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Good Morning,

AMC is issuing $APE preferred shares to shareholders as a special dividend, Coinbase is partnering with BlackRock to let its institutional investors buy bitcoin, VC fundraising is set to hit a new record in 2022, Cuba is ramping up its dollar purchases, and the US declared monkeypox a public health emergency.

*Insert GTA meme* Here we go again.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Stocks were a mixed beat on Thursday as tech continued to increase but other sectors fell

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to below 5%, their lowest level since April, down from 5.30% a week ago in their steepest weekly drop since March 2020

• The Labor Department will release July’s job report today at 8:30am EST; economists surveyed by the WSJ expect 258k jobs to have been added and a 3.6% unemployment rate

Earnings

• Alibaba beat earnings expectations but posted flat revenue growth for the first time in company history, its stock climbed 1.6% on the day (CNBC)

• Kellogg’s stock fell 0.2% despite the company exceeding expectations for both the top and bottom lines, with its snack division leading the way as higher prices helped offset rising costs (YHOO)

• Paramount also exceeded both profit and revenue expectations, aided by a surge in revenue from the film Top Gun: Maverick; its stock fell 0.7% on the day (BRRN)

• AMC Entertainment beat quarterly revenue estimates but came up short on earnings expectations, and management announced the issuance of a special dividend; the stock fell 11% after hours (RT)

• Doordash surged up 13.5% after-hours after reporting a record number of orders in Q2 and increasing guidance for the rest of the year (WSJ)

• What we're watching today: DraftKings, Cinemark

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Bank of England hiked interest rates by 0.5%, the largest single increase in more than a quarter-century, but warned the UK is heading for a long recession (RT)

• AMC's special dividend to shareholders will be preferred equity units listed on the New York Stock Exchange as $APE (WSJ)

• India may soon require global tech companies to seek government approval for various overseas M&A deals valued at over $252M (BBG)

• Credit Suisse may cut thousands of jobs to reduce costs by ~$1B (BBG)

• Warner Bros is exploring launching a free, ad-supported streaming service (WSJ)

• Goldman Sachs’ credit-card business is under investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (WSJ)

• Tesla paved the way for a 3-1 stock split at its investors meeting Thursday, the second split in roughly two years (WSJ)

• The US trade deficit fell to its lowest level in six months in June as energy exports rose and overall imports fell (WSJ)

• VC fundraising is on track to surpass its 2021 record, with firms raising $137.5B YTD (PB)

• The US declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency (AX)

• Argentina's economy minister instructed the treasury to halt all new temporary cash transfers to pay for government spending (RT)

• Twitter subpoenaed Citadel's Ken Griffin regarding his involvement in Elon Musk's Twitter takeover (BBG)

• Europeans are lowering ECB’s Google ratings amid soaring inflation (BBG)

A Message From Marco

Looking to:

🔥 Plan a summer-end celebration for your team that doesn’t involve going to a sub-par bar in the financial district…

❄️ Make sure your firm has a holiday party you’ll actually want to attend this winter after skipping out over the past two years…

Get in touch with a special events expert at Marco Experiences.

Share your vision, and we’ll do the rest. From the more obvious things—like venue selection and food menu, to the not so obvious things—like branded napkins and bubble machines.

It’s those details that make the difference between a fun party and a truly memorable experience.

In the meantime, check out Canaccord Genuity’s summer celebration on Governors Island or Melio Payment’s 2021 Holiday Party at 74 Wythe.

We can’t want to work with you to create something elevated.

Marco Experiences exists to bring teams together through extraordinary experiences.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Cable company Altice USA kicked off a process to sell telecommunications subsidiary Suddenlink, which it acquired in 2015 for $9.1B (CNBC)

• A consortium led by South African investment group Remgro will acquire hospital operator Mediclinic International at a $4.5B valuation (BBG)

• Utility giant Duke Energy is planning to sell its $4B US solar and wind portfolio in US's biggest renewable sales deal (BBG)

• Biopharma company Amgen agreed to buy smaller peer ChemoCentryx for $3.7B (RT)

• Canadian oil producer Strathcona Resources agreed to buy local oil explorer Serafina Energy for $1.8B (BBG)

• ​​India's biggest real estate developer DLF is bidding for a prominent New Delhi shopping mall from real estate peer Ambience Group which has a starting auction price of $366M (RT)

• Satellite and terrestrial telecoms network provider SES is in talks to merge with its US rival Intelsat (FT)

• Scandinavia's largest media group Schibsted will kick off a sale of its loan comparison fintech Lendo (BBG)

