Balloon shootings

February 06, 2023

Good Morning,

There was a widespread eftpos outage in New Zealand on Sunday due to an outage in a payment gateway provided by US company Windcave, ASB is offering some of its worst flood-hit customer $2000, maximum , Paracetamol pack sizes will be introduced in Australia, US Navy divers are searching for the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon they shot down & Elon Musk has been found not guilty of fraud over Tesla tweet.

Watch out for something new being released this week!!

Let's jump in!

Before The Bell

Markets

  • US stocks had another strong week on the back of some unexpected upside on economic data and fourth-quarter earnings (TRP)

  • European stocks also enjoyed a good week on the belief that the central banks maybe nearing the end on the most restrictive phase of this monetary tightening cycle. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 rose 1.23% (TRP)

  • The Australian and New Zealand markets followed the trends overseas ahead of earning seasons starting

Earnings

  • Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc., technology bellwethers with a combined market value approaching $5 trillion, posted results Thursday that show an economic slowdown is throttling demand for electronics, e-commerce, cloud computing and digital advertising — mainstays of the global tech economy (BBG)

  • Australian retail sales declined for the first time in 2022 in December, suggesting consumers are beginning to rein in spending in response to rapid inflation and rising interest rates. Sales tumbled by a larger-than-forecast 3.9%, the biggest fall since August 2020. The result came after November’s gain was revised higher to 1.7% as consumers brought forward Christmas spending to take advantage of Black Friday discounts (BBG)

  • China’s official manufacturing PMI reported a reading of 50.1, above the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction (CNBC)

  • January's CoreLogic House Price Index saw residential property values fall 7.2 percent over the year earlier, which was the biggest 12-month decline since May 2009's drop of 7.9 percent (RNZ)

  • The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) hiked by 50 basis points each on Thursday, with the BoE signalling the tide was turning against inflation and the ECB indicating at least one more hike was on the horizon (RT)

  • Euro-area inflation came in at 8.5% in January, which was lower than the expected 8.9% from analysts (BBG)

  • Eurozone GDP grew 0.1% in Q4 2022, beating expectations of -0.1% (CNBC)

  • McDonald's beat Q4 EPS and revenue estimates on a second-straight quarter of increasing traffic as inflation-strapped consumers chose cheaper eats (CNBC)

  • Meta shares soar almost 20% on fourth-quarter revenue beat (CNBC)

  • New Zealand recorded a trade deficit of NZD 475 million in December 2022, the lowest in seven months, and below an NZD 990.3 million gap in December of 2021. Goods exports rose 11% to NZD 6.7 billion, led by milk powder, butter and cheese; casein and caseinates; and wine. Meanwhile goods imports increased at a slower 1.8% to NZD 7.2 billion, prompted by purchases of aircraft and parts (Trading Economics)

  • The New Zealand unemployment rate rose to 3.4% in the December quarter, and pay did not seem to rise as much as consensus estimates (Stuff)

  • The Covid pandemic drives Pfizer’s 2022 revenue to a record $100 billion (CNBC)

  • Shell delivered a record $40 billion profit in 2022, the energy giant said on Thursday, capping a tumultuous year in which a surge in energy prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine allowed it to hand shareholders unprecedented returns (Reuters)

  • Spotify posted a worse-than-expected Q4 loss, but there was an upside in revenue. With a 20% YoY increase in active monthly users and a 14% YoY increase in paid subscribers (CNBC)

  • UBS reported a fourth quarter that beat analysts' expectations with a net income of $1.65B (USD) (BBG)

News Summary

Monday

  • Roughly 70% of the 383 respondents involved in the latest MLIV Pulse survey have suggested the US stock market has yet to hit the bottom amid concern over corporate earnings (BBG)

  • Toyota has defended their title as the world's top-selling automaker in 2022 (RT)

Tuesday

  • Australia has partnered with France to supply Ukraine with 155-millimetre artillery shells. Defence Minister Richard Marles and his counterpart Sebastien Lecornu have announced (ABC)

  • The UK economy is expected to be the only major economy to shrink in 2023 (BBC)

  • The International Monetary Fund sees a “turning point” for the global economy as it raised its growth outlook for the first time in a year, with resilient US spending and China’s reopening buttressing demand against a litany of risks (BBG)

Wednesday

  • ANZ has cut its home loan rates after the rise in unemployment in December (Stuff)

  • The UK government has promised robust regulation for the cryptocurrency industry (BBC)

