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Good Morning,

Tech stocks took a beating yesterday on fears of an AI bubble. Elsewhere, the Trump administration is seeking to take equity stakes in tech giants who received CHIPS Act grants.

In part two of M&A corner, Mizuho | Greenhill's Kevin Costantino discusses the growing appetite for institutional investment in the sports industry, exploring the sports landscape in the context of finance and how this investor interest impacts college sports. It's an insightful listen.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks fell yesterday with tech stocks taking a beating amid concerns over the future of the AI boom

  • Nasdaq 100 slid 1.4% in its second-worst day since April's tariff shock 

  • Crypto stocks tumbled as investors go into risk-off mode

• UK's FTSE 100 hit an ATH

• US Treasuries broke a three-day slide as traders stuck with September rate cut bets 

• UK 2Y gilt yield rose to 3.98% to a three-month high 

Earnings

• Home Depot missed Q2 earnings and revenue estimates but reaffirmed FY guidance as customer transactions declined and homeowners continued a 'deferral mindset' despite a 12% rise in online sales; the firm held steady on pricing and delivered most imported goods ahead of tariffs (CNBC)

• BHP missed Q2 estimates on its lowest FY profit since Covid with underlying profit falling 26% amid weaker iron ore and copper prices, though it highlighted record copper production (FT)

• Pop Mart, the maker of the viral Labubu doll, topped its own forecasts with a 400% H1 net profit growth and a 204% revenue surge amid strong global demand and a shift toward higher-margin overseas markets (RT)

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Target, Estée Lauder, TJX, Baidu, Lowe's, Macy's

  • Thursday: Walmart, Zoom, Workday, Costco, Best Buy

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• Investors across markets are looking to J Pow's speech on Friday for clues on rates ahead.

• Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi. Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100.

Headline Roundup

• 95% of GenAI pilots at companies are failing (FRT) 

• Sam Altman warned of an AI bubble (FT)

• S&P reaffirmed US rating at AA+/A-1+ (FT)

• New Zealand cut rates by 25 bps to a three-year low of 3% (RT)

• Scott Bessent says status quo with China 'working pretty well' (RT)

• PE firm stocks struggle despite getting into 401(k)s (WSJ)

• Citadel Securities' sees retail traders pausing stock buying (BBG)

• Money managers are scaling back bearish stance on China (BBG)

• Less than 1% of debanking complaints cited political bias (RT)

• China rare earth magnet exports hit six-month high in July (RT)

• Jefferies poached Moelis' head of RX as new chairman of global RX (WSJ)

• Apollo seeks to double India AUM in credit boom (BBG)

• Trafigura hired traders for deeper push into gold and silver (BBG)

• Duolingo's social media guru Zaria Parvez departed (ADW)

• Europe races to leverage US support for Ukraine troop plan (BBG)

A Message from Mizuho

In the current era of must-see live sporting events, sports leagues and teams are becoming increasingly attractive to private equity investors.

Mizuho | Greenhill's Co-Head of Corporate Finance and Head of Greenhill International, Kevin Costantino, and Stephen Amdur, Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP,  discuss the growing appetite for institutional investment in the sports industry.

Stephen provides his insight into the world of finance for professional sports teams and leagues, with the discussion exploring the rigor required to manage successful sports deals and the opportunities that exist for private equity investors in professional sports.

Our experts analyze the evolving sports landscape in the context of law and finance and cover topics such as the developing secondary market, the international market for sports franchises and how this investor interest impacts college sports.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• US wants equity in exchange for billions of dollars of CHIPS Act grants from firms potentially including Intel, Micron, TSMC, and Samsung

• Broadcasting giant Nexstar Media agreed to acquire TV station operator Tegna in a $3.5B all-cash deal at a 44% premium and a $6.2B EV

• Coal miner Peabody Energy backed out from a deal to acquire global miner Anglo American's steelmaking coal business for $3.8B after a fire at an Australian mine

• Midwestern utility giant Black Hills agreed to acquire US power and natural gas utility NorthWestern Energy in a $3.6B all-stock deal

• $1B-listed Taiwan insurer Mercuries Life is weighing a sale

• Metals and mining company CoreX agreed to acquire mining giant BHP's Carajas copper mines in Brazil for $465M

• SoftBank recently held talks with Intel to buy its contract chipmaking business

VC

• Data analytics software firm Databricks is set to raise a $1B Series K at a $100B valuation from Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, a16z, and others

• Australian graphic design platform Canva launched a secondary share sale at a $42B valuation to investors including Fidelity and JPMorgan Asset Management

• AI coding tools startup Cognition raised a $500M Series C at a $9.8B valuation led by Founders Fund

• Nuclear startup Aalo Atomics raised a $100M Series B led by Valor Equity Partners

• Viral AI-powered sleep-tech startup Eight Sleep raised a $100M Series D at a reported $1B valuation from HSG, Founders Fund, YC, F1 driver Charles Leclerc, McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown, and more