VC

• Cera, a UK in-home healthcare provider, raised $320M in an equity and debt financing round led by Kairos HQ alongside Vanderbilt University Endowment and others (TC)

• Afresh, an AI-powered fresh food technology provider, raised a $115M Series B led by Spark Capital (PRN)

• PayIt, a company modernizing interactions between governments and residents, received a $90M investment from Macquarie Capital Principal Finance (PRN)

• F2G, a clinical-stage biopharma company, raised a $70M funding round co-led by Forbion and Sofinnova Partners (PRN)

• Everytable, a mission-driven food company seeking to make healthy and fresh food widely accessible and affordable, raised a $55M Series C led by Creadev, Desert Bloom Food Ventures, and Gullspång Re:food (PRN)

• Orange EV, a manufacturer of EV heavy duty zero-emission trucks, raised a $35M funding round led by S2G Ventures and CCI (PRN)

• Geopagos, an Argentine payments infrastructure startup, raised a $35M funding round led by Riverwood Capital (TC)

• Kontempo, a B2B BNPL service, raised a $30M+ seed round led by Portage: $6.5M in equity and $25M in debt (TC)

• All G Foods, a UK-based cellular agriculture company, raised a $25M Series A led by Agronomics (MM)

• Axio, a cybersecurity risk evaluation platform, raised a $23M Series B led by ISTARI (TC)

• Kurtosis, a crypto-focused developer tool system, raised a $20M Series A led by Coatue (TC)

• Mosey, a payroll compliance platform, raised an $18M Series A round led by Canaan (TC)

• QLM Technology, a UK-based company with photonics technology that can detect greenhouse gasses, raised a ~$14.6M Series A led by Schlumberger (PRN)

• Rill, an efficient data metrics platform, raised a $12M seed round from unnamed investors (TC)

• CNC24, a Berlin-based precision parts procurement digital platform, raised an ~$8.5M Series A led by Future Industry Ventures (EUS)

• Gym Class, VR pure-play platform, raised an $8M seed round backed by Andreessen Horowitz and others (TC)

• Halliday, a BNPL-style financing product targeting crypto gamers, raised a $6M seed round led by a16z crypto (TC)

• Blockchain data startup Coherent raised a $4.5M seed round co-led by Kindred Ventures, Matchstick Ventures and Foundry Group (TB)

• Digital marketplace Clutch raised a $1.2M seed round led by Precursor Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Cloud computing platform Aviatrix plans to IPO by the end of 2023 in pursuit of a $50B market cap (CRN)

• Healthcare provider Burjeel is seeking to raise over $750M in an Abu Dhabi IPO this year (BBG)

• Sports car manufacturer Porsche is trying to anchor investments from Abu Dhabi sovereign funds Mubadala Investment Co. and ADQ for its planned IPO (BBG)

• California travel startup TripActions is nearing a confidential filing for an IPO (BBG)

SPAC

• Montana-based wildfire fighter Bridger Aerospace will merge with Jack Creek Investment Corp. in an $869M deal (AX)

• Payments provider Plastiq will merger with Colonnade Acquisition Corp. II at a combined $480M valuation, including debt (BBG)

Fundraising

• Fund of funds VC firm Top Tier Capital Partners raised $925M in fresh capital for its Top Tier Venture Velocity Fund 4 and other separate accounts, including one for co-investing in late-stage climate technology companies (BBG)

• Denver-based alternative asset manager Bow River Capital raised a $590M PE fund, Bow River Private Equity Fund III LP, to invest in human capital-centric middle market businesses in industrial services, healthcare services, and business services (PRN)

• VC firm Lattice Capital raised $60M for its second fund to make early-stage bets on crypto projects and protocols (CD)

• Black-led VC firm Cornerstone raised a ~$24M fund to back the '1% of the 1%' of diverse UK founders across pre-seed and seed rounds (SF)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto exchange Coinbase partnered with asset management giant BlackRock, allowing BlackRock's institutional clients to trade bitcoin (WSJ)

• Crypto lender Voyager Digital reportedly received multiple acquisition bids that are higher than the one they rejected from FTX (CD)

• A bankruptcy court judge approved Voyager to return $270M in cash deposits to customers (TB)

• Social media giant Meta is enabling NFT integration on Instagram in 100 countries after completing a series of testing phases (CD)

Exec's Picks

• Exponential is a new platform that allows users to discover new DeFi pools, get a custom risk analysis on your wallet, and invest in one click. They're in early beta, which can be accessed here.

• Why is the Mona Lisa famous today? Because of a wild robbery 111 years ago that took the world by storm. Trung Phan wrote a great thread on the story behind the Mona Lisa's fame here.

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

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