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Good Morning,

Goldman's CIO said don’t invest in China, Reddit traders are threatening to short Reddit’s IPO, corporate junk debt defaults are kicking in, UK may allow private firms to trade on exchanges, cash returns now equal bonds’, and Whole Foods is launching NYC bodegas.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks retreated from all-time highs yesterday, though AI stocks continued to rally 

• Gold is flirting with a new record high on US interest rate outlook

• Bitcoin hit $67k and is rapidly approaching silver’s $1.35T market cap

Earnings

• Sea jumped 5.6% after beating on Q4 revenue estimates and sharing a positive outlook for its e-commerce business (IBD)

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Target, CrowdStrike, Nio

  • Wednesday: JD.com, Abercrombie & Fitch, Foot Locker

  • Thursday: Costco, Broadcom, Kroger, MongoDB

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Reddit traders are threatening to bet against its IPO (BBG) 

• Corporate junk debt defaults hit a post-Covid high (RT)

• Ten year cash returns now rival bonds amid historic rate hikes (BBG)

• Goldman's CIO says don't invest in China (BBG)

• US corporate debt euphoria could stall as Fed tightens liquidity (RT)

• UK to see plans for private firms to trade on exchanges (FT)

• Hedge funds bet on US real estate rebound (RT)

• Apple hit with $2B EU antitrust fine in Spotify case (RT)

• Ex-Twitter execs sue Musk for $128M in severance (FT)

• NYCB CEO Thomas R. Cangemi stepped down (WSJ)

• Global green bond sales topped $54B in busiest February ever (BBG)

• Whole Foods aims to compete with NYC bodegas (BBG)

• Sam Blond became second partner to leave Founders Fund this year (TC)

• Tesla shares skid amid China sales slump (RT)

• Bezos is once again the world’s richest person (WSJ)

• Music labels seek 'Fortnite effect' to drive streams (WSJ)

• Record number of women, minorities launched PE funds in 2023 (WSJ)

• Tech gender gap is narrowing (FT)

• Sergey Brin said Google ‘definitely messed up’ Gemini image launch (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firm Cinven agreed to acquire a majority stake in Alter Domus from Permira in a deal that values the fund administrator at $5.3B, including debt (FT) 

• JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines canceled their $3.8 merger due to antitrust hurdles (RT)

• Ennismore, a luxury lifestyle hotel company backed by France’s Accor, is seeking to raise growth capital at a $3B valuation (BBG) 

• Vista Outdoor rejected a $2B takeover offer from MNC Capital, finding a separate offer from Czechoslovak Group to buy its ammunition products business more favorable to shareholders (BBG) 

• Berlin-based Amazon aggregator Razor Group will buying Boston-based peer Perch in an all-stock deal that values the combined company at $1.7B (BBG) 

• BlackRock and Morgan Stanley will acquire TC Energy’s Portland Natural Gas Transmission System for $1.14B (RT) 

• Industrial equipment and tool-rental firm United Rentals agreed to buy construction company Yak Access from PE firm Platinum Equity in a $1.1B cash deal (RT) 

• French utility Engie is seeking to sell US renewable assets that could be worth ~$1B (BBG) 

• British insurer Aviva will re-enter the historic Lloyd's insurance market with a $307M acquisition of insurance platform Probitas (RT) 

• Japan's Electric Power Development made a $249M bid for Australian renewable energy firm Genex Power (RT) 

• Advent International and Multiples PE will invest $230M in India's second-largest microlender Svatantra (VC)

• JPMorgan acquired LayerOne Financial, an investment management platform spun out from Fortress Investment Group, to improve its offerings for hedge funds (BBG) 

• Bain Capital may re-attempt to buy SoftwareOne if the Swiss company’s founding shareholders succeed in ousting the board of directors (BBG) 

VC

• Mews, a hotel SaaS startup, raised $110M in funding at a $1.2B valuation led by Kinnevik (TC)

• E-commerce aggregator Razor Group acquired US-based peer Perch and raised a $100M round at a $1.7B valuation led by Presight Capital (TC)

• Nocion Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised a $62M Series B led by Arkin Bio Capital and Monograph Capital (BW)

• Argá Medtech, a Swiss startup providing a cardiac ablation system, raised a $58.8M Series B led by Advent Life Sciences and Earlybird Health (FN)

• Phagenesis, a UK-based startup developing a neurostimulation system to treat swallowing dysfunction, raised a $42M Series D led by EQT Life Sciences and Sectoral Asset Management (FN)

• AI infrastructure company Baseten raised a $40M Series B led by IVP and Spark Capital (FN)

• Healthee, a NYC-based healthcare tech company, raised a $32M Series A led by Fin Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and Group11 (FN)

• Zeno Health, an omnichannel platform for generic medicines, raised a $25M Series C led by STIC Investments (FN)

• MoeGo, a payments and scheduling platform for pet groomers, raised a $24M Series A led by Base10 Partners (FN)

• Topsort, a startup helping e-commerce firms create ads without being ‘creepy,’ raised $20M in Series A funding at a $150M valuation led by Upload Ventures (TC)

• Embedded banking and finance startup Synctera raised an $18.6M Series A-1 led by Lightspeed and Fin Capital (BW)

• BBT.live, a startup providing secured connectivity services for service providers, raised a $9.5M seed round led by Tzvi Neta (FN)

• Powerful Medical, a Belgian medical device manufacturer, raised an $8.1M round from the European Innovation Council (FN)

• Kismet, a Melbourne-based healthcare startup, raised an $8.2M seed round led by Prosus Ventures and Airtree Ventures (FN)

• Clean energy software startup Gridcog raised $4.3M in funding led by AlbionVC (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• The sale of a 27% stake in Piraeus Bank by Greece worth ~$1.4B was oversubscribed by over three times (RT) 

• CVC-owned beauty chain Douglas is looking to raise up to $1.2B in a Frankfurt listing (BBG) 

• Tiger Global and Flipkart-backed logistics startup BlackBuck plans to raise $300M in a 2025 IPO (INC)

• Volkswagen will not IPO its battery unit until 2026 (RT)

• Fintech Plaid will not IPO this year (AX)

Debt

• A group of banks led by Morgan Stanley held talks with Elon Musk about refinancing a ~$12.5B debt package that supported Musk's take-private of X (BBG) 

• Private prison operator CoreCivic raised $450M through the US high-yield bond market and will use the proceeds to repurchase outstanding notes (BBG) 

• India's Adani Green Energy received ~$2.9B worth of bids for its $409M bond sale (BBG) 

Fundraising

• Investment firm Capitol Meridian Partners raised $1.2B to invest in US government contractors, aerospace and defense companies (BBG) 

• Sustainable food and agriculture investment firm Cibus Capital raised $645M across two funds (AX) 

• Retail and financial services-focused VC Commerce Ventures closed its fifth fund at over $150M (FN) 

Crypto Corner

• Options traders are pricing Bitcoin to surpass $80k (YH)

• Coinbase users saw zero balances in their accounts in second outage in one week (BBG) 

Exec’s Picks

• Financial Times graphed charts that explain why European stock markets are in crisis.

• WSJ explained why any prevalent stock-market FOMO might actually be rational.

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