🧳 The Suitcase Shuffle

🗞️ Top Story

• 🇬🇧 Exit Poll. Keir Starmer resigns as UK prime minister after losing his Labour majority, clearing the way for Andy Burnham to take over by mid-July. (Le Monde)
• 🇬🇧 Spin Doctor Who. David Cameron, once the man behind Brexit’s accidental birth, is recast by DLA Piper as a visionary leader with no mention of the mess. (Le Figaro)
• 🇪🇸 Graft and Craft. A former aide to Spain’s prime minister has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption, proving political loyalty is no shield from the law. (Bloomberg)
• 🇷🇴 Majority Report. Adrian Vestea’s bid to become Romania’s prime minister collapsed in parliament, leaving the country leaderless and inching closer to early elections nobody wants. (Le Temps)
• 🇺🇸 Strait Talk. US and Iranian officials completed their first round of tense talks in Switzerland, agreeing on a 60-day roadmap to resolve disputes over the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon, with Qatar and Pakistan mediating the diplomatic choreography. (Boursier)
• 🇺🇸 Drain Blame. The reflecting pool in Washington, freshly « fixed » under Trump, is now a murky mess as he blames left-wing fanatics for the algae. (Le Temps)
• 🇰🇵 Arms Race. Kim Jong-un vows to accelerate North Korea’s military buildup, claiming US and South Korean upgrades are pushing the peninsula to the edge of nuclear war. (Le Figaro)
• 🇲🇲 Election Fallout. The UN reports over 700 civilians killed by Myanmar’s army during the election period, with airstrikes responsible for more than half the deaths. (France Info)
• 🇮🇳 Back to the Fusion. India has restarted its two oldest nuclear reactors at Tarapur, bringing 57-year-old technology back online the name of progress. (Les Echos)

• 🇬🇧 Feed the Press. The UK government wants YouTube and TikTok to boost content from the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, citing democracy’s existential need for trusted news. (The Guardian)
• 🇬🇧 Hold for Burnham. The EU has shelved its July summit with the UK, irritating Starmer’s team as Brussels insists on dealing with the next prime minister. (Financial Times)

• 🇺🇸 Trial by Fire. Ro Khanna dared Elon Musk to defend his DOGE-era government cuts on TV, escalating their social media brawl to prime time. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 SAVE Yourself. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using its expanded SAVE database to purge voter rolls, citing privacy violations and the risk of wrongly disenfranchising naturalized citizens just months before the midterms. (Spiegel)

🏛️ Economy

• 🇬🇧 Capital Gains. Despite Brexit, London’s financial district is more powerful than ever, proving that the City is still the capital of capital. (Le Monde)
• 🇩🇪 Rent Control. The government’s pension experts propose ending the 48% floor for ongoing pensions, meaning future increases will lag behind wage growth for millions. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Watt’s Up. Record temperatures drive a spike in European power prices, prompting grid operators to sound the alarm from Spain to Germany. (Bloomberg)
• 🇪🇺 War of Words. Christine Lagarde says the ECB will not take stronger action in response to the war, signaling steady hands despite mounting pressure. (Bloomberg)
• 🇨🇺 Class Dismissed. Cuba’s fuel shortage has forced schools to close early, cancel exams, and send students home, leaving an entire generation in educational limbo. (New York Times)
• 🇨🇳 Current Affairs. Beijing releases its latest blueprint to boost clean energy use, hoping to electrify the economy without burning bridges to coal. (Bloomberg)
• 🌍 AI Buy-In. PwC says global M&A value could top $4T this year, with transactions over $5B. Many linked to AI. Making up almost half the total. (Cnbc)
• 🌍 Safe as Gold. The World Gold Council reports central banks are doubling down on gold, citing international turmoil as the main reason for this collective flight to safety. (Le Monde)

• 🇬🇧 Manager Unknown. UK bond traders are left guessing who will steer economic policy if Keir Starmer is absent, making markets nervous about the Labour leadership’s depth. (Bloomberg)

• 🇺🇸 Crude Awakening. The Treasury has granted Iran a 60-day license to sell oil after talks in Switzerland, ending the naval blockade and restarting exports. (Cnbc)
• 🇨🇦 Hot Maple. Canadian inflation hit 3.2% in May, its highest since late 2023, as soaring gasoline prices fueled the latest spike in the cost of living. (Wall Street Journal)

🏢 Real Estate

• 🇪🇸 Terminal Illusion. Ciudad Real’s £865M “ghost airport,” empty since 2012, is set to reopen in 2026, hoping for passengers this time. (Co)
• 🇮🇳 Walk This Way? India’s road-building spree skips sidewalks entirely, proving that the new mobility order, pedestrians are strictly on their own. (Bloomberg)
• 🇦🇺 Rate Expectations. Despite three rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney’s property market keeps running hot, with buyers hesitating but prices barely budging. (Le Monde)

🔗 On-chain

• 🇬🇧 Pound for Pound. The Bank of England eases up on stablecoin regulation, lifting some restrictions while keeping a £40B cap per coin and stricter rules than global rivals. (Boursier)
• 🇪🇺 Regulatory Roulette. Binance’s future in Europe is at stake as the MiCA compliance deadline nears, with silence from the crypto giant and regulators tightening the screws. (Cryptoast)
• 🇪🇺 Euro Vision. The European Parliament debates launching a digital euro that promises instant, fee-free payments and aims to loosen Visa and Mastercard’s grip on the continent. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Bit by Bit. Andrew Cuomo is set to lead a crypto project in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange 🇺🇸, marking his re-entry into the spotlight one token at a time. (Bloomberg)
• 🇺🇸 Betting on Illusion. Despite a ban, Polymarket orchestrated a covert campaign using influencers and offshore teams to hype its platform with staged trades. (Wall Street Journal)

• 🇬🇧 Limitless Edition. Facing criticism, the Bank of England ditches proposed individual caps on GBP stablecoins and chooses a £40B issuance ceiling for each token. (FinExtra)

💱 Listed Markets

• 🇬🇧 Gilt Trip. The pound and UK government bonds jumped after Prime Minister Starmer announced his resignation, as markets welcomed the sudden change in leadership. (Bloomberg)
• 🇫🇷 Building Suspense. Altrad 🇫🇷, the construction giant, faces a tax fraud and money laundering investigation after prosecutors searched its Montpellier headquarters, mobilizing 50 investigators for the job. (Les Echos)
• 🇺🇸 Brain Drain. John Jumper and Noam Shazeer exit Google for Anthropic and OpenAI, sending Alphabet’s stock down 5 percent and Wall Street into a panic. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Crash Course. A Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot plowed into a Texas home, killing a 76-year-old woman and reigniting doubts about Tesla’s safety promises. (Le Figaro)
• 🇰🇷 K-Drama Drop. The KOSPI index tumbled 8% from its peak, halting trading and delivering a plot twist no one wanted on the Seoul exchange. (Bloomberg)
• 🇰🇷 Crown Circuit. SK Hynix surges past Samsung Electronics in market value for the first time since 2000, powered by AI memory chip demand. (Boursier)

