Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty

November 04, 2023

Good Morning,

SBF has been found guilty on seven counts of fraud, the S&P/NZX 50 had its best trading week since July last year, Wellington Airport shares sale being considered by city council, Uber and Lyft have agreed to pay a total of $328 million to settle wage-theft complaints, and the National Party will need Winston to govern in enlarged Parliament.

Let's jump in.

Before The Bell

Markets

  • The S&P/NZX 50 Index saw a 0.67% increase yesterday, marking four consecutive days of gains and its best trading week since July last year. (GR)

  • The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell 20 bps over Wednesday and Thursday and is now down ~36 bps since touching a 16-year high above 5% last week. (RT)

  • The MSCI World stock index has risen 4.3% since Monday, which would be the largest weekly rise since November 2022. (RT)

  • European stocks extended gains for a fifth day, putting the region on track for its best week since March 2023. (BBG)

  • A collapse in the yen is forcing Japan to scale back a historic five-year, 43.5-trillion-yen defence-build-up aimed at helping to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan (RT)

  • South Korea is gathering local banks to help Poland buy $22 billion worth of weapons in Seoul's largest arms sale (RT)

  • The Bank of England keeps interest rate of 5.25% unchanged at 15-year high (AFR)

  • Egypt raises petrol prices by up to 14.3%, keeps diesel unchanged (RT)

Earnings and Data

  • Coinbase, the second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, reported Q3 earnings with a total revenue of $674 million, a decrease from the previous quarter (TC)

  • SocGen, France’s third-biggest listed bank, Q3 earnings beat estimates with a net income of 295 million euros. It was down 80% from a year earlier after write-downs tied to some of its activities on top of a 270 million-euro provision for deferred tax assets. (CNBC)

  • Apple fell 3% on Friday after it disappointed Wall Street with a forecast that indicated growth, blaming weak demand for iPads and wearables in China. (RT)

News Summary

  • Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty of fraud (AFR)

  • National loses two seats, will need Winston to govern in enlarged Parliament (Stuff)

  • Wellington Airport shares sale being considered by city council (RNZ)

  • Police call for public help in ‘priority’ investigation to track down rifles stolen from Hamilton club (Stuff)

  • Todd Sampson re-elected to the Qantas board, surviving a strong protest vote from shareholders (Guardian)

  • Bets surge on Melbourne Cup Day rate rise (AFR)

  • Russia's biggest drone strike in weeks hits critical Ukrainian infrastructure (RT)

  • Uber and Lyft have agreed to pay a total of $328 million to settle wage-theft complaints in New York (TC)

  • Australian academics apologise for false AI-generated allegations against big four consultancy firms (Guardian)

  • Trump sons deny knowing of financial statements at heart of $250m fraud trial (Guardian)

  • Israel says its troops have encircled Gaza (BBC)

  • Apple’s CEO struggles to soothe concerns about iPhone in China (BBG)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

  • Agribusiness firm Bunge, has applied for regulatory approvals for its $34 billion merger with Viterra in “major jurisdictions” in North and South America, Europe and China, and has gotten the green light from some of its smaller markets, including Colombia. (RT)

  • AustralianSuper has increased its stake in Origin Energy after rejecting a A$12.5 billion takeover offer from a Brookfield Asset Management Inc.-led consortium. The purchase of about 1.2% of Origin's public float raises AustralianSuper's stake in the company to approximately 15%.(BBG)

  • Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management has closed its Global Infrastructure Debt Fund at $6 billion and plans to deploy a portion of its capital in the Asia-Pacific region. (AFR)

VC & Fundraising

  • Norrsken22, a Pan-African VC firm, has closed its debut fund at $205 million, exceeding its initial target, with 59% of the funding coming from a consortium of unicorn founders and institutional investors. (TC)

Equity Raises

  • Acrow Formwork, the largest scaffolding and event infrastructure company in New Zealand, has launched a A$15 million equity raising to finance the purchase of MI Scaffolding. (AFR)

Debt

  • German insurance technology group Wefox has secured $55 million in debt financing from Deutsche Bank and UniCredit. This funding brings Wefox's total funding in 2023 to $160 million and will support its global expansion and mergers and acquisitions, while the company's valuation remains at $4.5 billion. (CNBC)

  • Steel distribution group InfraBuild, has launched a $544 million bond in a bid to raise funds to repay loans due next year. InfraBuild's net profit after tax declined by 16% to $239.6 million in the 12 months ending June 2023. (AFR)

Daily Picks

  • Succession actor Alan Ruck has crashed his truck into the side of a pizza shop in a four-way crash in Hollywood (Stuff)

  • The Wiggles demand council stop blaring Hot Potato 24/7 at homeless (Stuff)

The Daily Deck is sponsored by Industrial Equity, LLC

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