  • Gautam Adani has lost his spot as the richest person in Asia and India (BBG)

Thursday

  • Popular investment platform Sharesies has begun consulting with its staff on a proposed restructure which will result in job losses (NBR)

  • 5B, the modular solar panel pioneer backed by Malcolm Turnbull and Simon Holmes à Court, is weeks away from commissioning new manufacturing capacity that will enable it to make and roll out prefabricated solar arrays 10 to 20 times faster than existing processes (AFR)

Friday

  • The country’s largest insurer says it has had more than 15,000​ claims from the Auckland and North Island floods, and expects to pay out more than $383 million​ in claim (Stuff)

  • Australia's two largest supermarkets have been ordered to dump thousands of kilograms of soft plastics in landfill a failed recycling program. Coles and Woolworths have been served notice by the NSW Environment Protection Authority to remove more than 5200 tonnes stockpiled at 15 sites across the state (9 News)

  • Apple again dominated smartphone profits. Taking a record 85% share. Apple Inc.’s iPhone set a new high for its share of profits from global smartphone sales in 2022, after navigating a dire year for the industry better than competitors (BBG)

Weekend

  • There was a widespread eftpos outage in New Zealand on Sunday due to an outage in a payment gateway provided by US company Windcave (Stuff)

  • ASB is offering some of its worst flood-hit customer $2000 (Stuff)

  • Paracetamol maximise pack sizes will be introduced in Australia (9 News)

  • US Navy divers are searching for the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon they shot down (BBC)

  • Elon Musk has been found not guilty of fraud over Tesla tweet (BBC)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

  • French oil major TotalEnergies and Iraq are taking further time to hammer out key sticking points in a long-delayed $27 billion energy deal which Baghdad hopes will revive foreign investment in the country (RT)

  • The risk that Queensland’s LNG producers will be forced to sacrifice exports to avoid shortages among local customers as a result of the federal gas price intervention has emerged as a threat to the proposed $18.4 billion takeover of OriginEnergy (AFR)

  • Brookfield / EIG have held talks to re-price their $9 (AUD) a share joint bid for Origin Energy to factor heightened risk since due diligence began (AFR)

  • A large investor in Ritchie Bros Auctioneers is backing the Canadian company's proposed $6B (USD) takeover of IAA (BBG)

  • Lotus Technology, the electrical car maker owned by Geely, has gone public via a SPAC that will value the combined entity at ~$5.4B (USD) (BBG)

  • UBS announced plans to repurchase more than $5B (USD) of shares this year (BBG)

  • Yamana Gold's $4.8B (USD) takeover has won backing from investors (BBG)

  • Cnooc, a Chinese oil giant, has paused plans to sell its UK North Sea portfolio, which could have been valued at as much as $3B (USD) due to a valuation gap (BBG)

  • Aesop, a high-end cosmetics brand, is attracting attention from LVMH and L'Oreal. A deal could value the company at more than $2B (USD) (BBG)

  • Lone Star, an investment group, has agreed to buy Titan an industrial shipping repair and fabrication company form Carlyle Group and Stellex Capital Management. The deal is reported to be worth ~$2B (USD) (BBG)

  • Owners of the Indian in-vitro fertilisation clinics business, Indira IVF, are considering selling in a deal that could value the company at more than $1B (USD) (BBG)

  • Western Digital, a chipmaker, has received a $900m (USD) investment led by PE firm Apollo Global Management (BBG)

  • Bid Corp, a South African food service company, is considering selling its Angliss business in Asia. It believes this business is worth a couple hundred million (USD) or more (BBG)

  • Fresh from losing Clough to Italy’s Webuild, Murray & Roberts has Houlihan Lokey’s bankers shopping RUC to trade players and private equity groups in an effort to get a $200 million-odd bid (AFR)

  • ANZ Bank is spending ~$50m (AUD) on a material stake in View Media Group, which is a property technology company that is also backed by Seven West Media (AFR)

  • Repurpose It, a Melbourne-based resource recovery and waste treatment group, is looking to sell. It is expecting EBITDA for 2023 to be close to $40m (AUD) (AFR)

  • Italy's Webuild has proposed to buy Clough's Asian Pacific projects for around $39m (AUD) (AFR)

  • CleanPeak Energy has acquired Mugga Lane Solar Farm for around $30m - $40m (AUD) (AFR)

