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Good morning,

Hope y'all overlevered on the spiked eggnog and whatever your families eat on Christmas Eve / Christmas Day. Markets were closed on Friday so this email will summarize Thursday's market news + any headlines that trickled in over the weekend.

We're excited to announce the Santa delivered us our target milestone for the year: 100,000 active subscribers. We're stoked to have such a strong community of investors, founders, bankers, and students and that y'all have trusted us with some space in your inboxes the past 11 months. We're only getting started, too. We'll continue to improve the newsletter, add more short/crisp rundowns of other major segments impacting financial markets, bring exciting VC deals to our ~VIP accredited investors~, and much more that we'd rather not say because we know some of our peers are quick to follow our lead lmao.

Thanks to all for reading, providing feedback / suggestions, and recommending us to your friends, fam, and colleagues. If you know someone who needs to stay up to speed on financial news. Invite them to sign up w/ your unique referral links (found at the bottom of every email). 

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

To see the LitCap Yolo Fund's portfolio holdings, download the Iris Social Stock app here and give Litquidity a follow. If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• Santa delivered more than just gifts this year - the major US averages rose again last Thursday with the S&P 500 closing at a new ATH as investors seem less shook about omicron than before

  • This rally comes after new studies suggest that omicron has a lower risk of hospitalization than other covid variants

  • Also, the FDA granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer and Merck’s Covid pills which should help treat the virus once contracted

• Jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 18 came in as expected at ~205K, but Core PCE was higher-than-expected at 4.7% YoY in November (vs. 4.5% expected)

• Mastercard SpendingPulse also released its holiday sales data which came in better-than-expected at 8.5% YoY (compared to the expected 7.4%) and showed double digit growth in online sales

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week: not much 

  • Mon: H&R Block

  • Wed: FuelCell Energy

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Karolos Papoulis, Greek President in Austerity Era, dies at 92 (BBG)

• UAE intends to remove monopolies of some family businesses (FT)

• Holiday sales rise at the fastest pace in 17 years (CNBC)

• Crocs drops most in 20 months on $2.5B Heydude deal (BBG)

• SciPlay plunges 21% after sale talks with Scientific Games end (BBG)

• UK regulator shows more assertive posture in blocking Facebook purchase of Giphy (RT)

• Airlines cancel more than 800 US flights as Covid hits crews (CNBC)

• Omicron up to 70% less likely to cause hospitalization than delta, UK government study finds (CNBC)

• US intel shows Saudi Arabia building ballistic missiles with China’s help (CNBC)

• Nexus Venture Partners co-founder Naren Gupta passes away at 73 (TC)

• ‘Spider-Man’ crosses $1B to lead box office for 2021 (BBG)

• Credit Suisse launches legal action against SoftBank related to funds owed to its customers by US construction company funded by Vision Fund (FT)

• OnlyFans names its marketing chief as new CEO (WSJ)

A Message From Amberjack

Modernizing Men’s Shoes.

Obviously good style. Secretly great comfort.

Amberjack is a modern footwear brand started by former executives from Adidas, Cole Haan, & McKinsey. It’s the world’s most advanced dress shoe, made with proprietary athletic materials that deliver incredible comfort and A-grade leather vertically sourced from one of the world’s leading tanneries.

They’ve been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Yahoo, and were just ranked the #1 best overall dress shoes in 2021 by Rolling Stone. Only downside is they constantly sell out – get yours today before they’re gone (or pre-order to ensure availability).

Deal Flow

M&A

• Medical test maker Quidel agreed to buy testing company Ortho Clinical Diagnostics for $6B (BBG)

• A Thai-Austrian JV between Central Group and Signa Holdings agreed to buy British department store operator Selfridges & Co. for ~$5.4B (BBG)

• Maverick Aviation Partnership agreed to buy aircraft-leasing companies Accipiter Finance and Manchester Aviation Finance in a combined $4.28B deal from CK Asset Holdings (BBG)

• Vista Equity Partners agreed to buy a majority stake in sales engagement software Salesloft at a $2.3B valuation (RT)

• Flutter Entertainment agreed to buy Italian gaming operator Sisal in a $2.2B deal (BBG)