• 🇺🇸 Power Play. Chevron 🇺🇸 signs a 20-year agreement to provide electricity from its Permian Basin gas to Microsoft 🇺🇸, fueling a giant Texas AI data center. The oil and tech giants now share the same grid. (Wall Street Journal)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

• Manchester United 🇬🇧 acquires Indurent 🇬🇧’s 10-hectare site for €2.3B for a new 100,000-capacity stadium located 350m from Old Trafford.
• Pollen Street Capital 🇬🇧 will acquire Universal Banking 🇬🇧, Finastra’s global core banking software business.
• Entain 🇬🇧 explores sale of CEE JV 🇪🇺, its Central and Eastern Europe joint venture.
• Danone 🇫🇷 acquires MADE 🇦🇺 and takes full ownership of its Australia joint venture, covering protein, coconut and yogurt in Asia‑Pacific.
• L’Oreal 🇫🇷 to acquire a majority stake in Innovist 🇮🇳, a beauty startup.
• The German state 🇩🇪 acquires 40% of KNDS 🇫🇷 from the Wegmann family ahead of its IPO. KNDS to list in Frankfurt and Paris, with 10% of family-held shares and 10% of French-state shares to be sold.
• Carl Zeiss 🇩🇪 acquires additional shares in Carl Zeiss Meditec 🇩🇪 for up to €200M via market purchases through Feb 2027. Stake to remain below 70% and no delisting planned.
• Germany 🇩🇪 acquires a 40% stake in KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 at a ~$20B valuation ahead of its IPO.
• RWE 🇩🇪 to acquire a 41% stake in Amprion 🇩🇪 from Swiss Life 🇨🇭 and AEBG 🇩🇪 at an $11.5B valuation.
• UniCredit 🇮🇹 secures over 42.5% of Commerzbank 🇩🇪, a $50B-listed rival, in a hostile bid.
• Asterion 🇪🇸 invests £300M equity in Southern Water 🇬🇧, helping the company reach a £1.2B equity target to fund major network upgrades.
• Portobello Capital 🇪🇸 delays sale of its 76% stake in Legálitas 🇪🇸. Portobello acquired the stake in 2021 valuing Legálitas at €120M. Legálitas reported €50M revenue in 2020.
• Filmin 🇪🇸 acquires Elastica 🇪🇸’s distribution business, marking the first time a streaming service takes control of a film distributor.
• EQT 🇸🇪 agreed to acquire Intertek 🇬🇧 for $12.4B, a product testing firm.
• EQT 🇸🇪 acquires Exolaunch 🇩🇪 for ~$400M, SpaceX-satellite launch partner.
• CRH 🇮🇪 acquires Arcosa 🇺🇸 for $8.5B including debt, a deal in the building-materials sector.
• Castlelake 🇺🇸 has three takeover offers for EasyJet 🇬🇧 rebuffed.
• Google 🇺🇸 invests $75M in A24 🇺🇸, the studio behind « Backrooms » and « Marty Supreme, » as part of a new AI research partnership.
• AbbVie 🇺🇸 to buy Apogee Therapeutics 🇺🇸 for $11B cash, anti-inflammatory-focused biotech at a 60% premium.
• Deluxe 🇺🇸 acquires Celero Commerce 🇨🇦 for $625M cash, a payment-processing deal.
• Arctos Partners 🇺🇸, a KKR-owned sports PE firm, held talks to invest in PIF-backed Newcastle United 🇬🇧.
• Reverence Capital Partners 🇺🇸 takes a majority stake in Eide Bailly 🇺🇸 in a $1.8B deal. Accounting firm to partner with private equity.
• Franklin Templeton 🇺🇸 acquires 250 Digital 🇺🇸, a crypto asset manager.
• MDA Space 🇨🇦 acquires Blue Canyon Technologies 🇺🇸 in a $620M all-cash deal.
• Obayashi 🇯🇵 acquires Multiplex 🇬🇧 from Brookfield for $650M, the UK construction firm that built London’s Wembley Stadium.
• Hyundai Motor 🇰🇷 acquires Boston Dynamics 🇺🇸 for $325M, buying SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in the robotics company.
• Prestige Estates Projects 🇮🇳 considers a $300M stake sale of Prestige Hospitality Ventures 🇮🇳.
• Aurobindo Pharma 🇮🇳 acquires Lannett Company 🇺🇸. FTC requires divestment of four generic drug products to complete the $250M acquisition.
• IFM Investors 🇦🇺 nears 50% stake in Atlas Arteria 🇦🇺, a deal involving the toll-road operator.
• Channel Capital 🇦🇺 merges with Fidante (Challenger unit) 🇦🇺 to create a $100B Australian fund manager.
• Arcelik 🇹🇷 acquires Whirlpool 🇺🇸’s remaining 25% stake in Beko Europe for $82M.
• PIF-backed King Abdullah Financial District 🇸🇦 in talks to sell district cooling business 🇸🇦 for $500M
• Foodics 🇸🇦 acquires Norma 🇬🇷. Norma’s natural language analytics, already adopted across 10,000 Foodics branches, will now power the next generation of agentic AI for restaurant operations.
• Fattal Hotel Group 🇮🇱’s $1.25B talks to acquire PPHE Hotel 🇳🇱 fell through after shareholder opposition.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

• 🇪🇺 Tank You Very Much. France and Germany have agreed to share control of tank maker KNDS, clearing the way for a joint IPO and equal ownership, after months of cross-border wrangling. (Le Parisien)
• 🇺🇸 Artificial Selection. Major tech companies including Oracle 🇺🇸, Google 🇺🇸, and Meta 🇺🇸 have cited AI as the reason for tens of thousands of layoffs in 2026, even as profits and revenues hit record highs. Apparently, the future of work means less work for humans. (TechCrunch)
• 🇺🇸 Compute and Conquer. SpaceX lands a $6.3B contract with Reflection AI for Colossus data center access, showing Musk’s ambitions now include renting out the future of artificial intelligence. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 Moat Point. Bain & Company now uses AI « vibecoding » to rapidly clone target software, letting private equity buyers test whether any real moat exists before paying up. (Financial Times)
• 🇺🇸 Withdrawal Symptoms. Investors tried to pull 17 percent from Apollo Debt Solutions, but the fund only allowed 5 percent out, proving exits are strictly rationed when stress rises. (Financial Times)
• 🇸🇦 Fund and Run. The Saudi central bank has reportedly withdrawn money from at least two asset managers, sending a clear signal to global finance that patience is not unlimited. (Bloomberg)

