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Good Morning,

Lawsuits are piling on KKR’s founders, Vista is winding down its hedge fund, SEC is investigating banks over alleged cheating, traders piled into Treasury longs at record pace, OpenAI's co-founder joined rival Anthropic, and Kamala chooses Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as VP pick.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 08/06/2024 market close.

Markets

Major US indexes rebounded yesterday after a historic three-day decline
- Markets see a 75% chance of a 50 bps Fed rate cut in September
Japan's Nikkei 225 bounced back 10% in its best day since 2008 (a day after its worst crash since 1987)

Earnings

Uber jumped 11% after beating Q2 rev & EPS estimates on soaring demand for its ride-sharing and food-delivery services (CNBC)
Airbnb plunged 16% after missing Q2 EPS estimates and warning of slowing demand from US customers (CNBC)
Reddit reported a smaller-than-expected loss and beat Q2 rev estimates thanks to a boost from data-licensing (CNBC)
Amgen slightly missed Q2 EPS estimates, but beat on revenue and announced plans to increase capex on its obesity drug (BBG)
What we're watching this week:
- Today: Walt Disney, Shopify, Robinhood, CVS
- Thursday: Eli Lilly
Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

KKR founders face lawsuit for taking profits for no work (WSJ)
SEC is investigating big banks over billions in stolen interest (FT)
Investors brace for 'regime shift' as market volatility returns (FT)
US volatility-linked pressures expected to ease after $150B dump (RT)
Traders piled into then pulled Treasury longs at fastest rate in 42 years (BBG)
Goldman's Financial Stress Index is displaying relatively normal (RT)
Bridgewater sees Japan equities sell-off as overdone (RT)
US corporate bond issuances are set to slow amid market volatility (RT)
Mubadala is racing to salvage European start-up investments (FT)
Vista Equity Partners will wind down its hedge fund (BBG)
China Evergrande liquidators launched legal action against PwC (FT)
OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined rival Anthropic (RT)
Microsoft hit back at Delta over IT outage fiasco (BBG)
Musk's X sued firms over 'illegal' advertising boycott (WSJ)
US household debt delinquency rates stabilized in Q2 (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

PE firm Cinven will become the majority shareholder of Swedish drink maker Vitamin Well via a stake purchase from Bridgepoint at a $3.3B valuation (BBG)
Veritas Capital agreed to acquire NCR Voyix’s digital banking business for $2.5B (BBG)
Thoma Bravo is exploring a sale of ESG compliance software maker Cority at a $2B valuation, including debt (RT)
Canada's OMERS and German asset manager DWS will acquire Italian train station operator Grandi Stazioni Retail for ~$1.35B (RT)
Saudi Arabia's Zahid Group is in talks to take private Barloworld, an African distributor of Caterpillar equipment, valued at $908M (BBG)
KKR is nearing a deal for a controlling stake in financial communications company FGS Global for $800M (FT)
Media conglomerate Ziff Davis acquired tech news website CNET for ~$100M (NYT)
Commodities trader Gunvor will acquire TotalEnergies's 50% stake in Pakistan's second-largest gas station network Total Parco (BBG)

Abnormal Security, an AI-native human behavior security platform, raised a $250M Series D at a $5.1B valuation led by Wellington Management (BW)
Quantum computing error correction startup Riverlane raised a $75M Series C at a $400M+ valuation led by Planet First Partners (TC)
Industrial analytics startup Seeq raised a $50M Series D led by Sixth Street Growth (PRN)
Octane, a fintech for people to make recreational purchases, raised a $50M Series E led by Valar Ventures (PRN)
Data analytics platform KNIME raised a $30M round from Invus (TC)
H3X, a startup making electric motors for aerospace and marine applications, raised a $20M Series A led by Infinite Capital (TC)
AI-driven process mining startup Apromore raised a $15M Series B-1 led by Salesforce and GBTEC (BW)
Aurascape AI, an AI cybersecurity startup, raised a $12.8M seed round led by Mayfield Fund (FN)
Hyperspace, a startup building cloud instances to accelerate database tasks, raised a $9.5M seed round led by Mizmaa (TC)
Indian space startup EtherealX raised a $5M seed round led by YourNest (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

The Hong Kong IPO of China Resources Beverage is facing pushback on its $6B valuation target (BBG)
Indian EV scooter maker Ola Electric's $734M IPO drew $1.8B in bids (RT)
Fintech Klarna is considering a secondary sale ahead of a potential US IPO (BBG)
AI chipmaker Black Sesame International priced its shares at the low end of the marketed range to raise $133M in a Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

Debt

A $3.7B loan package for Focus Financial Partners was postponed due to market tumult (BBG)
JetBlue Airways held talks with lenders for a potential $2.8B ABS offering backed by its loyalty program (BBG)
Equatorial Guinea held talks with commodities trader Trafigura for a potential $2B in energy development financing (BBG)
Brazilian planemaker Embraer agreed to a five-year $1B syndicated credit line (RT)
T-Mobile postponed a $561M ABS offering backed by wireless equipment plans (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

US solar panel firm SunPower filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (BBG)
Lender Apollo will take over the real estate of bankrupt healthcare network Steward Health from Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie (BBG)

Fundraising

Infrastructure investor Stonepeak raise $3.2B for a debut middle market fund (BBG)

Crypto Corner

Hedge funds pile back into Bitcoin calls despite record liquidations (BBG)
BlackRock and Nasdaq make push for options on spot Ethereum ETF (TBC)

Exec’s Picks

The Litquidity Ventures team is hosting a mixer with investors and founders at NAOA Life Club in East Hampton this Sunday, August 11th. Come join the team for an afternoon of food, drinks, and padel. Pls note space is extremely limited so if you're interested in attending, please register here 🤝
Check out Litquidity’s merch store for some summer styles including bucket hats, tees, and bold statements. Shop here.

Financial Services Recruiting 💼

If you're a junior banker looking to break into the buy side, lateral to another investment bank, or consider new paths amid changing market dynamics, it's time you check out Litney Partners, a partnership between Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm).

We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, debt funds, and investment banking.

To get started, simply head over to Litney Partners and create your profile by dropping your resume / filling out the form:

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