• Orange Belgium agreed to buy a ~75% stake in telecom and cable operator Voo at a $2B valuation (BBG)

• Lotte Group, South Korea’s largest operator of hotels, theme-parks, and duty-free stores, is considering offloading its stalled theme-park project in northeastern China for $1.6B+ (BBG)

• Building material company Holcim agreed to buy Malarkey Roofing Products in a $1.35B deal (Holcim)

• Union Bank of the Philippines agreed to buy Citigroup’s consumer banking assets in the Southeastern Asian country for $904M (BBG)

• Daimler will cut its stake in Denza, an electric car JV with BYD Auto Industry, through an equity transfer; BYD will own 90% and Daimler will own 10% after the transaction (BBG)

• The UK’s Ardonaugh Group agreed to buy Portuguese insurance broker MDS Group in a $268M+ deal (BBG)

• Funds managed by Apollo agreed to buy UK homebuilder Miller Homes Group from Bridgepoint (BBG)

• HSBC agreed to buy the investment management unit of India’s L&T Finance (BBG)

• Activist Jana Partners has built a position in US defense electronics manufacturer Mercury Systems and is pushing for a strategic review including a potential sale (BBG)

• Vale, the world’s second-largest iron ore producer, is considering buying a 30-40% stake in Anglo American’s Minas-Rio project in Brazil (BBG)

VC

• European deep tech fund Outsized Ventures closed a ~$68M fund aimed at ‘Seed+’ rounds (TC)

• Brazilian construction tech startup Ambar raised a $36M Series C led by Echo Capital and Oria Capital (TC)

• AngelList, a platform connecting angel investors with startups to a suite of various tools, closed a $25M fund (TC) 

• Fashion waitlist and pre-order platform Purple Dot raised a $4M early stage round led by Unusual Ventures (TC)

• Skio, a startup aiming to help sell subscriptions for brands on Shopify, raised a $3.7M seed round led by Adjacent (TC) 

• Nigerian edtech startup Teesas raised a $1.6M pre-seed round led by Tolaram Group’s Harsh Aswani (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Cybersecurity startup Snyk is preparing for a 2022 IPO at a potential $8.6B+ valuation (BBG)

• The consumer-finance arm of China’s Ant Group, Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance, will raise $3.5B via a share sale to boost capital (WSJ)

• RoboSense, a Chinese developer of sensor technologies used in self-driving cars, plans to work with JPMorgan on a Hong Kong IPO that could raise up to $1B (BBG)

• Travel services provider TBO Lek is seeking the approval of India’s market regulator for an up to $280M IPO (BBG)

SPAC

• Outdoor griddles maker Blackstone agreed to merge with Ackrell SPAC Partners I Co. in a $900M deal (BW)

Debt

• Barclays, SMBC, and Banorte are providing a $500M bridge loan to Petroleos Mexicanos to help finance its takeover of Shell’s Deer Park refinery in Texas (BBG)

Exec's Pick

• If you’re looking for an easy way to get into crypto without directly spending money to purchase the tokens, BlockFi is giving you an opportunity earn bitcoin when you swipe your credit card for any transaction you make. Their new Bitcoin Credit Card allows you to earn an unlimited 1.5% back in crypto on every purchase. Take a look and see if you’re ready to earn Bitcoin on a regular basis. The Bitcoin Credit Card

• If you've purchased NFTs on OpenSea before December 23rd, you're eligible to claim $SOS tokens at The Open DAO's website. The amount of tokens you're allocated is based on your volume of transactions. You've got until June 30, 2022 to claim 'em. All you gotta do is pay gas fees (which are likely less than what you'll claim). Not financial advice doe, just lookin out for y'all.

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 50+ 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.

If you're looking to hire candidates and want to post a job, all you have to do is hit "+ Hire Talent" on the top right of the job board. If you want the role to be featured on Exec Sum, check out our "Featured" and "Premium" tiers.

Meme Cleanser

👀  If you're an accredited investor or qualified purchaser and want access to proprietary early-stage venture deal flow from the LitCap team, fill out this survey. Got some exciting deals coming up in Q1'22. Preference will be given to those who are most involved with our platform (subscribed to Exec Sum, our Foot Guns newsletter, and actively opening the emails).

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