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The Boys Have All Made Up
Together with
Good Morning,
Jamie Dimon squashed his beef with Elon Musk, KKR combined its infrastructure and real estate businesses, clients pulled $7B from Baupost since 2021, and Chinese bankers are racing to the bottom for a chance to underwrite CATL's blockbuster Hong Kong listing.
Want to build winning pitchbooks? Join UpSlide's webinar on January 30th at 10:30 am ET with CIB experts from Stifel and Leverest as they share how to overcome the biggest obstacles faced by deal teams. Sign up here.
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell

As of 1/22/2024 market close.
Markets
US stocks rose as tech shares rallied on AI optimism and US's $500B 'Stargate' investment project
S&P rose for a third-straight day to touch a new ATH
Europe's Stoxx 600 rose to a four-month high to also touch a new ATH
Germany's DAX hit a new ATH
Oil eased to a one-week low
Earnings
P&G beat Q4 EPS and revenue estimates thanks to better sales in the US and China (CNBC)
Johnson & Johnson beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates thanks to strong sales of its cancer treatments (RT)
GE Vernova missed Q4 earnings and revenue estimates due to challenges in its wind business, although it reaffirmed its 2025 outlook (BRN)
Discover beat Q4 earnings expectations and reported a rise in payment services volume (MW)
What we're watching this week:
Today: GE Aerospace, American Airlines
Friday: Verizon, American Express
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
Headline Roundup
Jamie Dimon squashed beef with Musk with 'Einstein' comment (CNBC)
Musk's feuds cool off – with one big exception (AX)
Banker compete for blockbuster CATL Hong Kong IPO with 0.01% fees (FT)
Anti-DEI activists target Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan (WSJ)
LPs want PE funds to open up about fees and returns (WSJ)
PE mega-exits become more valuable amid slow investor payouts (RT)
CEOs have ramped up deal outlook under Trump (RT)
KKR combined its $157B infrastructure and real estate businesses (BBG)
Clients pulled $7B from hedge fund Baupost since 2021 (BBG)
Morgan Stanley bonus for top-bucket Asia bankers to jump by up to 50% (RT)
Commerzbank called UniCredit's merger approach 'hostile' (RT)
Last years winners are losing big in India's deepening selloff (BBG)
Australia IPO market is off to slow start in challenging 2025 (BBG)
China unveiled plans to encourage insurers to invest into stock market (RT)
Goldman launched an AI assistant for employees (CNBC)
TikTok-owner ByteDance is rivaling OpenAI in AI reasoning (RT)
US halts over $300B in US green infrastructure funding (FT)
Sweeping US winter storm breaks power demand record (BBG)
A Message from UpSlide
Ensure your pitchbooks win every time with Stifel, Leverest, and UpSlide.
UpSlide is hosting CIB experts from Stifel and Leverest to share their strategies and tips for deal teams to gain a competitive edge in 2025.
They'll break down some of the biggest obstacles faced by pitching teams, as well as how to overcome them. Plus, they’ll share insights on:
Why pitchbooks are shrinking while deal competition is rising
What boutique teams can do to stay ahead of their bulge bracket counterparts
How to automate your work in PowerPoint and Excel to impress your MD
Save the date:
📆 January 30th
⌚ 10:30 am EST
⌛ 45 minutes
Deal Flow
M&A / Investments
YouTuber MrBeast is in talks with multiple investor groups over a bid to buy TikTok's US unit
Blackstone is preparing a sale or IPO of $6.8B Spanish hotel owner Hotel Investment Partners
Access Holdings is exploring a sale of car wash operator Spotless Brands at a $3B valuation, including debt
CardWorks agreed to acquire Ally Financial’s credit card business, which includes a $2.3B loan portfolio
Bain Capital matched CC Capital's $1.92B offer for Australian wealth manager Insignia Financial
Shanghai Henlius Biotech rejected a $1.7B takeover offer from Chinese conglomerate Fosun International
Bain Capital is considering a $1.6B sale of Italian specialty chemicals firm Italmatch Chemicals
Host Hotels & Resorts is exploring a sale of a property portfolio worth over $1B
Brookfield is nearing a $950M deal to acquire a portfolio of 3.8k single-family homes through an acquisition of startup Divvy Homes
Saudi digital security firm Elm Company will acquire technology services firm Thiqah Business Services from PIF for $907M
Physician's Choice, a US maker of supplements and probiotics, is exploring a $500M sale
Norway’s SWF Norges Bank Investment Management acquired a 25% stake in a portfolio of properties in London's Mayfair district for $378M
Ares acquired a majority stake in engineering component producer Form Technologies for $304M
VC
Databricks closed a historic $10B Series J led by Thrive Capital, with Meta joining as a strategic investor
AI startup Anthropic raised $1B from Google, amid plans to raise $2B at a $60B valuation led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
Eleos, a startup creating AI agents for behavioral health, raised a $60M Series C led by Greenfield Partners
Lindus Health, a platform to cover end-to-end clinical trial processes, raised a $55M Series B led by Balderton Capital
AI-powered SaaS spend platform Vertice raised a $50M Series C led by Lakestar
Music AI, an AI platform for the music industry, raised a $40M Series A led by Connect Ventures
UK shared bike operator Forest raised a $16.7M Series B led by Fintex Capital
Sonocharge Energy, a startup making batteries more efficient, raised a $23.5M round led by Cycle Capital
Geothermal heating and cooling startup Bedrock Energy raised a $12M Series A led by Titanium Ventures
Baton, a marketplace for SME acquisitions, raised a $10M Series A led by Obvious Ventures
DryRun Security, an application security startup, raised an $8.7M seed round led by LiveOak Ventures and Work-Bench
AI career platform Teal raised a $7.5M Series A led by CityLight Capital and Flybridge
Axoflow, a cybersecurity startup improving how enterprises collect and handle security data, raised a $7M seed round led by EBRD Venture Capital
AI-powered search startup Doti raised a $7M seed round led by F2 Venture Capital
1up, a sales knowledge automation platform, raised a $5M round led by Upfront Ventures
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
LNG exporter Venture Global LNG is now seeking to raise $1.9B at a $65.3B valuation, lower than its initial $110B target due to valuation concerns
Permira and Blackstone are weighing a multi-billion dollar Frankfurt IPO of German online auto marketplace Mobile.de at a $10.4B valuation
Oman's Asyad Group plans to raise $1B in a local IPO of its shipping unit Asyad Shipping
Korean online lender K Bank withdrew its $700M Korea IPO due to weak demand
Insulin delivery device maker Beta Bionics is seeking a $616M US IPO
Space and defense firm Voyager Technologies confidentially filed for a US IPO
Debt
University of California sold $2B in munis as enrollment hits record high
Indonesian state energy company Persero is planning to raise $1.5B via a dollar bond sale
Banks are pitching ~$1B in debt packages to back a potential LBO of EQT-owned Swedish consumer-health business Karo Healthcare
Fundraising
Canadian PE firm Novacap Investments closed a $1B fund to invest in digital infrastructure assets
Guggenheim Investments closed its latest private credit fund at $400M to lend to midsize business
Crypto Sum Snapshot
CME may add XRP and Solana futures contracts
BofA CEO said finance industry will jump into crypto payments if regulators allow it
BlackRock CEO said Bitcoin can hit $700k amid currency debasement fears
Crypto execs are fearing investor backlash over Trump memecoins
Check out our Crypto Sum newsletter for the full stories on everything crypto!
Exec’s Picks
Adam Grossman shared a 'Reality Check' on why access to private investments isn't necessarily a good thing.
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