  • Carbon Revolution, the lightweight wheel maker which is attempting to merge with a United States group that would result in a likely listing on the Nasdaq exchange in New York, went into yet another trading halt on Tuesday as its December quarter update was delayed. With shares closed at 15.5¢ (AUD) on Monday compared with an issue price of $2.60 (AUD) in a public float in late 2019, they're looking for a push to secure up to $30 million (AUD) in bridge funding for the next few weeks (AFR)

  • Bestway, a British convenience-store operator, has raised its stake in J Sainsbury to 4.47% from 3.45% (BBG)

  • CVC Capital Partners, a PE firm, are nearing a deal to acquire Danish transport company Scan Global Logistics (BBG)

  • Due diligence is due to get underway at Tyro after they agreed the DD terms with Potentia (AFR)

  • Zur Rose unexpectedly agreed to sell its Swiss business to Migros subsidiary Medbase in order to focus on expanding in Germany, the Swiss online drug retailer said on Friday, sending its shares soaring on their best day ever (RT)

  • Malaysia's Petronas is finalising its first acquisition of an Australian renewable energy business, set to pick up German firm Wirsol's solar farms and a large development pipeline, two people involved in the transaction said (RT)

  • Thungela Resources Ltd., South Africa’s largest exporter of coal burned in power stations, has agreed to buy a mine in Australia as it seeks to diversify its operations (BBG)

  • Fresh off a huge 2022 - where Fortitude returned $140 million to investors at more than four times money - the group’s reloaded its portfolio with a controlling stake in Aged Care Decisions, investing alongside founders and management (AFR)

  • KKR&Co. has made a non-binding bid for a stake in Telecom Italia SpA’s multi-billion-euro network, the Italian carrier said on Thursday, as Chief Executive Officer Pietro Labriola seeks to turn the business around (BBG)

  • Australian billionaire James Packer is considering an investment in Argentina’s energy or mining sectors, according to people familiar with the matter (BBG)

  • Casino Guichard-PerrachonSA and TeractSA, a challenger backed by billionaire Xavier Niel, said they are in talks to combine their French retail operations, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report (BBG)

  • DNV, a Norwegian energy risk and assurance giant, has acquired Solcast, an Australian startup which sells data and forecasting solutions for solar energy to the like of Rio Tinto and BP (AFR)

  • MA Moelis has sent out flyers for Sun Cable and asked for bids by the first week of March (AFR)

  • Activist investor Elliott Investment Management disclosed it has a stake in German tower company Vantage Towers (BBG)

  • The UK's largest grocer Tesco has agreed to buy the ailing Paperchase Stationary Brand (BBG)

  • Brookfield Asset Management, a PE firm, has snapped up DWS's Secondaries Arm (BBG)

  • Vedanta has shelved plans to sell its mega Indian Copper smelter (BBG)

  • Audi has acquired a minority stake in the F1 team Sauber Group (BBG)

  • GQC Funds Management returned 13.1% for the December half (AFR)

  • Shareholders of Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company AMCI Acquisition Corp II will vote this week on a merger with New Zealand-founded and US-based carbon recycling company LanzaTech – one of the last major hurdles in the deal proceeding (NBR)

  • Investment bank Jefferies has started drumming up private equity interest in Silver Lake's Australian born-and-bred ticketing and live entertainment business TEG, preparing potential buyers for a process due to play out in coming months (AFR)

  • M&A arbitrage fund Harvest Lane Asset Management has followed Regal Funds Management out the door at Warrego Energy, as smart money bets the situation has gone from the hottest deal in town to stalemate. Harvest Lane was selling down its 3 per cent-odd position in Warrego in the past week, at AUD 38 cents or higher. Broker sources said it wanted to cut most of its shareholding and rollover only a small slice into Strike (AFR)

VC & Fundraising

  • Stripe, a payments startup, is in talks of a possible funding round with VC firm Thrive Capital. Thrive Capital would invest $1B (USD) as part of a larger funding round that would value Stripe at between $55B - $60B (USD) (BBG)

  • Healthcare-focused Patient SquareCapital, founded by former KKR & Co. dealmaker Jim Momtazee, raised $3.9 billion for its debut fund, surpassing a $3 billion target (BBG)

  • PE firm Convergence Partners has raised a $296m (USD) African tech fund (BBG)

  • Hnry, a Kiwi firm that has created accounting software for sole traders, has raised $35m (AUD) series B fund led by AirTree Ventures, Athletic Ventures and New York-based fund LeftLane Capital (AFR)

  • Retreating VC investor Salesforce Ventures has invested $39m (AUD) into Sydney-based quantum computing startup Q-CTRL (AFR)