Fundraising

• Baseten 🇺🇸 (AI): $1.5B (Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Wellington Management, IVP, Greylock, 01A, Blackbird, Durable Capital Partners, Verified Capital, Battery Ventures, D. E. Shaw Ventures)
• AppsFlyer 🇺🇸 (Adtech): $1B (Moloco, Google, Meta, Unity)
• CRED 🇮🇳 (Fintech): $900M
• Groq 🇺🇸 (Semiconductors): $650M
• Articul8 🏳️ (AI): $500M
• Nearfield Instruments 🇳🇱 (Semiconductors): $380M (Fidelity Management & Research Company, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Temasek, Innovation Industries, M&G, Invest-NL, The Qatar Investment Authority, TNO Ventures, ING)
• General Intuitio n 🇺🇸 (AI): $300M (Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst)
• Evoken (AI): $300M (Granite Asia, Tencent, Shunwei Capital)
• Dream (Cybersecurity): $260M (Bicycle Capital, Group 11)
• Upscale AI 🇺🇸 (AI networking): $190M (Premji Invest, NVIDIA, Salesforce Ventures, Seligman Ventures, Temasek, Maverick Silicon, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, StepStone Group, Tiger Global)
• Behavox 🇬🇧 (Regtech): $175M (HPS Investment Partners, BlackRock)
• Bionyra Pharma 🇫🇷 (Biotech): €143M (Jeito Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Arkin Bio, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Vives Partners, Apollo Health Ventures)
• Prem AI 🇨🇭 (AI infrastructure): $100M (Jim Breyer, Index Ventures, others)
• Twenty 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $100M (Accel, Friends & Family Capital, Point72 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital)
• HyperLight 🇺🇸 (Photonics): $80M
• fomo 🇺🇸 (Trading): $75M (Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Benchmark)
• Nura Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $73.8M (The Column Group, Euclidean Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Sanofi Ventures)
• Isometric 🇬🇧 (Certification): $40M (AVP, Plural, Lowercarbon Capital, John Doerr, Walter Kortschak)
• Prosper AI 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $30M (Andreessen Horowitz, Base10, Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, Company Ventures)
• Lys Therapeutics 🇫🇷 (Biotech): €25M+ (The Michael J. Fox Foundation, Bpifrance, France 2030, private investors)
• Architect Labs 🇺🇸 (Semiconductor): $24M (Kindred Ventures, TQ Ventures, Race Capital, Together Fund, Srinivas Narayanan, Lukasz Kaiser, Aravind Srinivas, Kunle Olukotun, Trevor Blackwell, Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross, Shaad Khan, executives from NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI)
• Orbio AI 🇪🇸 (HR): $21M (Dawn Capital, Visionaries VC, Plus Partners, Enzo Ventures)
• Aether AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (MPCi, Inno Angel Fund, SWC Global)
• NeuralTrust 🇪🇸 (Cybersecurity): $20M (Alstin Capital, Seaya, Kibo Ventures, Banc Sabadell)
• Cuprum Metals 🇺🇸 (Metals): $19.4M (Lundin Family Office, Woodline Partners, BHP Ventures)
• HUD 🇺🇸 (AI): $16M (Standard Capital, Y Combinator, and others)
• Flease 🇫🇷 (Mobility): €13M
• Causa Prima 🇪🇸 (Fintech): $10M (Creandum, Kfund, HelloWorld)
• Linc 🇫🇷 (Payroll): €8.5M (Founders Future, Acadian Ventures, Adnexus, 50 Partners, Motier, 199 Ventures, Aonia, Better Angle, Clover, Headline, Resonance)

Fund Watch

• Seedcamp 🇬🇧: $320M (7th fund $220M + select fund 2 $100M, seed funds. Reaches $1B AUM)
• Crescenta 🇪🇸: €250M (AUM. Launching « Crescenta Private Equity Strategic Selection SCR » — SCR vehicle for corporates, insurers, foundations and family offices. Min €500k, target 15% net IRR, 1.8–2.3x MOIC)
• Columbus Venture Partners 🇪🇸: €210M (Columbus Innvierte Life Sciences Fund V, growth-stage biotech, healthtech, AI-for-health)
• M&G Investments 🇬🇧: €200M (M&G AAA EUR CLO Active UCITS, active ETF for AAA European CLO tranches; €180M external)
• Bootstrap 4F 🇬🇧: £130M (Women Backing Women Fund, VC for women founders. First close March 2026)
• Mantis Ventures (The Chainsmokers) 🇺🇸: $100M (4th venture fund, currently raising)
• Norrsken Launcher 🇸🇪: SEK900M

🔔IPO

• OHB 🇩🇪 (Aerospace): raising €879M via a share sale (€510M to OHB for buy‑and‑build and investments, €368M proceeds to KKR).
• Bending Spoons 🇮🇹 (Software): seeking to raise up to $1.62B in a Nasdaq IPO targeting a $19B valuation.
• UniCredit 🇮🇹 (Banking): sounded out Delfin to more than double its stake in $75B-listed insurer Generali to 20%.
• Ellos 🇸🇪 (E-handel): planerar notering på Stockholmsbörsen i Q3 och vill ta in 300 miljoner kronor, där investerare åtagit sig drygt 200 miljoner.
• Lime 🇺🇸 (Micromobility): seeking to raise $180.9M in its IPO.
• ITG 🇺🇸 (Digital infra): seeking $429.3M in a IPO, targeting a valuation of up to $2.67B.
• Kardigan 🇺🇸 (Cardio biotech): surged 38% in its trading debut after raising $400M in an upsized IPO that priced it at a $2B market cap.
• Reformation 🇺🇸 (Fashion): preparing a confidential filing for an IPO.
• Sinda 🇺🇸 (Mining): seeking $345.2M in a IPO and placement.
• Global Auto Holdings 🇨🇦 (Auto retail): exploring a Canada IPO.
• DSC Holdings 🇨🇳 (Auto software): seeking to raise $55M at a $900M valuation in a US IPO.
• CR New Energy 🇨🇳 (New Energy): recorded a Shenzhen IPO with strong retail demand.
• Momenta 🇭🇰 (Autonomous driving): said to be nearing a Hong Kong IPO, with the deal size not disclosed.
• PLDT data center unit 🇵🇭 (REIT): seeking to raise 24.2 billion pesos ($397M) in a REIT IPO.

