Debt Suisse Takeover

March 20, 2023

Good Morning,

Credit Suisse might be getting bought out by UBS, Myer is working with undercover cops to reduce theft, Putin has visited the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the Green Party in New Zealand is calling for capital gains tax and an end to the petrol tax cuts & NZ's Early Childhood Council is suing the NZ Government over discrimination.

Let's get into it!

Before The Bell

Markets

  • Shares globally were affected by the pressure on the banking sector, with the majority of the major indexes down.

Earnings

  • Argentina's inflation hit 102.5% YoY in February (BBC)

  • Briscoe Group reported a profit of $88.4m (NZD), up from $87.9m (NZD) last year. It also increased sales by 5.5% and will pay a dividend of 16c per share (Stuff)

  • Dairy co-op Fonterra has announced plans for an $800m (NZD) capital return in October using proceeds from the sale of its Chilean business Soprole (NBR)

  • Stats NZ said food prices rose 12% in February when compared with the year earlier, the biggest rise since September 1989 (NBR)

  • Median house prices in some of the country's wealthiest suburbs have fallen $300,000 or more over the past year, CoreLogic data shows (Stuff)

  • US CPI rose 6% YoY and was up 0.4% in February. This was in line with market expectations (CNBC)

  • DocGo Inc, a home healthcare service company came out with quarterly earnings of $0.11 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.17 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items (Nasdaq)

News Summary

Monday

  • The NZ government is scrapping the clean car upgrade scheme as part of a suite of measures to free up money to help households deal with cost-of-living pressures (NBR)

  • US authorities launched emergency measures to shore up confidence in the banking system after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank threatened to trigger a broader financial crisis (RT)

Tuesday

  • The US, UK and Australia have unveiled details of their plan to create a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines aimed at countering China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region (BBC)

  • China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued from Wednesday (RT)

Wednesday

  • NZX-listed software company Trade Window will cut up to 35 roles which is one-third of their workforce (Stuff)

  • Electricity prices are set to increase by 20% in some Australian states (9 News)

  • Meta is laying off 10,000 staff and will leave 5,000 vacancies unfilled (BBC)

Thursday

  • Credit Suisse Group AG sought to arrest a collapse in investor confidence Thursday by opening a 50 billion Swiss franc ($54 billion) credit line with the country’s central bank (RT)

  • The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners divest their stakes in the popular video app or face a possible U.S. ban, the company told Reuters on Wednesday (RT)

  • The ASX-listed intellectual property law group that owns New Zealand firm AJ Park has gone into a trading halt following a “cyber incident” it recently became aware of (NBR)

Friday

  • Napier MP Stuart Nash has been demoted to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings after his political implosion that saw him resign as Police Minister (1 News)

  • Sydney has sweltered through another day of high temperatures as the hot weather sparked bushfires across New South Wales (9 News)

  • ChatGPT advances are moving so fast regulators can’t keep up. As governments try to figure out how to regulate artificial intelligence, the latest developments add new challenges (BBG)

Weekend

  • NZ's Early Childhood Council is suing the NZ Government over discrimination (Stuff)

  • The Green Party in New Zealand is calling for capital gains tax and an end to the petrol tax cuts (Stuff)

  • Myer is working with undercover cops to reduce theft (AFR)

  • Putin has visited the Russian controlled Ukrainian city of Mariupol (BBC)

  • Credit Suisse's First Boston plans are in doubt (BBG)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

  • Samsung plans to invest $230.8B (USD) over 20 years in South Korea, which will be put towards five chip factories (BBC)

  • ByteDance was valued at ~$220B (USD) when UAE Royal's G42 bought a $100m + stake (BBG)

  • Volkswagen plans to invest 180B euros ($192.76 billion) over the next five years in areas including battery production and its North American operations, it said on Tuesday, with spending on combustion engines to fall from 2025 (RT)