  • CurveBeam AI, a bone fragility imaging tech company, has closed an oversubscribed funding round raising $25m (AUD). It included backing from Andrew Forrest's Tenmill and other top institutional investors (AFR)

  • Swaggie, an Australian seasonal jobs platform app, has raised a $435k (AUD) seed investment round (AFR)

Equity Raises

  • The world's biggest electrical car battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology has chosen banks for its $5B (USD) minimum global depository receipts raise in Switzerland (BBG)

  • FirstEnergy Corp. will raise $3.5 billion by agreeing to sell an additional 30% stake in its transmission unit to an affiliate of investment firm Brookfield Asset Management (BBG)

  • Adani Enterprise have completed its $2.5B (USD) equity sale (BBG)

  • The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund has chosen Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley to lead work for an initial public offering of its 30% stake in Athens International Airport, which will likely take place in the second half of the year. HRADF expects its stake to be valued at €800 million ($872 million USD) to €1 billion depending on market conditions (BBG)

  • Solar energy technology provider Nextracker Inc. is seeking to raise as much as $535 million in what could be one of the first major US initial public offerings of the year (BBG)

  • NYSE-listed Metals Acquisition Corp has put a $US215 million-odd equity raising to fund managers to try to finally bed down its $US1.1 billion deal to buy Glencore's CSA copper mine in NSW (AFR)

  • Zen Energy, a green electricity retailer and installation business, is preparing for a $200m - $300m (AUD) equity raise, which would allow it to start developing its own power generation and storage (AFR)

  • Australia's Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd is raising $180 million (AUD) in one of the country's first major capital raisings of 2023 to buy British travel business Scott Dunn for A$211 million. The company said on Tuesday it had agreed on a deal to buy the business, which specialises in tailor-made luxury travel, as it banks on a sustained rebound in global travel after the pandemic. The raise is underwritten by Macquarie Capital and UBS (RT)

  • Citi’s equities desk was seeking buyers for a $91.2 million stake in PaladinEnergy on Thursday night (AFR)

  • Winsome Resources, an ASX lithium hopefully, is raising $45.2m (AUD) via a $26m (AUD) institutional placement with room for $5m (AUD) in oversubscription, a $19.2m (AUD) flow-through placement to Canadian investors and a $10m (AUD) share purchase plan (AFR)

  • Copper player AIC Mines has crossed investors around a $30m equity raise (AFR)

  • West Australian copper explorer Cyprium Metals had three brokers launch a $25 million two-tranche placement after market close on Thursday, to help it get senior debt for a mine restart (AFR)

  • Sydney-based alternatives investments platform iPartners, which is chaired by former Telstra chair Bob Mansfield, is bucking the trend in the tech sector with a $20 million raising underway via stockbroker Wilsons (AFR)

  • Broken Hill Iron ore explore Hawsons Iron is rising $8.8m (AUD) via a share placement and share purchase plan (AFR)

  • ASX listed Canadian gold hopeful Auteco Minerals was raising $8m (AUD) with an additional $2m available if it is oversubscribed (AFR)

  • Luxury yachtmaker Ferretti is seeking approval to list in Milan (BBG)

  • African gold explorer RiccaResources, which is chaired by the Lake Resources’ chair Stuart Crow, is asking investors to chip into its pre-IPO round as it aims for a listing by June (AFR)

  • Bells, Peloton rattle tin for DroneShield; Euroz for 88 Energy (AFR)

  • Adnoc, the United Arab Emirates' national energy company, has started pitching an IPO of its gas business to investors and told them it made a record profit last year (BBG)

  • Kefi Gold, a gold explorer with projects in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, has hired advisors for a potential dual listing in Riyadh (AFR)

  • Acumentis, a listed valuation firm, will raise capital after reporting losses and Covenant breaches (AFR)

Debt Raises

  • GrupoMexicoSAB is close to lining up financing to back a more-than $7 billion bid for Citigroup Inc.’s Mexican retail bank Banamex, according to people familiar with the talks (BBG)

  • US hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management bought $1.1 billion in bad debt from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC as the lender cleans up a balance sheet battered by a series of corporate defaults (BBG)

  • The debt market is proving tricky for BGH Capital to secure the funding they need to complete their deal to buy Australian Venue Co (AFR)

  • Japanese banks have extended the deadline to issue commitment letters for a loan that backs Japan Industrial Partners led consortium takeover offer for Toshiba Group (BBG)

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