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JPMorgan's CEO succession took a complicated turn, OpenAI named one of Wall Street's most powerful dealmakers to its board, US sued KKR for skirting antitrust regulations, KPMG plans to compete with US law firms, and EU is reassessing its probes into Big Tech giants.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 1/14/2025 market close.

Markets

  • US stocks closed mixed yesterday as investors digested inflation data and braced for the start of Q4 earnings

  • UK 30Y real yield hit its highest since 2006

Earnings

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, BlackRock

    • Thursday: UnitedHealth, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, TSMC

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • US repeat corporate bankruptcies hit the highest since Covid and many of y'all RX folks are probably witnessing this in real time.

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Headline Roundup

  • US posted a record $711B deficit in fiscal Q1 ​​(RT)

  • US producer inflation rose by less-than-expected 0.2% (CNBC)

  • Goldman CEO David Solomon says US economy in a 'fragile place' (FT)

  • US small business confidence jumped to a six-year high (RT)

  • JPMorgan reshuffled top leadership, complicating CEO succession (BBG)

  • BlackRock exec and potential CEO candidate Mark Wiedman will depart (RT)

  • US sued KKR for $650M for avoiding antitrust scrutiny (BBG)

  • Wall Street bankers say M&A outlook has already jumped in 2025 (RT)

  • Asset managers turn defensive as equity prices soar (FT)

  • Repeat US corporate bankruptcies hit the fastest pace since Covid (BBG)

  • China retail investors soured quickly on stocks (RT)

  • Japan investors sold foreign assets for a third straight month (RT)

  • China new loans post first drop in 13 years (BBG)

  • KPMG plans to rival US law firms (FT)

  • Distressed Chinese firms face flurry of court hearings (BBG)

  • Activist HG Vora will launch a proxy fight against Penn Entertainment (BBG)

  • Jamie Dimon wants to expand JPMorgan Chase to Germany (WSJ)

  • OpenAI named billionaire PE tycoon Adebayo Ogunlesi to the board (CNBC)

  • SEC sued Musk for failure to disclose Twitter ownership (CNBC)

  • CFPB sued Capital One for cheating customers out of $2B in interest (NYT)

  • Intel will spinoff its VC arm (RT)

  • Meta will cut 5% of staff, targeting lowest performers (BBG)

  • OpenAI rolled out 'Tasks' to rival Siri and Alexa (RT)

  • EU is reassessing its probes into Apple, Meta and Google (FT)

  • Milei doubles down on Argentina's unorthodox currency policy (FT)

  • BofA becomes official banking partner of US Soccer ahead of World Cup (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • SGS is in talks to combine with French peer Bureau Veritas to create a $35B European testing and certification company

  • State-controlled energy giants Taqa and Equinor are among firms considering a deal for Germany-controlled power utility Uniper, which would be valued at over $10.3B

  • Crypto options trading platform Deribit, valued at $4B-$5B, is reviewing options after attracting takeover interest 

  • Industrial equipment company United Rentals agreed to acquire smaller rival H&E Equipment Services in a $4.8B cash deal, including debt

  • Heavy industrial parts maker Wabtec agreed to buy Evident's inspection technologies unit for $1.78B 

  • PE firm I Squared Capital is close to making a buyout offer for $880M-listed Hong Kong broadband provider HKBN, potentially inciting a bidding war with China Mobile

  • Construction firm EMCOR agreed to acquire electrical services provider Miller Electric Company for $865M cash

  • Real estate-services firm CBRE agreed to acquire the 60% stake that it doesn't already own in co-working firm Industrious at an ~$800M valuation 

  • Diagnostic imaging firm Lantheus agreed to acquire South African hospital operator Life Healthcare's radiopharmaceuticals business LMI for up to $750M

  • SWF ADIA will acquire a 10% stake in Canadian institutional allocator platform Innocap Investment Management

VC

  • Truck EV startup Harbinger raised a $100M Series B led by Capricorn Investor Group and Leitmotif

