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Good morning,

Markets crushed it during a pandemic for the second straight year. Let's see if 2022 can pull the three-peat. Banks start off the year working from home. Twitter suspended another politician. Tesla crushed earnings again. United is tripling pilot pay. Omicron, inflation, and monetary policy as the buzz words to start 2022 (what's new).

In case you missed it, I wrote a Year End memo summarizing the progress made in 2021 and what I'm looking forward to in 2022. 2021 was a tough, but fulfilling, year. It was the year I took the leap to build out Litquidity full time. Grateful for over 100,000 over y'all joining the Exec Sum email list and hope to continue delivering solid, valuable content.

Let's dive into 2022 (with a summary of 12/31/21).

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

• Despite last week being rather quiet for equities, the S&P, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones returned 26.9%, 21.4%, and 18.7%, respectively, in 2021

• Key themes for 2022 will continue to be the spread of the omicron variant and inflation and monetary policy

• Major movers on the first trading day of 2022 could include Tesla, who just reported Q4 and FY’21 vehicle deliveries that smashed expectations, and travel stocks who have been negatively impacted by the spread of omicron and short-staffings

• Investors will keeping tabs on economic data this week that includes manufacturing activity and construction spending today as well as a key December jobs report on Friday

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Mon: H&R Block, Jefferies

  • Thurs: Walgreens Boot Alliance, Bed Bath & Beyond, Duck Creek Technologies

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Dubai boosts spending with $16.3B budget for 2022 (BBG)

• Libya shuts down another 200,000 barrels a day of oil production (BBG)

• JPMorgan, Citi, BofA employees to start 2022 working from home (BBG)

• Activist investor Starboard is pushing for changes at GoDaddy (BBG)

• FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams resigns (WSJ)

• Twitter permanently suspends Majorie Taylor Greene’s personal account (CNBC)

• United Airlines offers pilots triple pay to ease omicron flight disruptions (CNBC)

• Tesla smashes quarterly delivery record with 308,600 cars (BBG)

• Goldman backtracks on return-to-office as omicron surges (BBG)

• Fauci says shorter isolation may be paired with test requirement (BBG)

• Robert Birnbaum, who led New York’s two exchanges, dies at 94 (BBG)

• Israel to start giving fourth Covid vaccine to people over 60 (BBG)

• HSBC gets insurance deal nod in sign of easing China relations (BBG)

• AT&T, Verizon refuse FAA request to delay 5G launch (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A

• Bain Capital is in talks to buy UK drugstore chain Boots from Walgreens Boots Alliance in a potential $8.1B+ deal (BBG)

• 3G Capital agreed to buy a 75% stake in Luxaflex blinds maker Hunter Douglas at a $7.1B valuation (BBG)

• Real estate investment managers Mapletree Commercial Trust and Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust, who are both tied to Singapore state investor Temasek, agreed to merge in a $3.1B deal (BBG)

• Delivery Hero agreed to buy a 39.4% stake in Spanish delivery app Glovo at a ~$2.6B valuation (RT)

• A JV between Macquarie and Aware Super agreed to buy a 73.2% stake in New Zealand telecommunications company 2degrees at a $1.2B valuation (BBG)

• Authentic Brands agreed to buy a 55% stake in David Beckham’s DB Ventures, which handles his endorsement deals, for ~$271M (BBG)

• Shenzhen SEZ Construction and Development Group agreed to buy a 29% stake in struggling developer China South City for $245M (BBG)

• Indian conglomerate Reliance agreed to buy sodium ion battery technology provider Faradion for $135M (RT)

• Nigerian fixed-income and currency trading platform FMDQ agreed to buy a 22% stake in Central Securities Clearing System, the country’s only clearing house for equities, for $48.2M (BBG)

VC

• UK fintech Monzo raised a $600M round at a $4.5B+ valuation led by Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (BBG)

• GenFleet Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech focused on oncology and immunology, raised a $75M Series C led by HuaGai Capital (PRN)

• Data labeling tech startup AIMMO raised a $12M Series A from DS Asset Management, Industrial Bank of Korea, Hanwha Investment & Securities, S&S Investment, Toss Investment, Korea Asset Investment & Securities, and Venture Field (TC)

SPAC

• FinTech Acquisition Corp V amended the terms of its merger with online stock brokerage eToro, cutting its valuation from $10.4B to $8.8B (RT)

• Former Sony CEO Jack Trretton plans to raise $225M through his SPAC PowerUp Acquisition Corp that will pursue deals in the video game industry (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• If Golf and Web3 are two main interests for you, y'all gotta check out LinksDAO. They're creating the modern golf club and planning to buy a top-rated golf course with their treasury proceeds. Scooped up a membership yesterday, see y'all at the 19th hole (eventually)

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 30+ 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

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