🧳 Debt

• Eolo 🇮🇹: in advanced talks with Apollo for a $575M private credit to refinance liabilities.
• Cenergy Holdings 🇬🇷: about 6M existing shares (~3% of capital) sold in an accelerated placement by majority owner Viohalco. Cenergy receives no proceeds.
• SpaceX 🇺🇸: in talks to sell $20B of investment-grade bonds to refinance a bridge loan.
• Pellera Technologies 🇺🇸: banks led by Bank of Montreal offered an 8¢ discount at a 450 bps premium on a $775M loan after being hung for over a year.
• Robinhood Markets 🇺🇸: is raising $2B in zero‑coupon convertible senior notes due Oct 2029 to buy back stock.
• California 🇺🇸: plans an $11B housing bond for the November election.
• Mexico 🇲🇽: tapping global debt markets to fund a bond buyback.
• Climate fund guarantees 🇲🇽🇧🇷: set to woo $5B for Mexico and Brazil.
• Argentina 🇦🇷: approved dollar borrowing amid multilateral loan talks.
• Hillhouse Investment 🇨🇳: in talks for a $600M loan to fund its investment in DayOne Data Centers.
• Godiva Japan 🇯🇵: seeking extension on $464M LBO loan.
• SMBC 🇯🇵: in talks for two SRTs tied to $4B of LatAm corporate loans and $1.8B of infrastructure loans.
• Sony 🇯🇵: plans first dollar-bond sale in nearly three decades.
• State Bank of India 🇮🇳: among lenders planning to raise a combined $2.5B bond sales via central bank swaps.
• AirTrunk 🇦🇺: in talks for a $3B loan.

❌ Failures

• Ebra 🇫🇷: the regional press group announced up to 400 voluntary departures after an operational loss exceeding €10M in 2025.
• Tuvalum 🇪🇸: the Valencian second‑hand bike marketplace entered liquidation after voluntary insolvency, having reported €4.26M revenue in 2024 and €573k in losses.
• Oracle 🇺🇸: cut about 21,000 jobs and booked roughly $1.8bn in severance while planning at least $50bn in AI infrastructure spending.
• Lucid 🇺🇸: cutting roughly 18% of U.S. workforce and eliminating the COO role, targeting ~$158M in annualized savings and incurring ~$32M in severance after a $2.7B loss in 2025.
• Bain Capital 🇺🇸: a junior tranche on a European CLO managed by Bain Capital defaulted, the first such default in Europe since 2008.
• OTB Hospitality 🇺🇸: the operating company of On the Border filed for Chapter 7 liquidation after closing all company-owned locations. Franchised restaurants remain open.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

• 🇬🇧 Strum and Sell. Johnny Marr is auctioning around 80 guitars, including the iconic Rickenbacker from « This Charming Man, » with Christie’s expecting bids up to £150,000. (The Guardian)
• 🇫🇷 No Game in Paris. US masculinist influencer Clavicular tried his signature street pickup routine during Paris Fashion Week, only to become a viral punchline after French women rejected him on TikTok. (Le Parisien)
• 🇺🇦 Band of Others. The « Bolivar Battalion » brings 300 Latin American fighters, mostly ex-military, into Ukraine’s ranks as Kyiv leans on foreign recruits to face Russia. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Lost and Founders. The government is challenging RMS Titanic Inc 🇺🇸 as it tries to auction 100-plus Titanic artifacts instead of keeping them in public exhibitions. (The Guardian)

🗞️ Top Story

• 🇬🇧 Exit Poll. Keir Starmer resigns as UK prime minister after losing his Labour majority, clearing the way for Andy Burnham to take over by mid-July. (Le Monde)
• 🇬🇧 Spin Doctor Who. David Cameron, once the man behind Brexit’s accidental birth, is recast by DLA Piper as a visionary leader with no mention of the mess. (Le Figaro)
• 🇬🇧 Feed the Press. The UK government wants YouTube and TikTok to boost content from the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, citing democracy’s existential need for trusted news. (The Guardian)
• 🇬🇧 Hold for Burnham. The EU has shelved its July summit with the UK, irritating Starmer’s team as Brussels insists on dealing with the next prime minister. (Financial Times)
• 🇪🇸 Graft and Craft. A former aide to Spain’s prime minister has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption, proving political loyalty is no shield from the law. (Bloomberg)
• 🇷🇴 Majority Report. Adrian Vestea’s bid to become Romania’s prime minister collapsed in parliament, leaving the country leaderless and inching closer to early elections nobody wants. (Le Temps)
• 🇺🇸 Strait Talk. US and Iranian officials completed their first round of tense talks in Switzerland, agreeing on a 60-day roadmap to resolve disputes over the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon, with Qatar and Pakistan mediating the diplomatic choreography. (Boursier)
• 🇺🇸 Drain Blame. The reflecting pool in Washington, freshly « fixed » under Trump, is now a murky mess as he blames left-wing fanatics for the algae. (Le Temps)
• 🇰🇵 Arms Race. Kim Jong-un vows to accelerate North Korea’s military buildup, claiming US and South Korean upgrades are pushing the peninsula to the edge of nuclear war. (Le Figaro)
• 🇲🇲 Election Fallout. The UN reports over 700 civilians killed by Myanmar’s army during the election period, with airstrikes responsible for more than half the deaths. (France Info)
• 🇮🇳 Back to the Fusion. India has restarted its two oldest nuclear reactors at Tarapur, bringing 57-year-old technology back online the name of progress. (Les Echos)

🏛️ Economy

• 🇬🇧 Manager Unknown. UK bond traders are left guessing who will steer economic policy if Keir Starmer is absent, making markets nervous about the Labour leadership’s depth. (Bloomberg)
• 🇬🇧 Capital Gains. Despite Brexit, London’s financial district is more powerful than ever, proving that the City is still the capital of capital. (Le Monde)
• 🇩🇪 Rent Control. The government’s pension experts propose ending the 48% floor for ongoing pensions, meaning future increases will lag behind wage growth for millions. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Watt’s Up. Record temperatures drive a spike in European power prices, prompting grid operators to sound the alarm from Spain to Germany. (Bloomberg)
• 🇪🇺 War of Words. Christine Lagarde says the ECB will not take stronger action in response to the war, signaling steady hands despite mounting pressure. (Bloomberg)
• 🇨🇺 Class Dismissed. Cuba’s fuel shortage has forced schools to close early, cancel exams, and send students home, leaving an entire generation in educational limbo. (New York Times)
• 🇨🇳 Current Affairs. Beijing releases its latest blueprint to boost clean energy use, hoping to electrify the economy without burning bridges to coal. (Bloomberg)
• 🌍 AI Buy-In. PwC says global M&A value could top $4T this year, with transactions over $5B. Many linked to AI. Making up almost half the total. (Cnbc)
• 🌍 Safe as Gold. The World Gold Council reports central banks are doubling down on gold, citing international turmoil as the main reason for this collective flight to safety. (Le Monde)