  • Sygnum, a Swiss-Singaporean digital asset banking group, raised a $58M round at a $1B valuation led by Fulgur Venture

  • LemFi, a UK financial services platform for immigrants, raised a $53M Series B led by Highland Europe

  • Orchid Security, an identity-first security orchestration platform, raised a $36M seed round led by Team8 and Intel Capital

  • Overland AI, a startup developing advanced autonomy for UGVs, raised a $32M Series A led by 8VC

  • Quantum computing startup SEEQC raised a $30M Series A led by Booz Allen Ventures and NordicNinja

  • NatureMetrics, a startup focused on nature intelligence and biodiversity monitoring, raised a $25M Series B led by Just Climate, EDF Pulse Ventures, and Monaco ReOcean Fund

  • Vertical Compute, a startup optimizing memory and compute technology, raised a $20.5M seed round led by Eurazeo, XAnge, Vector Gestion, and Imec

  • Crypto wallet infrastructure startup Dfns raised a $16M Series A led by ADQ's Further Ventures

  • AI-based order operations solutions startup Pipe17 raised a $15.5M Series A led by LFX Venture Partners

  • The Snow League, the world's first professional winter sports league dedicated to snowboarding and freeskiing, raised $15M in funding led by Left Lane Capital

  • Reown, an on-chain UX platform, raised a $13M Series B led by Union Square Ventures and 1kx

  • XtremeX Mining Technology, an innovative drilling solutions company, raised an $11M Series A led by GoGreen Partners

  • Deal execution platform Sydecar raised an $11M Series A led by Deciens Capital

  • BforeAI, a predictive attack intelligence and digital risk protection solution, raised a $10M Series B led by Titanium Ventures

  • Boardy AI, an AI startup for networking, raised an $8M seed round led by Creandum

  • Daash Intelligence, an AI-powered predictive commerce intelligence platform for retail brands, raised a $5.5M second seed round led by Bullpen Capital

  • Thoras, an AI platform helping firms reach reliability without overspending on cloud, raised a $5M seed round led by Wellington Ventures

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Australia's Macquarie agreed to invest $5B and take a 15% stake in Applied Digital's high-performance computing business

  • Pfizer offered to sell a 7.7% stake in UK consumer healthcare company Haleon to raise $3.1B

  • Indian manufacturing and logistics startup Zetwerk plans to raise $500M in a local IPO

  • Titan America, the US unit of Titan Cement International, filed for a US IPO that could raise $500M at a $2B valuation

  • Apollo is considering an Indian IPO of auto parts supplier Tenneco's India business to raise $400M-$500M at a $2B valuation

  • Digital bank Super Bank Indonesia is considering a Jakarta IPO that could raise $200M-$300M at a $1.5B-$2B valuation

Debt

  • EU raised the target of a bond sale to $6.2B amid strong demand

  • Bankers are preparing up to $3.7B of debt financing to back a potential sale of UK consumer goods giant Reckitt's homecare assets

  • Public pension Florida Retirement System sold $2B of private credit stakes

  • Lenders led by Goldman Sachs will provide an upsized $1.35B leveraged loan to Proofpoint, a cybersecurity and compliance firm owned by Thoma Bravo

  • KKR and Canada's CPPIB are seeking $1B from lenders to acquire German multimedia giant Axel Springer's real estate ads unit Aviv

  • Citadel plans to raise over $500M in a corporate bond sale

Fundraising

  • Ares raised $17.6B for its latest European private credit fund, bringing the total fund size to over $30B

  • European MM PE firm Equistone paused fundraising for its seventh flagship fund after failing to reach its initial $2.6B target

  • Dutch VC Keen Venture Partners raised $128M for a European defense fund

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Jamie Dimon still sees no value in Bitcoin (CD)

  • Altcoin-ETF inflows may be as high as $14B (BBG)

  • Donald Trump could issue crypto executive orders on first day (CD)

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

Exec’s Picks

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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