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Blackstone and Goldman CEOs are bullish on tariffs, private credit firms are expanding restructuring teams as bankruptcies surge, hedge funds are paying $1M for weather modelers, Intel named a new CEO, federal spending hit a new record on high interest, and DOGE has had zero visible impact on government spending yet.

Find public and private comps in mere minutes with Eilla's Valuation & Comps AI Analyst. Learn more below and try it for free.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 3/12/2025 market close. Litquidity portfolios as of 3/11.

Click here to learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*

Markets

  • US stocks inched upwards yesterday following an optimistic inflation report 

  • Europe's Stoxx 600 gained 0.8% to break a four-day losing streak

  • US investment-grade bond spreads hit 94 bps, the widest in six months

  • US junk bond spreads hit 322 bps, also the widest since September 

    • Junk spreads are up 56 bps since mid-February

  • German 10Y bund yield touched 2.93%, the highest since October 2023

    • Yields are up 53 bps MTD, the most in two years

Earnings

  • Adobe beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates but issued weak guidance as it grapples with slower monetization of AI offerings and tough competition from startups (RT)

  • American Eagle fell 6% as it beat Q4 earnings and met on revenue but issued concerns over slowing consumer spending (CNBC) 

    • Today: DocuSign, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • US CPI growth slowed to 2.8% YoY (CNBC)

  • US budget gap hit a record $1.1T fiscal YTD (BBG)

  • US interest payments hit $478B YTD, up 17% YoY (CNBC)

  • US federal spending hit a new record despite DOGE (FT)

  • BoC cut rates by 25 bps to 3% and warned on tariffs (CNBC)

  • Trump named Michelle Bowman as Fed vice-chair for supervision (FT)

  • Trump defended tariffs before corporate America CEOs (RT)

  • Blackstone and Goldman CEOs see upsides to US tariffs (FT)

  • Goldman CEO expects IPOs to increase this year (RT)

  • Multi-strat hedge funds face biggest markets challenge since Covid (BBG)

  • Private credit firms are expanding RX teams as bankruptcies surge (WSJ)

  • Hedge funds are paying $1M for weather modelers (BBG)

  • US investors are seeking refuge in value funds (RT)

  • Foreign investors dumped Taiwan stocks at record pace (BBG) 

  • Canada's HOOPP gained 9.7% last year (BBG)

  • UK regulators scrapped DEI rules for financial firms (FT)

  • PwC cut record number of UK partners last year (FT)

  • HSBC put bankers on short-term retention amid overhaul (BBG)

  • Hong Kong mulls lowering threshold to buy most expensive stocks (BBG)

  • Big Tech giants signed pledge to triple nuclear power (CNBC)

  • D-Wave claims 'quantum supremacy' in latest quantum breakthrough (WSJ) 

  • Google released AI models for growing robotics industry (TC)

  • Intel named industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as new CEO (WSJ)

  • Chemours named CEO of activist Vision One to the board (BBG)

  • Zuckerberg had meetings at White House again (RT)

  • FTC is moving ahead with Microsoft antitrust probe (BBG)

  • Firms that issue green bonds found better at tackling emissions (RT)

  • Trump crackdown is sending chills through Big Law (FT)

  • Manhattan rents soared to a record high as bidding wars spread (BBG)

  • Consumer angst is striking all income levels (WSJ)

  • Employee confidence fell to the lowest level in nine years (AX)

A Message from Eilla

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Eilla's newest Valuation & Comps AI Analyst is now live!

Built to identify truly relevant public and private comparables and dive deep into the drivers behind premium valuations.

How the AI Analyst works:

  • Finds Highly Relevant Comps: Scans through 78m companies and transactions to get most relevant comps based on product, business model and more.

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  • Creates Football Field: Calculates average multiples across sub-industries, backed by insights from sources like Cap IQ and Crunchbase.

Cut the constant manual digging and filtering of companies and deals to identify comps. Focus on the actual analysis.

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Drugmakers Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Endo are in talks to merge in a ~$7B deal

  • Scopely, a PIF-backed video game developer, agreed to acquire Pokémon Go and all other gaming assets from peer Niantic for $3.5B

  • A consortium of Warburg Pincus and KKR is in talks to take-private $3B-listed German pharma packaging firm Gerresheimer

  • Crypto exchange Binance raised a $2B stablecoin investment from MGX, Abu Dhabi's AI-focused SWF

  • IndusInd International, a holdings unit of Indian conglomerate Hinduja, is finalizing a $1.1B acquisition of Reliance Capital, the shadow bank unit of conglomerate Reliance

  • Greece's Piraeus Financial agreed to acquire a 90% stake in Greek insurer Ethniki Insurance from CVC for $653M

  • Pollen Street Capital is exploring a sale of German digital debt collector Pair Finance at a potential ~$330M valuation

  • Agri commodities trader ADM is exploring a sale of its futures brokerage ADM Investor Services

  • A consortium led by STG Partners co-founder Bill Chisholm emerged as a bidder for NBA team Boston Celtics

  • Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is exploring a sale of its 80% stake in Joramco, a Jordan-based aircraft maintenance company

  • UBS received regulatory approval to sell a 36% stake in Credit Suisse's China venture to SWF Beijing State-Owned Assets Management

  • Blackstone is evaluating strategic options for media company Hello Sunshine, including a potential merger with another studio

VC

  • Mexican digital bank Plata raised a $160M Series A at a $1.5B valuation led by Kora