🏢 Real Estate

• 🇪🇸 Terminal Illusion. Ciudad Real’s £865M “ghost airport,” empty since 2012, is set to reopen in 2026, hoping for passengers this time. (Co)
• 🇮🇳 Walk This Way? India’s road-building spree skips sidewalks entirely, proving that the new mobility order, pedestrians are strictly on their own. (Bloomberg)
• 🇦🇺 Rate Expectations. Despite three rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney’s property market keeps running hot, with buyers hesitating but prices barely budging. (Le Monde)

🔗 On-chain

• 🇬🇧 Pound for Pound. The Bank of England eases up on stablecoin regulation, lifting some restrictions while keeping a £40B cap per coin and stricter rules than global rivals. (Boursier)
• 🇬🇧 Limitless Edition. Facing criticism, the Bank of England ditches proposed individual caps on GBP stablecoins and chooses a £40B issuance ceiling for each token. (FinExtra)
• 🇪🇺 Regulatory Roulette. Binance’s future in Europe is at stake as the MiCA compliance deadline nears, with silence from the crypto giant and regulators tightening the screws. (Cryptoast)
• 🇪🇺 Euro Vision. The European Parliament debates launching a digital euro that promises instant, fee-free payments and aims to loosen Visa and Mastercard’s grip on the continent. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Bit by Bit. Andrew Cuomo is set to lead a crypto project in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange 🇺🇸, marking his re-entry into the spotlight one token at a time. (Bloomberg)
• 🇺🇸 Betting on Illusion. Despite a ban, Polymarket orchestrated a covert campaign using influencers and offshore teams to hype its platform with staged trades. (Wall Street Journal)

💱 Listed Markets

• 🇬🇧 Gilt Trip. The pound and UK government bonds jumped after Prime Minister Starmer announced his resignation, as markets welcomed the sudden change in leadership. (Bloomberg)
• 🇫🇷 Building Suspense. Altrad 🇫🇷, the construction giant, faces a tax fraud and money laundering investigation after prosecutors searched its Montpellier headquarters, mobilizing 50 investigators for the job. (Les Echos)
• 🇺🇸 Brain Drain. John Jumper and Noam Shazeer exit Google for Anthropic and OpenAI, sending Alphabet’s stock down 5 percent and Wall Street into a panic. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Crash Course. A Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot plowed into a Texas home, killing a 76-year-old woman and reigniting doubts about Tesla’s safety promises. (Le Figaro)
• 🇰🇷 K-Drama Drop. The KOSPI index tumbled 8% from its peak, halting trading and delivering a plot twist no one wanted on the Seoul exchange. (Bloomberg)
• 🇰🇷 Crown Circuit. SK Hynix surges past Samsung Electronics in market value for the first time since 2000, powered by AI memory chip demand. (Boursier)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

• Manchester United 🇬🇧 acquires Indurent 🇬🇧’s 10-hectare site for €2.3B for a new 100,000-capacity stadium located 350m from Old Trafford.
• Pollen Street Capital 🇬🇧 will acquire Universal Banking 🇬🇧, Finastra’s global core banking software business.
• Entain 🇬🇧 explores sale of CEE JV 🇪🇺, its Central and Eastern Europe joint venture.
• Danone 🇫🇷 acquires MADE 🇦🇺 and takes full ownership of its Australia joint venture, covering protein, coconut and yogurt in Asia‑Pacific.
• L’Oreal 🇫🇷 to acquire a majority stake in Innovist 🇮🇳, a beauty startup.
• The German state 🇩🇪 acquires 40% of KNDS 🇫🇷 from the Wegmann family ahead of its IPO. KNDS to list in Frankfurt and Paris, with 10% of family-held shares and 10% of French-state shares to be sold.
• Carl Zeiss 🇩🇪 acquires additional shares in Carl Zeiss Meditec 🇩🇪 for up to €200M via market purchases through Feb 2027. Stake to remain below 70% and no delisting planned.
• Germany 🇩🇪 acquires a 40% stake in KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 at a ~$20B valuation ahead of its IPO.
• RWE 🇩🇪 to acquire a 41% stake in Amprion 🇩🇪 from Swiss Life 🇨🇭 and AEBG 🇩🇪 at an $11.5B valuation.
• UniCredit 🇮🇹 secures over 42.5% of Commerzbank 🇩🇪, a $50B-listed rival, in a hostile bid.
• Asterion 🇪🇸 invests £300M equity in Southern Water 🇬🇧, helping the company reach a £1.2B equity target to fund major network upgrades.
• Portobello Capital 🇪🇸 delays sale of its 76% stake in Legálitas 🇪🇸. Portobello acquired the stake in 2021 valuing Legálitas at €120M. Legálitas reported €50M revenue in 2020.
• Filmin 🇪🇸 acquires Elastica 🇪🇸’s distribution business, marking the first time a streaming service takes control of a film distributor.
• EQT 🇸🇪 agreed to acquire Intertek 🇬🇧 for $12.4B, a product testing firm.
• EQT 🇸🇪 acquires Exolaunch 🇩🇪 for ~$400M, SpaceX-satellite launch partner.
• CRH 🇮🇪 acquires Arcosa 🇺🇸 for $8.5B including debt, a deal in the building-materials sector.
• Castlelake 🇺🇸 has three takeover offers for EasyJet 🇬🇧 rebuffed.
• Google 🇺🇸 invests $75M in A24 🇺🇸, the studio behind « Backrooms » and « Marty Supreme, » as part of a new AI research partnership.
• AbbVie 🇺🇸 to buy Apogee Therapeutics 🇺🇸 for $11B cash, anti-inflammatory-focused biotech at a 60% premium.
• Deluxe 🇺🇸 acquires Celero Commerce 🇨🇦 for $625M cash, a payment-processing deal.
• Arctos Partners 🇺🇸, a KKR-owned sports PE firm, held talks to invest in PIF-backed Newcastle United 🇬🇧.
• Reverence Capital Partners 🇺🇸 takes a majority stake in Eide Bailly 🇺🇸 in a $1.8B deal. Accounting firm to partner with private equity.
• Franklin Templeton 🇺🇸 acquires 250 Digital 🇺🇸, a crypto asset manager.
• MDA Space 🇨🇦 acquires Blue Canyon Technologies 🇺🇸 in a $620M all-cash deal.
• Obayashi 🇯🇵 acquires Multiplex 🇬🇧 from Brookfield for $650M, the UK construction firm that built London’s Wembley Stadium.
• Hyundai Motor 🇰🇷 acquires Boston Dynamics 🇺🇸 for $325M, buying SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in the robotics company.
• Prestige Estates Projects 🇮🇳 considers a $300M stake sale of Prestige Hospitality Ventures 🇮🇳.
• Aurobindo Pharma 🇮🇳 acquires Lannett Company 🇺🇸. FTC requires divestment of four generic drug products to complete the $250M acquisition.
• IFM Investors 🇦🇺 nears 50% stake in Atlas Arteria 🇦🇺, a deal involving the toll-road operator.
• Channel Capital 🇦🇺 merges with Fidante (Challenger unit) 🇦🇺 to create a $100B Australian fund manager.
• Arcelik 🇹🇷 acquires Whirlpool 🇺🇸’s remaining 25% stake in Beko Europe for $82M.
• PIF-backed King Abdullah Financial District 🇸🇦 in talks to sell district cooling business 🇸🇦 for $500M
• Foodics 🇸🇦 acquires Norma 🇬🇷. Norma’s natural language analytics, already adopted across 10,000 Foodics branches, will now power the next generation of agentic AI for restaurant operations.
• Fattal Hotel Group 🇮🇱’s $1.25B talks to acquire PPHE Hotel 🇳🇱 fell through after shareholder opposition.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

