Good Morning,

J Pow said we need to accept a higher risk of recession to fight inflation, Snapchat is launching a premium feature, Wall Street is pulling back from Middle Eastern SPACs, $30B in Russian oligarch wealth has been frozen or seized, and Substack laid off some of its staff.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Helen Chen, the Lazard intern who tragically passed away after falling on the NYC subway tracks on Tuesday.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 6/29/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

The indexes were flat on Wednesday as investors await today’s end-of-quarter rebalancing
Central bank governors and economists around the world met in Portugal for the European Central Bank’s annual forum to discuss global policies
Abroad, most stocks declined: the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600, Shanghai Composite Index, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.7%, 1.4%, and 0.9%, respectively

Earnings

Bed Bath & Beyond plummeted 23.6% after releasing poor Q1 results, posting a net loss of $357.7M, and announcing the removal of CEO Mark Tritton (MW)
General Mills exceeded earnings expectations thanks to higher prices helping lift sales; their stock rose 6.4% (MW)
What we’re watching today: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Micron Technologies
Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the Fed must accept a higher risk of recession in order to combat inflation (WSJ)
Snapchat is launching an upgraded Snapchat+ version of their app, with access to exclusive features for a $3.99 monthly fee (WSJ)
Germany's finance and justice ministers presented a plan on Wednesday to make the country's financial markets more attractive and accessible (RT)
Wall Street banks are rethinking their involvement in Middle East SPAC listings amid new liability guidelines from the SEC (BBG)
The US, along with other G7 allies, banned Russian gold imports in the latest round of Ukraine war-related sanctions (CNBC)
The Biden administration has agreed to pay $3.2B for an additional 105M doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine (WSJ)
The multinational task force designed to freeze Russian oligarchs' wealth has blocked or frozen over $30B worth of sanctioned Russians' assets and funds (AX)
The Biden administration expressed willingness to sell upgraded F-16 fighter jets to Turkey after Biden met with Turkish President Erdogan on Wednesday (RT)
Justice Stephen Breyer will retire from the US Supreme Court today and be replaced by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's first black woman (AX)
Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking (CNBC)
Newsletter platform Substack laid off 14% of its staff amid market uncertainty (YHOO)
A 22-year-old Lazard summer intern and NYU senior died in a tragic subway accident in NYC on Wednesday (NYP)

A Message From Masterworks

Inflation + Rate Hike + Volatility = Profit?

With yesterday’s stock darlings laid to rest and the specter of stagflation rising from the grave, the NYTimes is declaring one overlooked asset “bulletproof.”

No, it's not your stash of mango pods. (Thanks a lot FDA.)

We’re talking about fine art. Through the first half of 2022, the market is showing record growth of more than 32%, compared to 20% losses for the S&P.

And they're not alone: the WSJ calls art “among the hottest markets on Earth.”

Why I’m personally invested:

Growth: 14% annual appreciation (1995–2021)
Diversification: Lowest correlation to equities of any asset class
Hedge: Outperformed gold and real estate in last stagflationary period
Clout: You can tell your MD about it and they’ll actually listen

Now I know what you’re thinking: who’s got $20 million lying around to buy Basquiats and Banksys?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you fam: Masterworks makes investing in art simpler than getting your summer analyst to spread comps. This billion-dollar investing platform has returned +30% to their investors, not once, not twice, but THREE years in a row. No big deal.

The only problem? There’s a huge waitlist for membership. But ExecSum readers can skip to the front of the waitlist with this special link.

See important Regulation A disclosures

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

Global Infrastructure Partners and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority agreed to buy a controlling stake in European railcar lessor VTG, valuing the company at ~$7.4B (BBG)
US chemicals group Huntsman Corporation is in advanced talks to sell its textiles unit to SK Capital Partners in a deal that would value the business at under $1B (BBG)
Singapore-based regional health care provider HMI Group is exploring a ~30% stake sale that could value the company at ~$721M (BBG)
DigitalBridge Group, BDx and Equinix are among potential suitors for the ~$550M data center business of Malaysian telecommunications company Time Dotcom (BBG)
Texas-based BlackBrush Oil and Gas placed some of its assets in south Texas for sale; the production value of these assets would be ~$450M (RT)
South Korean tech giant Samsung purchased German OLED display startup Cynora for ~$300M (BBG)
Crypto exchange FTX is seeking to acquire troubled crypto lender BlockFi outright (TB)
Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s biggest digital financing platform for small and medium-sized firms, will buy Singapore-based payment firm CardUp (BBG)
Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of American video game company Activision Blizzard, plans to acquire video game developer Proletariat (BBG)
American retail giant Walmart will acquire AR optical tech company Memomi in a bid to expand its use of VR in shopping services (TC)
American merchandise retailer Bed Bath & Beyond is still open to selling its Buybuy Baby division amid the company's high Q1 losses and management shakeup (CNBC)

