy gets a stress test. 

🚨 LitVentures went out with its third deal yesterday morning. Allocation is nearly full! If you responded to our survey as an accredited investor and didn't see it yesterday, check your "promotions" tab on gmail or spam box. If you still don't see it, hmu at [email protected] 

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

• All major indexes rose yesterday, with the Nasdaq logging its third straight day of gains, as investors digested the morning release of December’s consumer price index data

• The CPI, an inflation gauge which measures costs across dozens of items, rose 7% in December from a year earlier; this is the fastest growth rate for the CPI since June 1982

  • This figure came in slightly better than economist estimates of 7.1%

• Things to keep an eye on for the rest of the week include:

  • December PPI data (released 8:30am ET today)

  • Big banks’ earnings reports on Friday

Earnings

• Jefferies shares dumped 9%+ after the bank missed on both quarterly revenue and profit even though investment banking revenues hit record highs; the bank’s fixed income department suffered from ‘challenging market conditions’ (Barrons)

• What we’re watching today: Delta, TSMC

• Full earnings calendar here

Headline Roundup

• WHO says omicron cases are ‘off the charts’, setting global records (CNBC)

• Saudi wealth fund planning to buy $10B in equities in 2022 (BBG)

• Inflation hits 7% YoY growth, highest since 1982 (CNBC)

• Schumer lays out Democratic Party’s big push on voting-rights agenda (WSJ)

• RBC CEO sees war for talent as a top 2022 concern (BBG)

• Natural gas prices surge 13% as cold snap expected to boost demand (CNBC)

• China’s ‘zero-covid’ policy being tested by omicron’s contagiousness (WSJ)

• Inflation gave average worker a 2.4% pay cut last year despite higher wages (CNBC)

• Turks pile into Bitcoin and Tether to escape plunging Lira (WSJ)

• NFL ratings rise 10% in 2021 season, marking best results in six years (WSJ)

• Blackstone tells US staff to get booster or get out of office (BBG)

A Message From Yieldstreet

New Year's Resolutions Distributions

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Deal Flow

M&A

• Santander, Scotiabank, Banorte, and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas are among potential suitors for Citigroup’s Mexico retail banking unit which could be valued as high as $15B (BBG)

• Blackstone increased its takeover bid for Australian casino operator Crown Resorts to $6.5B (BBG)

• Wood Group is working with JPM and MS to find buyers for its $2.7B consultancy unit (BBG)

• Coinbase agreed to acquire futures exchange FairX, furthering its push toward offering crypto derivatives (BBG)

• Mineral rights and royalties owner Desert Peak Minerals will combine with rival Falcon Minerals in a $1.9B all-stock deal (RT)

• An investor group including Centerbridge Partners and MassMutual is planning to start a life and annuity reinsurance company named Martello Re with an initial equity investment of $1.65B (BBG)

• North Asia-focused PE firm MBK Partners is selling a ~13% stake to Dyal Capital Partners for ~$1B (BBG)

• Buyout firm Affinity Equity Partners is considering a sale of its Hong Kong-based garment label maker Trimco Group which could fetch $1B+ (BBG)

• Saudi Aramco purchased 30% of an oil refinery on the Baltic Coast and agreed to supply almost half of Poland’s oil, giving it a foothold in the formerly Russian-dominated market (BBG)

VC

• Payments startup Checkout.com raised a $1B Series D at a $40B valuation from Insight Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Altimeter, Dragoneer, and more (TC)

• Owl Ventures, a VC fund focused on educative technologies, raised $1B+ in new funds (WSJ)

• Insurance startup Accelerant raised a $193M round at a $2.2B valuation from Eldridge, Deer Park, Marshall Wace, and more (PRN)

• AI-Ops startup BigPanda raised a $190M Series D at a $1.2B valuation led by Advent International (TC)

• Diverse talent recruiting platform SeekOut raised a $115M Series C at a $1.2B+ valuation led by Tiger Global (TC)

• SME-focused business travel booking platform TravelPerk raised a $115M Series D at a $1.3B valuation led by General Catalyst (TC)

• Placer.ai, a location analytics startup, raised a $100M round at a $1B+ valuation led by Josh Buckley, CEO of Product Hunt (TC)

• Western footwear & apparel accessories brand Tecovas raised a $56M Series C led by Elephant (PRN)

• Jakarta-based investment app Pluang raised a $55M Series B follow-on led by Accel (TC)

• Digital credentials platform Merit raised a $50M Series B led by Rose Park Advisors (TC)

• Boosted.ai, a machine learning platform for investment professionals, raised a $35M Series B led by Ten Coves Capital and Spark Capital (BW)

• Satellite/Edge computing network startup Mangata Networks raised a $33M Series A led by Playground Global (BW)

• AI-powered transcription platform DeepScribe raised a $30M Series A led by Index Ventures (TC)

• Web3Auth, a startup building infrastructure for Web3 authentication, raised a $13M Series A led by Sequoia Capital India (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• TPG priced its IPO at $29.50/share, at the midpoint of the proposed range, valuing it at ~$9B; it will start trading later today (WSJ)

• India said to now be pursuing 15T rupee (~$203B) valuation in IPO of state-owned insurer LIC (BBG)

• US PE group Cerberus cut its stakes in Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank by more than a third, as the group scales back a 5-year, losing bet on Germany's two biggest lenders (FT)

• Sneaker marketplace StockX tapped Goldman and Morgan Stanley for its US IPO (BBG)

• HR software platform Justworks put its potential $224M US IPO on hold, citing current market conditions (BBG)

• File-sharing platform WeTransfer is seeking to raise $182M in an Amsterdam IPO which could mark Europe’s first big offering of 2022 (BBG)

• Biogen ​shares tumbled 6%+ after the US proposed limiting access to its controversial Alzheimer’s drug (MW)

• Cruise operator Genting Hong Kong plunged 56% on fears of more defaults. The company has already been in default of $3.4B from 2020 (BBG)

SPAC

• Buyout firm Primavera Capital and the investing arm of ABC International Holdings are considering forming a SPAC to list in Hong Kong, targeting a merger with a firm in the consumer sector (BBG)

• Suneva Medical, a company selling beauty products to doctors’ offices, agreed to merge with Viveon Health Acquisition Corp. in a deal valuing the combined company at ~$511M (BBG)

• Andretti Acquisition Corp., a SPAC co-founded by racing driver Michael Andretti which is targeting the automotive industry, priced its $200M NYSE IPO (BW)

Exec's Picks

• Check out this interesting article from Bessemer Venture Partners explaing how the private markets are becoming "consumerized" and more accessible to the masses through new tools and platforms

• 🗣 ICYMI: We recently dropped a new episode about mental health in the workplace, something that doesn't get talked about enough on Wall Street. We hope to bring about change by tackling this topic in a down-to-earth manner. Catch the latest episode on Spotify and Apple Music 🤝

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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