• 🇪🇺 Tank You Very Much. France and Germany have agreed to share control of tank maker KNDS, clearing the way for a joint IPO and equal ownership, after months of cross-border wrangling. (Le Parisien)
• 🇺🇸 Artificial Selection. Major tech companies including Oracle 🇺🇸, Google 🇺🇸, and Meta 🇺🇸 have cited AI as the reason for tens of thousands of layoffs in 2026, even as profits and revenues hit record highs. Apparently, the future of work means less work for humans. (TechCrunch)
• 🇺🇸 Compute and Conquer. SpaceX lands a $6.3B contract with Reflection AI for Colossus data center access, showing Musk’s ambitions now include renting out the future of artificial intelligence. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 Moat Point. Bain & Company now uses AI « vibecoding » to rapidly clone target software, letting private equity buyers test whether any real moat exists before paying up. (Financial Times)
• 🇺🇸 Withdrawal Symptoms. Investors tried to pull 17 percent from Apollo Debt Solutions, but the fund only allowed 5 percent out, proving exits are strictly rationed when stress rises. (Financial Times)
• 🇸🇦 Fund and Run. The Saudi central bank has reportedly withdrawn money from at least two asset managers, sending a clear signal to global finance that patience is not unlimited. (Bloomberg)

Fundraising

• Baseten 🇺🇸 (AI): $1.5B (Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Wellington Management, IVP, Greylock, 01A, Blackbird, Durable Capital Partners, Verified Capital, Battery Ventures, D. E. Shaw Ventures)
• AppsFlyer 🇺🇸 (Adtech): $1B (Moloco, Google, Meta, Unity)
• CRED 🇮🇳 (Fintech): $900M
• Groq 🇺🇸 (Semiconductors): $650M
• Articul8 🏳️ (AI): $500M
• Nearfield Instruments 🇳🇱 (Semiconductors): $380M (Fidelity Management & Research Company, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Temasek, Innovation Industries, M&G, Invest-NL, The Qatar Investment Authority, TNO Ventures, ING)
• General Intuitio n 🇺🇸 (AI): $300M (Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst)
• Evoken (AI): $300M (Granite Asia, Tencent, Shunwei Capital)
• Dream (Cybersecurity): $260M (Bicycle Capital, Group 11)
• Upscale AI 🇺🇸 (AI networking): $190M (Premji Invest, NVIDIA, Salesforce Ventures, Seligman Ventures, Temasek, Maverick Silicon, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, StepStone Group, Tiger Global)
• Behavox 🇬🇧 (Regtech): $175M (HPS Investment Partners, BlackRock)
• Bionyra Pharma 🇫🇷 (Biotech): €143M (Jeito Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Arkin Bio, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Vives Partners, Apollo Health Ventures)
• Prem AI 🇨🇭 (AI infrastructure): $100M (Jim Breyer, Index Ventures, others)
• Twenty 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $100M (Accel, Friends & Family Capital, Point72 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital)
• HyperLight 🇺🇸 (Photonics): $80M
• fomo 🇺🇸 (Trading): $75M (Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Benchmark)
• Nura Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $73.8M (The Column Group, Euclidean Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Sanofi Ventures)
• Isometric 🇬🇧 (Certification): $40M (AVP, Plural, Lowercarbon Capital, John Doerr, Walter Kortschak)
• Prosper AI 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $30M (Andreessen Horowitz, Base10, Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, Company Ventures)
• Lys Therapeutics 🇫🇷 (Biotech): €25M+ (The Michael J. Fox Foundation, Bpifrance, France 2030, private investors)
• Architect Labs 🇺🇸 (Semiconductor): $24M (Kindred Ventures, TQ Ventures, Race Capital, Together Fund, Srinivas Narayanan, Lukasz Kaiser, Aravind Srinivas, Kunle Olukotun, Trevor Blackwell, Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross, Shaad Khan, executives from NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI)
• Orbio AI 🇪🇸 (HR): $21M (Dawn Capital, Visionaries VC, Plus Partners, Enzo Ventures)
• Aether AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (MPCi, Inno Angel Fund, SWC Global)
• NeuralTrust 🇪🇸 (Cybersecurity): $20M (Alstin Capital, Seaya, Kibo Ventures, Banc Sabadell)
• Cuprum Metals 🇺🇸 (Metals): $19.4M (Lundin Family Office, Woodline Partners, BHP Ventures)
• HUD 🇺🇸 (AI): $16M (Standard Capital, Y Combinator, and others)
• Flease 🇫🇷 (Mobility): €13M
• Causa Prima 🇪🇸 (Fintech): $10M (Creandum, Kfund, HelloWorld)
• Linc 🇫🇷 (Payroll): €8.5M (Founders Future, Acadian Ventures, Adnexus, 50 Partners, Motier, 199 Ventures, Aonia, Better Angle, Clover, Headline, Resonance)

