UK Conservative Party on the Brink of Defeat

Good Morning,

A Kiwi woman is reportedly dead after being run down following a robbery outside a California shopping mall as the attackers fled in a hail of bullets, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell managed to smooth some election-ruffled feathers in bond markets on Tuesday & After 14 years in power, the U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party looks to be standing on the brink of a momentous electoral defeat in the July 4 vote.

Let's jump in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Australia’s sharemarket is falling further behind its global peers as the risk of another rate increase from the Reserve Bank of Australia threatens to derail a rebound in corporate earnings. (AFR)

• Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell managed to smooth some election-ruffled feathers in bond markets on Tuesday, helping Wall St stocks back to all-time highs as a sweep of labor market soundings are due ahead of the July 4 break. (RT)

Earnings and Data

• Lion New Zealand beer company takes $26m hit from ‘onerous’ contract. (Herald)

News Summary

• A Kiwi woman is reportedly dead after being run down following a robbery outside a California shopping mall as the attackers fled in a hail of bullets. (Herald)

• United States President Joe Biden has acknowledged his performance during the presidential TV debate wasn’t his best, blaming it on jet lag after two overseas trips earlier in June. (Herald)

• Mandatory testing of primary school students for phonics will only provide a snapshot of where their learning is at, says an education expert. (RNZ)

• The golden era of trade is over and New Zealand needs to push hard to diversify its trading partners, the deputy secretary of trade says. (RNZ)

• China has said it seized a Taiwanese boat, which had five crew members on board, for illegally fishing in its territorial waters on Tuesday night. (BBC)

• After 14 years in power, the U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party looks to be standing on the brink of a momentous electoral defeat in the July 4 vote. (CNBC)

• China is far ahead of other countries in generative AI inventions like chatbots, filing six times more patents than its closest rival the United States, U.N. data showed on Wednesday. (RT)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

• Street Talk understands MA Moelis Australia has been mandated to review options at Contract Resources which is slated to fetch a price of as much as $500 million. (AFR)

• Fletcher Building’s Tradelink has attracted a big American turnaround specialist keen to extract operational efficiencies from the No.2 player in the trans-Tasman plumbing and bathroom supplies market. (AFR)

• Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Gliklich said he sees “an opportunity for incremental M&A” to build its advanced electronics business while holding onto its industrial and specialty chemicals operations. (BBG)

VC & Fundraising

• AI Startups Inject Some Life Into VC Dealmaking in the US. (BBG)

Equity Raises

• Local comparables for IPO success Guzman y Gomez are few and far between, but the downward slide of Domino’s Pizza is a sobering reminder of just how tough it is in the fast food franchise market. (AFR)

• Hyundai Motor Co. could raise as much as $3.5 billion from the eagerly anticipated initial public offering of its Indian unit, people familiar with the matter said, easily making it the biggest to ever take place in the country. (BBG)

Daily Picks

• The lessons NZ should take from the US and UK elections - Richard Prebble. (Herald)

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