• Midas, a Turkish investment platform, raised an $80M Series B led by QED Investors

• AI-powered software test case creation platform Functionize raised a $41M Series B led by Mumford Investments and LHH Investments

• Keychain, a startup helping CPG brands find manufacturing partners, raised a $30M Series B led by Wellington Management and BoxGroup

• Casca, an AI-native loan origination platform, raised a $29M Series A led by Canapi Ventures

• AI crawler Firecrawl raised a $14.5M Series A led by Nexus

• Yourway Learning, an AI-powered K-12 education platform, raised a $9M round backed by Greybull Stewardship

• Convoke, an AI-native OS for biopharma, raised an $8.6M seed round led by Kleiner Perkins and Dimension Capital

• TensorZero, an open-source stack for industrial-grade LLM applications, raised a $7.3M seed round led by FirstMark

• ChemFinity Technologies, a startup building critical mineral recovery systems, raised a $7M seed round led by At One Ventures and Overture Ventures

• WALLROUND, a startup building Europe's largest tech-enabled renovation franchise, raised a $4.8M seed round led by Revent

• Three Space Lab, a VR real estate visualization startup, raised a $3M seed round led by Arminius Verwaltung

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Bain Capital and Cinven-backed German pharma company Stada is preparing for an IPO after an $11.7B sale to CapVest Partners stalled

• Chinese e-commerce and fast-fashion giant SHEIN is weighing relocating its HQ back to China to ease path for a Hong Kong IPO

• SMFG-backed Vietnamese bank VPBank plans to IPO its securities unit VPBankS

• Medtronic will expand its board after activist Elliott took a stake

• Activist Ancora is pressuring railroad operator CSX to pursue a deal with a rival or replace its CEO

• Activist Toms Capital requested to meet with CSX's board after buying a stake

Debt

• Banks and private credit firms are in talks to refinance $2B of debt of Gridiron Capital-backed Leaf Home as PE firms hold onto assets for longer

• Cameroon plans to issue a fresh eurobond as it plans a $1.7B borrowing

• UK-listed Africa-focused oil explorer Tullow Oil is in talks to refinance a $1.3B bond due next year

• German insurance giant Allianz sold $1.25B of perpetual notes 

• UK utility Anglian Water sold $610M of sterling bonds

• Healthcare turned Bitcoin treasury KindlyMD raised a $200M convertible note to buy more Bitcoin

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Mining conglomerate GFG Alliance is lining up financing from BlackRock for a contentious scheme to buy a crucial remaining part of Liberty Steel's business in UK out of insolvency, in a move set challenge creditors including UBS

• Collapsed fintech startup Linqto won court permission to try to sell valuable stakes in hard-to-acquire, private companies to fund its bankruptcy case 

• Hong Kong developer Parkview secured a three-month extension on a $940M loan

Fundraising / Secondaries

• Canadian secondaries investor Dawson Partners raised $8B for its sixth flagship fund

• Investment manager Neuberger Berman plans to raise $5B for its latest PE secondaries fund

• Pritzker Private Capital, an investment firm started by billionaire Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, raised $3.4B for its fourth fund

• PE firm BC Partners launched a third private credit fund to succeed its $1.6B predecessor to invest in MM deals

• Distressed debt giant Anchorage Capital Advisors raised $1.5B for its latest fund to invest in stressed, distressed, special situations, and structured credit

• Goldman's ex-head of global commodities trading Qin Xiao raised $1B in seed capital from Millennium and others for new Singapore hedge fund Nexus Commodities

• Japan plans to raise $1.5B for impact investing in Africa

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Finance industry seeks global crypto rule overhaul for banks

• Wyoming became first to launch a state-issued stablecoin

• Circle's blockchain sparks clash over future of digital payments

Check out our Crypto Sum newsletter for the full stories on everything crypto!

Exec’s Picks

• What's up folks! Our events company Palm & Park is partnering with Farsight for another chill happy hour on Tuesday, September 16 in Midtown Manhattan to bring together an exclusive group of experienced IB and PE professionals. Take some time off this unusually busy summer and join us for some laid-back conversations! RSVP here.

• Semafor's Liz Hoffman sat down with HarbourVest CEO John Toomey to discuss the rapid evolution of the PE space, from the rise of secondaries and continuation funds to private markets in 401(k)s.

• Hello interns. Bloomberg published a short primer on what PE continuation funds are and how they work. Just in case you've been out of the loop…

Finance & Startup Recruiting 💼

Litney Partners

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Next Play

If you're down bad, realizing finance isn't for you, and want to explore the world of startups (BizOps, chief of staff, strategic finance, etc.), fill out this form. Next Play will reach out to schedule a 1:1 video call if they think they can be helpful as your own, personal startup matchmaker. They've grown their community to over 50k talented individuals and have strong relationships across the tech ecosystem.

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.