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Good Morning,

FTX is considering using creditor money to restart crypto exchange (lol), US CPI fell to 5% YoY in March, public debt is growing faster than pre-Covid projections, US government posted a $378B budget deficit in March, JPMorgan wants its MDs back to office full-time, and Europe’s biggest SPAC is winding down.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 4/12/2023 market close.

Markets

  • US stocks fell yesterday despite cooling inflation data and Fed minutes that revealed several FOMC members considered pausing rate hikes in March

    • FOMC members forecasted a mild recession for 2023 following the banking crisis

    • The Dow snapped a four-day win streak

  • Dollar index fell 0.6%

Earnings

  • LVMH beat Q1 revenue estimates on a 17% rise in sales thanks to a strong post-lockdown China rebound and strong (but slowing) growth in other regions (RT)

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Today: Delta

    • Friday: JPMorgan, Citi, Wells Fargo, BlackRock

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • US CPI slowed to 5% YoY in March to a two-year low; core CPI nonetheless rose to 5.6% (WSJ)

  • Fed March meeting minutes revealed forecasts of a mild recession amid banking turmoil (AX)

  • Global and US VC investments dropped to $58.6B and $32.5B respectively in Q1 (AX)

  • Public debt is growing faster than pre-Covid projections (RT)

  • US government posted a $378B budget deficit in March (RT)

  • New vehicle prices fell below sticker price for first time in 20 months (RT)

  • JPMorgan asked MDs back to office full-time (RT)

  • Swiss parliament rejected Switzerland's $120B Credit Suisse rescue package (RT)

  • Banks that provided $30B liquidity to First Republic will set aside $100M for potential losses (RT)

  • Europe's biggest SPAC Pegasus Europe will wind down (FT)

  • China will drop its demand for development bank debt restructuring losses (RT)

  • Goldman reshuffled leadership in equity trading following Joe Montesano’s retirement (RT)

  • Juul will pay $462M to settle with six states in move that ends almost all its lawsuits (BBG)

  • Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled its combined streaming service ‘Max’ (CNBC)

  • Musk said Twitter is roughly breaking even in a BBC interview (BBC)

  • Volvo posted record Q1 profit despite supply bottlenecks and cost inflation (RT)

  • Nasdaq-listed Cutera fired its CEO and executive chairman (RT)

  • Trump sued his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen for over $500M (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Manufacturing company Emerson Electric agreed to buy measurement systems maker National Instruments in an $8.2B deal (BBG)

  • Japan's SoftBank sold another ~$7.2B worth of Alibaba shares as it moves to empty stake (FT)

  • Brookfield Infrastructure agreed to buy freight container lessor Triton International for ~$4.7B (RT)

  • Russia’s government approved Russian energy firm Novatek’s purchase of Shell’s former 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 energy product for $1.16B (RT)

  • Singapore-based VC firm The Edgeof agreed to buy Softbank Ventures Asia, the early-stage VC arm of Japanese tech investor SoftBank (BBG)

  • Fund administrator Apex Group acquired consulting and law firm MJ Hudson's data and analytics and business outsourcing divisions in a $49M deal as the law firm winds down operations (PFC)

VC

  • All-in-one investment platform Altruist raised a $112M Series D led by Insight Partners (VCN)

  • Teamworks, an enterprise SaaS company serving elite sports and tactical organizations, raised a $65M Series E led by Dragoneer Investment Group (VCN)

  • Data startup Cybersyn raised a $63M Series A led by Snowflake (RT)

  • Medication engagement company Scene Health raised a $17.7M Series B led by ABS Capital Partners (VCN)

  • Food-as-medicine platform ModifyHealth raised a $10M Series B led by RC Capital (PRN)

  • Materials science company Kintra Fibers raised an $8M Series A led by H&M Group (VCN)

  • Social marketplace HUG raised a $5M seed round led by DIGITAL (VCN)

  • Breast-feeding solution startup MilkMate Products raised a $5M seed round (VCN)

  • Ukrainian mobile-first web builder Zeely raised a $1M seed round from investors including Versna Capital, Angel One Fund, and Imagaru Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Chinese liquor company ZJLD is planning to soon start taking investor orders for its Hong Kong IPO that is expected to raise $800M-$900M (BBG)

  • EV battery component maker Ecopro Materials is seeking to raise $377M+ in a Korean IPO (BBG)

SPAC

  • Private jet service Flexjet terminated its planned $3B merger with Horizon Acquisition Corporation II (RT)

Debt

  • Walmart raised $5B via bond sale at a ~70 bps premium (MW)

  • India state-owned power sector financier REC raised $348M in three-year and three-month 7.51% bonds (ET)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

  • Catalog retailer AmeriMark filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $362M in debt (LW)

  • UK law firm Ince plans to enter administration and pursue a sale of the company (RT)

Fundraising

  • Carlyle is looking to raise $2B for a high-yield infrastructure debt fund (BBG)

  • German investment management firm Prime Capital is targeting $550M for its first commingled real estate debt fund (RCN)

  • Thai PE firm Lombard Asia raised a reported $250M for its fifth fund (NKK)

  • India's Nuvama Wealth Management raised $104M for a targeted $360M venture debt fund (VCC)

  • Denver-based Access Venture Partners raised $47M for its fifth fund to invest outside the Colorado region (BJ)

  • Pan-African VC JV Verod-Kepple Africa Partners raised $43M for a targeted $100M fund to invest in Series A and B startups (TC)

  • India-based VC firm BoldCap raised $25M for its second fund to invest in early-stage B2B SaaS startups (VCC)

  • Early-stage VC firm Overwater Ventures raised a $20M debut fund (BW)

Crypto Corner

  • Shapella, Ethereum’s first major upgrade since “The Merge”, is now live (TBC)

  • FTT token price pops as FTX floats possible plan to reopen exchange (TBC)

  • FTX is considering using creditor money to restart crypto exchange (BBG)

  • FTX has now recovered over $7.3B in assets (RT)

  • Crypto VC funding plunged by 80% in Q1 (BBG)

  • Binance.US will delist digital asset tokens TRON and Spell (RT)

Exec’s Picks

  • Technology news continues to cross over into the mainstream, with banking collapses, AI breakthroughs, and nonstop volatility in the venture capital industry. The Information has been a great resource to stay up to speed on insider news that does not get covered by TechCrunch, The Verge, or Bloomberg. Highly recommend a subscription to anyone serious about tech or venture capital. You can check them out here.

  • Bloomberg covered private equity’s latest money-making trade: buying their own portfolio companies’ debt at steep discounts.

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