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Good Morning,

Stocks have rallied for a month straight, more Congress members are visiting Taiwan, Saudi Aramco is boomin', Tesla has produced 3M cars, private jet usage has surged, the global population will soon hit 8B, and grocery prices experienced crazy inflation in July.

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

• Stocks rose again on Friday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their fourth consecutive weeks of gains

  • The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones ended the week up 3.26%, 3.08%, and 2.92%, respectively

  • Canada's main exchange TSX closed above 20,000 for first time in two months

• The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer-sentiment index rose to 55.1 in August, up from 51.5 in July

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Tuesday: Walmart, The Home Depot

  • Wednesday: Target, Lowe’s, Performance Food Group, Cisco Systems

  • Thursday: Kohl’s, Ross Stores, Arco

  • Friday: John Deere

• Full calendar here 

Headline Roundup

• Grocery prices in July had largest price increase since 1979 (MW)

• Five more members of Congress visited Taiwan on Sunday following Pelosi's trip (AX)

• ETF investors have poured $245B into equities this year (BBG)

• Miami becomes the new boom town for corporate lawyers (FT)

• $63B worth of North American M&A deals have already been announced so far in August alone (BBG)

• UK's economy shrank 0.1% in Q2 amid soaring inflation (WSJ)

• As celebrity backlash grows, so does overall private jet use (WSJ)

• Saudi Aramco reported record half-year results and a 90% surge in Q2 profits (CNBC)

• Beauty products was the only retail category with rising unit sales in H1 2022, despite soaring inflation (CNBC)

• Philippines is on track to see a record number of IPOs this year, with a value of ~$2.7B (BBG)

• Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding invested over $500M in Russian firms in the days around Russia's invasion of Ukraine (BBG)

• Tesla has now produced over 3M cars (CNBC)

• US and Switzerland are working on facilitating pharma trade (RT)

• Global population is projected to hit 8B soon this year and some say its peak is near (WSJ)

• South Korea's president pardoned Jay Y. Lee, Samsung's de facto leader who served 18 months in prison for bribery and embezzlement (AX)

• Peloton announced another 780 layoffs to cut costs (CNBC)

• Ex-Deutsche Bank co-CEO Anshu Jain died at 59 after a five-year cancer battle (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Italy’s far-right political party Brothers of Italy plans to take telecom company Telecom Italia private and sell off assets worth $13.4B to cut its debt-pile in half (BBG)

• Crypto exchange Huobi Group's founder Leon Li is in talks to sell his majority stake in the company at a potential ~$3B valuation (BBG)

• Quebecor's cable television unit Videotron will buy wireless carrier Freedom Mobile from Canadian telecom companies Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications for ~$2.23B (RT)

• Electricity producer Torrent Power and Singapore-listed utilities company Sembcorp Industries are competing to buy clean energy platform Vector Green Energy at a ~$628M enterprise value (BBG)

• Investment firm Toto Consortium made an unsolicited bid for the South African government's 40.5% stake in telecom giant Telkom valued at $433M (BBG)

• An investment vehicle linked to Britain’s Harris family is close to buying holiday camps chain Butlin’s in a $364M+ deal (BBG)

• Japanese telecoms giant NTT is considering a sale of its 69.2% stake in Indian consulting and IT services firm Nihilent at a ~$314M valuation (BBG)

• Media management platform Orpheus Media will pay $103M for an additional 24.5% of Barca Studios, FC Barcelona's audiovisual content hub (BBG)

• Activewear brand Outdoor Voices is exploring a potential sale of the company (BBG)

• Music rights giant Broadcast Music Inc. canceled plans for a billion-dollar sale (BBG)

VC

• Diagnostic Robotics, an Israeli AI-based early stage health issue detection platform, raised a $45M Series B led by StageOne Investors (TC)

• Wire, an enterprise-focused messaging platform, raised a ~$24.6M Series C led by Cipio Partners and Iconical (TC)

• Klavi, a SaaS platform that provides Open Finance solutions, raised a $15M Series A from SR Ventures, Iporanga Ventures, and others (PRN)

• Penfold, a digital pensions platform, raised an $8.5M Series A led by Bridford Group (TC)

• Roon, a medical education platform for parents, raised a $7.5M seed round led by Firstmark, TMV, and Sequoia (TC)

• Positive Food Co., a freshly packaged meal provider, raised $7M in funding from BlueYard Capital, Y Combinator and others (TC)

• LUCID, a tech startup that uses AI-created music playlists to help with mental wellness, raised a $3.1M seed round led by Amplify Capital (BTKT)

• Ekkono Solutions, a Swedish software startup focused on machine learning, raised a ~$3.1M Series B led by Etteplan Oyj (ARCS)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Taibang Biologic Group, a plasma-derived biopharmaceutical product maker, is looking to IPO in Hong Kong next year at a potential $6B valuation (BBG)

• Luxury fashion house Prada is seeking to raise over $1B in a second IPO in Milan (BBG)

• Turkish engineering company Hidropar Hareket raised $7.4M in an Istanbul IPO (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Scandinavian airline SAS will raise $700M in fresh financing from Apollo Global Management to get through bankruptcy (RT)

• Technology repair company Asurion's purchase of online retailer Enjoy Technology for $110M was approved by a US bankruptcy court (RT)

Crypto Corner

• India seized $46M from crypto exchange Vauld in a money-laundering probe (TC)

• Crypto options trading volume has been on the rise as investors hedge their bets (CD)

• Crypto derivatives platform Paradigm teams up with FTX to offer 'one-click' futures spread trading (TB)

Exec's Picks

• Should you die with zero? Nick Maggiulli wrote a great piece (inspired by Bill Perkins's book) on the tradeoff between your money and your time. Check it out here.

• Our buddies over at Amberjack just launched their new loafers in time for the Fall '22 season. The cobalt suede looks fresh af. Check it out 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:

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