  • Saudi Arabia plans to buy 121 Boeing 787 Dreamliner Planes costing ~$37B (USD) for its new airline Riyadh Air and existing airline Saudia will purchase 39 planes (BBG)

  • Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. received a green light to complete its $27B (USD) acquisition of Kansas City Southern, overcoming opposition from shippers and creating the only rail operator serving the US, Canada and Mexico (BBG)

  • Australia's Newcrest Mining and suitor Newmont Corp have agreed on terms for a round of early-stage takeover talks, ending a four-week standoff that threatened to spoil a potential AUD$20 billion-plus deal (AFR)

  • Glencore is willing to walk away from a $16B (USD) ($21.7B AUD) deal to buy aluminium from Russia’s No. 1 producer, in a move that would distance itself from one of its biggest rivals (AFR)

  • The Government has decided to develop a detailed business case for the Lake Onslow pumped hydro project after its phase one investigation identified an estimated build cost of $15.7B (NZD) (NBR)

  • Qualtrics International Inc said on Monday it will go private after the customer survey software maker's controlling shareholder, SAP SE, accepted a $12.5B (USD) bid from an investor consortium led by Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (RT)

  • Apollo Global will buy chemical maker Univar Solutions for $8.1B (USD), including debt (BBG)

  • Blackstone is buying event software company Cvent Holdings in a deal which values the business at $4.6B (USD) (BBG)

  • Auckland Airport to spend $3.9b on new terminals (NBR)

  • French oil major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) is selling some of its European petrol stations to Canadian convenience store operator AlimentationCouche-Tard for $3.3B as part of plans to turn them into food and services hubs (RT)

  • AusSuper’s Indara Digital in secret $2b (AUD) bid for BAI, knocked back (AFR)

  • T-MobileUSInc. is buying Mint Mobile, the budget wireless provider partly owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, for as much as $1.35B (USD) in an effort to bolster its prepaid phone business and reach more lower-income customers (BBG)

  • HKBN, a broadband provider in Hong Kong, could be the party of a bidding war between PE firms PAG and I Squared Capital. A bid could value the company at more than $1B (USD) (BBG)

  • I Squared Capital, a PE fund focused on infrastructure investments, is considering selling a minority stake in the Indian natural gas supplier Think Gas Distribution at more than $1B (USD) (BBG)

  • Kelsian Group, an ASX-listed transport group, has purchased the bus company All Aboard America! for $487m (AUD). The acquisition will be funded via a mixture of debt and equity (AFR)

  • Shares in Hurricane Energy soared up to 31% after it agreed on Thursday to be bought by London-based oil refining firm Prax Exploration & Production, valuing the British oil producer at 249m pounds ($300.6m USD) (RT)

  • PLDTInc. is nearing a deal to sell a portfolio of over 1,000 telecommunications towers to a firm backed by KKR & Co. for more than $200m (USD) (BBG)

  • O’Keeffe’s Burgundy Diamond Mines has signed a $US136m ($209m AUD) deal to acquire the Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada and is seeking to fund it with a $US150m ($231m AUD) equity raising (AFR)

  • Close the Loop, an ASX-listed sustainability-focused recycling business, has purchased US refurbished electronics business ISP TEK Services for $66m (USD) (AFR)

  • HSBC Holdings Plc has bought the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank for £1, the culmination of a frantic weekend where ministers and bankers explored various ways to avert the SVB's unit collapse (BBG)

  • The Takeovers Panel will look very closely at how a new Pushpay scheme of arrangement will protect shareholders after a new bid was revealed this morning, offering $1.42 for most shareholders but $1.34 for hedge funds that bought up shares when the scheme was first announced (NBR)

  • RBC has kicked off the search for a buyer of a 55.45% stake in Melbourne toll road company EastLink (AFR)

  • An hour after Sandon Capital disclosed a new 5.6% holding in Global Data Centre Group, stockbroker Aitken Murray crossed a line of 7.7m shares. The stake was worth 10% and believed to have come from Regal Funds (AFR)