Fund Watch

• Seedcamp 🇬🇧: $320M (7th fund $220M + select fund 2 $100M, seed funds. Reaches $1B AUM)
• Crescenta 🇪🇸: €250M (AUM. Launching « Crescenta Private Equity Strategic Selection SCR » — SCR vehicle for corporates, insurers, foundations and family offices. Min €500k, target 15% net IRR, 1.8–2.3x MOIC)
• Columbus Venture Partners 🇪🇸: €210M (Columbus Innvierte Life Sciences Fund V, growth-stage biotech, healthtech, AI-for-health)
• M&G Investments 🇬🇧: €200M (M&G AAA EUR CLO Active UCITS, active ETF for AAA European CLO tranches; €180M external)
• Bootstrap 4F 🇬🇧: £130M (Women Backing Women Fund, VC for women founders. First close March 2026)
• Mantis Ventures (The Chainsmokers) 🇺🇸: $100M (4th venture fund, currently raising)
• Norrsken Launcher 🇸🇪: SEK900M

🔔IPO

• OHB 🇩🇪 (Aerospace): raising €879M via a share sale (€510M to OHB for buy‑and‑build and investments, €368M proceeds to KKR).
• Bending Spoons 🇮🇹 (Software): seeking to raise up to $1.62B in a Nasdaq IPO targeting a $19B valuation.
• UniCredit 🇮🇹 (Banking): sounded out Delfin to more than double its stake in $75B-listed insurer Generali to 20%.
• Ellos 🇸🇪 (E-handel): planerar notering på Stockholmsbörsen i Q3 och vill ta in 300 miljoner kronor, där investerare åtagit sig drygt 200 miljoner.
• Lime 🇺🇸 (Micromobility): seeking to raise $180.9M in its IPO.
• ITG 🇺🇸 (Digital infra): seeking $429.3M in a IPO, targeting a valuation of up to $2.67B.
• Kardigan 🇺🇸 (Cardio biotech): surged 38% in its trading debut after raising $400M in an upsized IPO that priced it at a $2B market cap.
• Reformation 🇺🇸 (Fashion): preparing a confidential filing for an IPO.
• Sinda 🇺🇸 (Mining): seeking $345.2M in a IPO and placement.
• Global Auto Holdings 🇨🇦 (Auto retail): exploring a Canada IPO.
• DSC Holdings 🇨🇳 (Auto software): seeking to raise $55M at a $900M valuation in a US IPO.
• CR New Energy 🇨🇳 (New Energy): recorded a Shenzhen IPO with strong retail demand.
• Momenta 🇭🇰 (Autonomous driving): said to be nearing a Hong Kong IPO, with the deal size not disclosed.
• PLDT data center unit 🇵🇭 (REIT): seeking to raise 24.2 billion pesos ($397M) in a REIT IPO.

🧳 Debt

• Eolo 🇮🇹: in advanced talks with Apollo for a $575M private credit to refinance liabilities.
• Cenergy Holdings 🇬🇷: about 6M existing shares (~3% of capital) sold in an accelerated placement by majority owner Viohalco. Cenergy receives no proceeds.
• SpaceX 🇺🇸: in talks to sell $20B of investment-grade bonds to refinance a bridge loan.
• Pellera Technologies 🇺🇸: banks led by Bank of Montreal offered an 8¢ discount at a 450 bps premium on a $775M loan after being hung for over a year.
• Robinhood Markets 🇺🇸: is raising $2B in zero‑coupon convertible senior notes due Oct 2029 to buy back stock.
• California 🇺🇸: plans an $11B housing bond for the November election.
• Mexico 🇲🇽: tapping global debt markets to fund a bond buyback.
• Climate fund guarantees 🇲🇽🇧🇷: set to woo $5B for Mexico and Brazil.
• Argentina 🇦🇷: approved dollar borrowing amid multilateral loan talks.
• Hillhouse Investment 🇨🇳: in talks for a $600M loan to fund its investment in DayOne Data Centers.
• Godiva Japan 🇯🇵: seeking extension on $464M LBO loan.
• SMBC 🇯🇵: in talks for two SRTs tied to $4B of LatAm corporate loans and $1.8B of infrastructure loans.
• Sony 🇯🇵: plans first dollar-bond sale in nearly three decades.
• State Bank of India 🇮🇳: among lenders planning to raise a combined $2.5B bond sales via central bank swaps.
• AirTrunk 🇦🇺: in talks for a $3B loan.

❌ Failures

• Ebra 🇫🇷: the regional press group announced up to 400 voluntary departures after an operational loss exceeding €10M in 2025.
• Tuvalum 🇪🇸: the Valencian second‑hand bike marketplace entered liquidation after voluntary insolvency, having reported €4.26M revenue in 2024 and €573k in losses.
• Oracle 🇺🇸: cut about 21,000 jobs and booked roughly $1.8bn in severance while planning at least $50bn in AI infrastructure spending.
• Lucid 🇺🇸: cutting roughly 18% of U.S. workforce and eliminating the COO role, targeting ~$158M in annualized savings and incurring ~$32M in severance after a $2.7B loss in 2025.
• Bain Capital 🇺🇸: a junior tranche on a European CLO managed by Bain Capital defaulted, the first such default in Europe since 2008.
• OTB Hospitality 🇺🇸: the operating company of On the Border filed for Chapter 7 liquidation after closing all company-owned locations. Franchised restaurants remain open.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

• 🇬🇧 Strum and Sell. Johnny Marr is auctioning around 80 guitars, including the iconic Rickenbacker from « This Charming Man, » with Christie’s expecting bids up to £150,000. (The Guardian)
• 🇫🇷 No Game in Paris. US masculinist influencer Clavicular tried his signature street pickup routine during Paris Fashion Week, only to become a viral punchline after French women rejected him on TikTok. (Le Parisien)
• 🇺🇦 Band of Others. The « Bolivar Battalion » brings 300 Latin American fighters, mostly ex-military, into Ukraine’s ranks as Kyiv leans on foreign recruits to face Russia. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Lost and Founders. The government is challenging RMS Titanic Inc 🇺🇸 as it tries to auction 100-plus Titanic artifacts instead of keeping them in public exhibitions. (The Guardian)