  • AI drug startup Insilico Medicine raised a $110M round at a $1B valuation led by Value Partners Group and is considering a Hong Kong IPO

  • Qventus, a startup using AI to automate care, raised a $105M Series D led by KKR

  • Ditto, a startup bringing 'resilient connectivity' to edge devices, raised an $82M Series B at a $462M valuation led by Top Tier Capital Partners and Acrew Capital

  • Pentera, a startup building simulated network attacks to train security teams, raised a $60M Series D at a $1B+ valuation led by Evolution Equity Partners

  • Scimplify, an Indian startup helping pharma and agri firms access specialty chemicals, raised a $40M Series B at a ~$150M valuation led by Accel and Bertelsmann Investments

  • Ethena, a startup developing a synthetic stablecoin raised a $36M round from MEXC Ventures which includes a $20M USDe stablecoin investment

  • Vivace Therapeutics, a small molecule discovery and development company, raised a $35M Series D led by RA Capital Management

  • Axelar, a decentralized blockchain interoperability platform, raised a $30M strategic round from Arrington Capital, Distributed Global, Binance Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, and more

  • Clinical SaaS startup Motivity raised a $27M growth round from Five Elms Capital

  • Digital mortgage lender Tomo Mortgage raised a $20M Series B led by Progressive, Ribbit Capital, NFX, and DST Global Partners

  • Electric mobility subscription company Dance raised $12M from Elemental and others

  • Carpool Logistics, a vehicle logistics platform, raised a $12M Series A led by Wavecrest Growth Partners

  • Vantis, a German digital care innovation company, raised an ~$11M Series A led by Angelini Ventures 

  • Augmenta, a Canadian design platform for the built environment, raised a $10M seed round led by Prelude Ventures

  • Onyx, an open-source solution for enterprise search, raised a $10M seed round led by Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital

  • QuamCore, an Israeli startup specializing in quantum computing scalability, raised a $9M seed round led by Viola Ventures and Earth & Beyond Ventures

  • Metric, an AI marketing automation company, raised an $8.8M Series A from chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, Kahoot-founder Johan Brand, MP Pensjon, Altitude Capital, and others

  • Mimo, a financial management platform for SMBs, raised $8.5M in funding led by Project A

  • eBrands, a Finnish export platform enabling international growth for consumer brands, raised an $8.2M round led by Veikko Laine family office, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, and shareholders

  • Causal Labs, a startup building AI models to address civilization-scale challenges, raised a $6M seed round led by Kindred Ventures

  • Ready-to-drink sparkling margarita brand SipMARGS raised a $3M round led by Palm Tree Crew

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • South Korean machinery maker DN Solutions is seeking to raise $800M-$1B in what could be South Korea's biggest IPO this year 

  • Latvia's Air Baltic is considering raising ~$325M in a London IPO as soon as Q2

  • Semiconductor designer SkyeChip is considering a Malaysia IPO at an over $226M valuation

  • Liver-focused biotech Bluejay Therapeutics is considering raising $150M in a US IPO as soon as April

  • Hong Kong-listed luggage maker Samsonite will proceed with its US dual listing despite weak consumer sentiment hitting profits

Debt

  • Morgan Stanley is gauging investor interest for a potential $4B debt package to refinance financial SaaS firm Finastra's existing private credit

  • A JV comprising Blackstone, Canada's CPPIB, and Rialto Capital is looking to sell ~$395M of New York CRE loans, part of the Signature Bank debt acquired in 2023

  • UBS launched a $1B debt package to back Celsius Holdings' $1.8B acquisition of Alani Nutrition

  • Oman Electricity Transmission paused IPO plans and is now considering a bond sale

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Searchlight Capital-backed Canadian telecoms firm Mitel Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with plans to delever by ~$1.15B

  • Swedish EV battery maker Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in Sweden

  • Spirit Airlines emerged from bankruptcy

  • Ares approached numerous banks to purchase their debt holdings of distressed Hong Kong developer New World Development 

Fundraising

  • China's biggest bank ICBC launched an $11B technology and innovation fund to support the private economy

  • Private markets specialist Banner Ridge Partners plans to raise $3.2B for its sixth fund to acquire stakes in special situations, distressed, and opportunistic credit funds

  • Indian PE firm ChrysCapital raised a $2.1B for its latest PE fund, a record for an Indian PE firm

  • Brookfield raised $1B for a new fund to back smaller infrastructure companies

  • BlockTower's VC unit spun out as Strobe Ventures with plans for a $100M Fund II

  • Romanian canned food maker Scandia Food set up a $270M fund to acquire smaller peers that are contending with succession issues

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Stark Bank, the Brazilian online-only bank backed by Bezos Expeditions, is positioning itself as the go-to banking provider for Brazil's crypto startups

  • Lithuanian/Russian crypto fraudster wanted in US was arrested in India

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

Exec’s Picks

  • RacquetX is organizing the largest conference for all things racquet sports – tennis, padel, pickleball – literally any sport with a racquet. Clubs, tech startups, and players in the ecosystem are uniting in Miami Beach from March 22-24 to listen to panels, meet others in the space, and watch top players compete. I'm a judge for the startup competition they're hosting and would love for you to join!

    Register here and enter code litquidityrx25 for 25% off!

  • Owen Lamont published an insightful piece suggesting that degenerate traders are not confined to US.

Financial Services Recruiting 💼

If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting firm established by 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, credit, and investment banking.

We're currently seeking talent for some incredible roles. Head over to Litney Partners to drop your resume / create your profile and we'd love to get in touch!

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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.