  • A private-public partnership backed by BlackRock Alternatives plans to buy a 31.25% stake in Lake Turkana Wind Power, Africa's largest wind farm located in north Kenya (BBG)

  • Kāpura and Joylab have merged after being bought by DB Breweries (NBR)

  • UBS is exploring a deal to buy all or parts of Credit Suisse (BBG)

  • Liberty Global and CityFibre have held initial talks about a merger of their UK fibre networks (BBG)

  • Motive Partners, the fintech-focused private equity firm, is in talks to buy payments software provider ACI Worldwide Inc (BBG)

  • U.S. private lender First Republic Bank is exploring strategic options, including a sale (RT)

  • Microsoft signed a 10-year licensing deal to bring Activision's Call of Duty franchise to Japanese cloud gaming provider Ubitus on Wednesday, the latest move by the company to address regulatory worries about its bid for the games maker (RT)

  • Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is urging life sciences company Illumina Inc to divest cancer test developer Grail Inc and said that his director candidates will be best placed to pursue this goal (RT)

  • Mexico's Mifel bank is still in the bidding process for Citigroup's Mexican retail bank Citibanamex (RT)

  • Exxon Mobil Corp is considering selling its majority stake in Italy's main regasification terminal as part of a wider strategy to divest from noncore assets (RT)

  • Private equity investor Crescent Capital Partners is thinking about knocking together a new syndicate of investors to invest in its healthcare staffing business, Healthcare Australia (AFR)

  • There is at least one external bidder in the mix for Sun Cable, along with Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest (AFR)

  • Next Capital is mulling its options for non-bank lender SilverChef's hospitality business and has bought in Grant Samuel's for advice. It is considering either a debt refinancing or sale (AFR)

  • Insurance broker Honan Insurance Group, which is backed by TA Associates,has acquired its sixth business in the past six months. The latest purchase was Certus Insurance Brokers, a kiwi-firm. The acquisition was funded via a debt facility from Macquarie (AFR)

  • Spaceship Financial Services has been testing M&A interest (AFR)

  • Chipper Cash, an African-focused fintech that was backed by FTX and SVB, is weighing its options, including a sale or seeking new investors (BBG)

  • US regulators have started soliciting interested bidders for Signature Bank (BBG)

  • The Saudi National Bank who is the biggest shareholder of Credit Suissehas ruled out investing more (BBG)

VC & Fundraising

  • General Catalyst, a venture capital firm, aims to raise $5B (USD) for its next flagship fund (BBG)

  • Wingate is in the market for $100 million from sophisticated investors for its third corporate credit fund, which would be deployed into mid-market corporate lending (AFR)

  • The City of Sydney has chipped in $29m to help fund a new city centre hub for climate technology startups (AFR)

  • Better Beer, the fast-growing zero-carb beer brand which is 42 per cent owned by a pair of comedians, is embarking on a capital raising of up to $20m (AUD) to help underpin ambitious plans to increase volumes by a factor of five (AFR)

  • NZ rum startup Bayside Rum is seeking to raise $130k (NZD) via Pledge Me (Stuff)

  • NZ Agri-tech startup WayBeyond has received investment from the VC arm of global chemical and seed giant BASF and is seeking to raise further capital this week (NBR)

Equity Raises

  • Siemens Energy raised 1.259B euros ($1.33B USD) via the sale of new shares to help fund its takeover of wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa (RT)

  • Indorama Ventures Pcl, the acquisitive Thai chemicals company, is considering a US initial public offering of its integrated oxides and derivatives business that could raise about $1 billion USD (BBG)

  • Charoen Pokphand Group Co. is exploring an initial public offering of its seed and animal feed business in Thailand that could raise as much as $1B (USD) (BBG)

  • PT Trimegah Bangun Persada, an Indonesian metal and mining firm known as Harita Nickel, started taking orders for its IPO, which could raise as much as $647m (USD) (BBG)