Entrepreneur First, a hybrid investment / talent curation platform that connects founders with other founders, raised a $158M Series C at a $560M valuation with participation from Stripe’s Collison Brothers (TC)
FalconX, a digital assets platform, closed a $150M Series D at an $8B valuation led by GIC and B Capital (TB)
Arzooo, an Indian startup that helps physical stores compete with e-commerce, raised a $70M Series B co-led by SBI Investment and Trifecta Leaders Fund (TC)
Spot, a tech startup offering on-demand injury insurance, raised a $33M funding round led by Ensemble VC; $25M in equity and $8M in debt (PRN)
Nautical Commerce, an e-commerce platform provider, raised a $30M Series A led by Drive Capital (TC)
Birdie, a provider of caretech SaaS, closed a $30M Series B led by Sofina (TC)
Ria Health, a telehealth provider specializing in alcohol use disorder treatment, closed an $18M Series A led by SV Health Investors (PRN)
Regard (formerly HealthTensor), a software company developing an AI assistant for physicians to help diagnose medical conditions, raised a $15.3M Series A led by Calibrate Ventures and Foundry Group (PRN)
Mapan, an Indonesian financial services provider, raised a $15M Series A co-led by Patamar Capital and PT Astra Digital International (TC)
AlgiKnit, a materials innovator creating eco-conscious yarns from kelp, raised a $13M Series A led by Collaborative Fund (PRN)
Timecho, an IoT data analytics startup, raised $10M in their first funding round led by Sequoia China (PRN)
Kukua, an educational entertainment company and creators of “Super Sema,” Africa's first animated superhero franchise, raised a $6M Series A co-led by Tencent and Alchimia (TC)
League of Traders, a social crypto trading platform, raised a $2.4M pre-series A led by C3 VC Fund (PRN)
Zing Data, a data analytics startup, raised a $2.4M seed round led by Kindred Ventures (TC)
Fitmint, a startup that rewards users for exercising with cryptocurrency, raised a $1.6M seed round led by General Catalyst (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

Chinese mining and manufacturing company Tianqi Lithium is planning to raise ~$1.7B in a Hong Kong IPO that could be the city's biggest this year (BBG)
Saudi oil field-services firm Arabian Drilling Company obtained the country's approval to IPO a 30% stake that could value the company at over $1.4B (BBG)
Chinese battery maker Sunwoda Electronic is working with Goldman Sachs and UBS for a sale of global depositary receipts in Switzerland that could raise as much as $500M (BBG)

Fundraising

Blackstone raised an initial $3B for its second growth equity fund, putting it on track to hit its $7-8B target (FR)
VC firm ARCH Venture Partners closed their ARCH Venture Fund XII with $2.98B to invest in early stage biotechnology companies (PRN)
Viking Global Investors is raising a $1B structured equity fund to provide capital to cash-hungry startups (BBG)

Crypto Corner

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows has been ordered by a British Virgin Islands court to liquidate after failing to repay their debts (WSJ)
CoinFlex's CEO said that the crypto exchange will likely not resume withdrawals today as planned (CNBC)
The Biden Administration’s proposed reporting requirements for crypto exchanges and brokers could be significantly delayed (CD)
France is pushing to finalize sweeping new EU crypto regulations before Friday, when their presidency over the European Council ends (TB)

Exec's Picks

Crypto lender Celsius has been one of the biggest names affected by the crypto bear market, freezing as much as $8B of client money as market conditions grew volatile. The Wall Street Journal's Eliot Brown and Caitlin Ostroff pulled back the curtain to show just how much risk Celsius was assuming as it became one of the biggest lenders in crypto. Check out their recent piece here.
"What are the Web3 use cases?" has been a hot topic for bears and bulls alike. Earlier this week, Packy McCormick wrote a detailed piece on where he thinks Web3 may go from here. Check out his latest here.

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 aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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