Cyclone season - tropical cyclone Gabrielle set to hit NZ

Good Morning,

Tropical cyclone Gabrielle is expected to hit the upper north island from Sunday onwards, the  the death toll from the Syria-Turkey quake is up to 10,000, Hipkins' scraps policy proposals to refocus on the 'bread and butter', Bidden calls for bipartisan unity in his annual Union speech and Lebron James has broken the record for for the most regular-season career points in the NBA.

Let's jump in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Boral and Suncorp upbeat profits lift ASX 0.4% as evidence of margin improvement fuelled investor confidence in the face of rising interest rates (AFR)

• US stocks rallied to a convincingly higher close, but trade was choppy as investors digested comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about how long the central bank may need to tame inflation (RT)

Earnings and Data

• Activision Blizzard beat Q4 EPS estimates on record quarterly net bookings and higher than expected monthly active users; the firm is due to be acquired by Microsoft for $69B in Q2 2023 (YH)

News Summary

• Tropical cyclone Gabrielle expected to 'rapidly deepen' into a category three South Pacific cyclone within 24 hours and is expected to bring severe weather to the upper North Island from Sunday onwards (Herald)

• Nine announced it has secured the rights for the Olympics until 2032 (9 News)

• The New Zealand Government is dropping its proposed social insurance scheme, dumping the biofuels mandate, and will only increase the minimum wage by the rate of inflation from April 1 (NBR)

• Death toll from Syria-Turkey 7.8 magnitude quake nears 10,000 (RT)

• President Biden used his State of Union address to try to sell Americans on his economic agenda and called for renewed bipartisanship, but his appeals for unity were punctuated by Republican lawmakers' loud objections to his remarks (WJ)

• Lebron James has overtaken Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the player with the most career regular-season points in NBA history (BBG)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

• Strike Energy has accepted rival bidder Hancock Prospecting's 35c AUD a share offer over its own one-for-one scrip offer, resulting in Perth Basin gas player Warrego Energy will end up in Gina Rinehart's control (AFR)

• Pharmco expands its dental portfolio with the acquisition of Oraltec (Scoop)

• AMCI stockholders have approved the merger of publicly-traded special acquisition company, ACMI Acquisition Corp II and New Zealand-founded and US-based carbon recycler LanzaTech (NBR)

• Suncorp is weighing options for its New Zealand life insurance business (AFR)

VC & Fundraising

• Goldman Sachs Asset Management has closed a $5.2b USD direct private markets funds that invests in high-growth businesses (RT)

• Chinese electric aircraft startup TCab Tech raised $15m USD in funding as it works on a prototype air taxi (BBG)

• Fabrum raises $23m NZD in a Series A financing round let by London-headquartered AP Ventures to advance hydrogen technologies and decarbonise the economy (Scoop)

Equity Raises

• Bed Bath & Beyond staves off bankruptcy with $225m USD from stock sale (RT)

• New South Wales explorer Silver Mines asked investors for a $12m AUD cash injection to keep the wheels turning at its Bowdens project near Mudgee (AFR)

• Pet sitting, food and health business Mad Paws announced a $4m AUD equity raising (AFR)

• Strike Energy is raising capital (AFR)

Debt

• Pacific Hydro has banked a new $1.5B AUD debt package (AFR)

• Plenti, Columbus Capital, Pepper have kicked off securitisations for the year. Columbus Capital was seeking to raise up to $500m AUD (AFR)

Love our newsletter? Please share it with your friends, family, colleagues or anyone who needs to stay on top of the market via this link.

Also, if you have any feedback or questions, don't hesitate to hit us up via email or Instagram. 

The Daily Deck is sponsored by Industrial Equity, LLC