  • Chinese driverless technology startup Guangzhou WeRide Technology Co. has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the US and is looking to raise as much as $500m (USD) (BBG)

  • Kelsian Group's acquisition of All Aboard America! will be funded via a $281m (AUD) equity raise underwritten by Macqauire and a $2m (AUD) vendor conditional share issued (AFR)

  • Eco-shop, a budget retail chain in Malaysia, is weighing an IPO in Kuala Lumpur that could raise as much as $179m (USD) (BBG)

  • Close the Loop is raising $40m (AUD) to fund its acquisition of ISP TEK Services (AFR)

  • Canadian lithium explorer Patriot Battery Metals was gearing up to put a $25m (AUD) odd raising to investors in its first cash call since it listed CDIs on the ASX in December (AFR)

  • The Dubai initial public offering of remittances and money exchange firm Al Ansari Financial Services received orders for all shares offered within an hour of books opening, marking a strong start for the emirate’s first listing of the year (BBG)

  • Caledonia (Private) Investments-backed Light & Wonder is back toying with the idea of an ASX-listing, wondering whether it could fill a hole left by Crown Resorts and trade like its rival Aristocrat Leisure (AFR)

  • Thai Beverage Pcl is exploring options for its spirits business including an initial public offering in Singapore (BBG)

  • Credit Suisse executives say they expect the First Boston IPO to be complete by 2025 (BBG)

Debt and bankruptcy/restructuring

  • Credit Suisse Group AG sought to arrest a collapse in investor confidence Thursday by opening a 50 billion Swiss franc ($54 billion USD) credit line with the country’s central bank and offering to buy back debt as executives and government officials plot the next steps for the troubled lender (BBG)

  • Brookfield is tapping Australian and overseas banks to bankroll its private hospital business Healthscope after securing a core group of banks for a $1.6B (AUD) senior debt package (AFR)

  • Capital-hungry AirTrunk has been back in funding markets, returning with another $650m (AUD) sustainability-linked loan and an undisclosed equity injection from its shareholders Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments (AFR)

  • Kelsian Group will draw down $226m (AUD) in debt to fund the acquisition of All Aboard America! (AFR)

  • Receivers have been appointed to early childhood services Rainbow Corner and Porse (Stuff)

  • Lakewood General Partner, a company associated with the troubled Lakewood Plaza apartment tower in Manukau City, has been placed in liquidation by the court (NBR)

Job Board

New Zealand

  • ANZ graduate roles - Apply here

  • BCG graduate roles - Apply here

  • BDO graduate and intern roles - Apply here

  • Bell Gully summer intern roles - Apply here

  • BNZ graduate roles - Apply here

  • Buddle Findlay summer clerkships - Apply here

  • Chapman Tripp winter and summer clerkships and clerk roles - Apply here

  • Deloitte intern roles - Apply here

  • Deloitte graduate roles - Apply here

  • DLA Piper insight programme,summer clerkships and clerk roles - Apply here

  • Duncan Cotterill summer clerkships and grad roles - Apply here

  • EY graduate and intern roles - Apply here

  • Forsyth Barr associate analyst (Wellington) - Apply here

  • Forsyth Barr associate analyst global equities (Wellington) - Apply here

  • Grant Thornton graduate roles - Apply here

  • KPMG graduate and intern roles - Apply here

  • PWC graduate and intern roles - Apply here

  • Russel McVeagh summer clerkships - Apply here

  • Russel McVeagh clerks - Apply here

Australia

  • Citadel Securities graduate and intern roles - Apply here

  • Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Intern - Apply here

  • IMC graduate and intern roles - Apply here

  • Jarden

    • Women in banking scholarship - Apply here

    • Winter internships - Apply here

    • Graduate role - Apply here

    • Summer internships - Apply here

  • Macquarie graduate roles - Apply here

  • Optiver

    • Graduate role - Apply here

    • Internships - Apply here

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