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

  • The bond market has seemed to largely ignore US debt growth, but only Kalshi seems to be truly pricing in the sentiment.

  • Trade your predictions on a range of events legally, only on Kalshi. Get a $20 bonus when you deposit $100 with code LIT on signup!

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

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