🗞️ Top Story

• 🇺🇸 Trial by Fire. Ro Khanna dared Elon Musk to defend his DOGE-era government cuts on TV, escalating their social media brawl to prime time. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 SAVE Yourself. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using its expanded SAVE database to purge voter rolls, citing privacy violations and the risk of wrongly disenfranchising naturalized citizens just months before the midterms. (Spiegel)
• 🇺🇸 Strait Talk. US and Iranian officials completed their first round of tense talks in Switzerland, agreeing on a 60-day roadmap to resolve disputes over the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon, with Qatar and Pakistan mediating the diplomatic choreography. (Boursier)
• 🇺🇸 Drain Blame. The reflecting pool in Washington, freshly « fixed » under Trump, is now a murky mess as he blames left-wing fanatics for the algae. (Le Temps)
• 🇪🇸 Graft and Craft. A former aide to Spain’s prime minister has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption, proving political loyalty is no shield from the law. (Bloomberg)
• 🇷🇴 Majority Report. Adrian Vestea’s bid to become Romania’s prime minister collapsed in parliament, leaving the country leaderless and inching closer to early elections nobody wants. (Le Temps)
• 🇬🇧 Exit Poll. Keir Starmer resigns as UK prime minister after losing his Labour majority, clearing the way for Andy Burnham to take over by mid-July. (Le Monde)
• 🇬🇧 Spin Doctor Who. David Cameron, once the man behind Brexit’s accidental birth, is recast by DLA Piper as a visionary leader with no mention of the mess. (Le Figaro)
• 🇰🇵 Arms Race. Kim Jong-un vows to accelerate North Korea’s military buildup, claiming US and South Korean upgrades are pushing the peninsula to the edge of nuclear war. (Le Figaro)
• 🇲🇲 Election Fallout. The UN reports over 700 civilians killed by Myanmar’s army during the election period, with airstrikes responsible for more than half the deaths. (France Info)
• 🇮🇳 Back to the Fusion. India has restarted its two oldest nuclear reactors at Tarapur, bringing 57-year-old technology back online the name of progress. (Les Echos)

🏛️ Economy

• 🇺🇸 Crude Awakening. The Treasury has granted Iran a 60-day license to sell oil after talks in Switzerland, ending the naval blockade and restarting exports. (Cnbc)
• 🇨🇦 Hot Maple. Canadian inflation hit 3.2% in May, its highest since late 2023, as soaring gasoline prices fueled the latest spike in the cost of living. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇨🇺 Class Dismissed. Cuba’s fuel shortage has forced schools to close early, cancel exams, and send students home, leaving an entire generation in educational limbo. (New York Times)
• 🇩🇪 Rent Control. The government’s pension experts propose ending the 48% floor for ongoing pensions, meaning future increases will lag behind wage growth for millions. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Watt’s Up. Record temperatures drive a spike in European power prices, prompting grid operators to sound the alarm from Spain to Germany. (Bloomberg)
• 🇪🇺 War of Words. Christine Lagarde says the ECB will not take stronger action in response to the war, signaling steady hands despite mounting pressure. (Bloomberg)
• 🇬🇧 Capital Gains. Despite Brexit, London’s financial district is more powerful than ever, proving that the City is still the capital of capital. (Le Monde)
• 🇨🇳 Current Affairs. Beijing releases its latest blueprint to boost clean energy use, hoping to electrify the economy without burning bridges to coal. (Bloomberg)
• 🌍 AI Buy-In. PwC says global M&A value could top $4T this year, with transactions over $5B. Many linked to AI. Making up almost half the total. (Cnbc)
• 🌍 Safe as Gold. The World Gold Council reports central banks are doubling down on gold, citing international turmoil as the main reason for this collective flight to safety. (Le Monde)

🏢 Real Estate

• 🇪🇸 Terminal Illusion. Ciudad Real’s £865M “ghost airport,” empty since 2012, is set to reopen in 2026, hoping for passengers this time. (Co)
• 🇮🇳 Walk This Way? India’s road-building spree skips sidewalks entirely, proving that the new mobility order, pedestrians are strictly on their own. (Bloomberg)
• 🇦🇺 Rate Expectations. Despite three rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney’s property market keeps running hot, with buyers hesitating but prices barely budging. (Le Monde)

🔗 On-chain

• 🇺🇸 Bit by Bit. Andrew Cuomo is set to lead a crypto project in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange 🇺🇸, marking his re-entry into the spotlight one token at a time. (Bloomberg)
• 🇺🇸 Betting on Illusion. Despite a ban, Polymarket orchestrated a covert campaign using influencers and offshore teams to hype its platform with staged trades. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇪🇺 Regulatory Roulette. Binance’s future in Europe is at stake as the MiCA compliance deadline nears, with silence from the crypto giant and regulators tightening the screws. (Cryptoast)
• 🇪🇺 Euro Vision. The European Parliament debates launching a digital euro that promises instant, fee-free payments and aims to loosen Visa and Mastercard’s grip on the continent. (Le Monde)
• 🇬🇧 Pound for Pound. The Bank of England eases up on stablecoin regulation, lifting some restrictions while keeping a £40B cap per coin and stricter rules than global rivals. (Boursier)

💱 Listed Markets

• 🇺🇸 Brain Drain. John Jumper and Noam Shazeer exit Google for Anthropic and OpenAI, sending Alphabet’s stock down 5 percent and Wall Street into a panic. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Power Play. Chevron 🇺🇸 signs a 20-year agreement to provide electricity from its Permian Basin gas to Microsoft 🇺🇸, fueling a giant Texas AI data center. The oil and tech giants now share the same grid. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇺🇸 Crash Course. A Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot plowed into a Texas home, killing a 76-year-old woman and reigniting doubts about Tesla’s safety promises. (Le Figaro)
• 🇫🇷 Building Suspense. Altrad 🇫🇷, the construction giant, faces a tax fraud and money laundering investigation after prosecutors searched its Montpellier headquarters, mobilizing 50 investigators for the job. (Les Echos)
• 🇬🇧 Gilt Trip. The pound and UK government bonds jumped after Prime Minister Starmer announced his resignation, as markets welcomed the sudden change in leadership. (Bloomberg)
• 🇰🇷 K-Drama Drop. The KOSPI index tumbled 8% from its peak, halting trading and delivering a plot twist no one wanted on the Seoul exchange. (Bloomberg)
• 🇰🇷 Crown Circuit. SK Hynix surges past Samsung Electronics in market value for the first time since 2000, powered by AI memory chip demand. (Boursier)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

• Castlelake 🇺🇸 has three takeover offers for EasyJet 🇬🇧 rebuffed.
• Google 🇺🇸 invests $75M in A24 🇺🇸, the studio behind « Backrooms » and « Marty Supreme, » as part of a new AI research partnership.
• AbbVie 🇺🇸 to buy Apogee Therapeutics 🇺🇸 for $11B cash, anti-inflammatory-focused biotech at a 60% premium.
• Deluxe 🇺🇸 acquires Celero Commerce 🇨🇦 for $625M cash, a payment-processing deal.
• Arctos Partners 🇺🇸, a KKR-owned sports PE firm, held talks to invest in PIF-backed Newcastle United 🇬🇧.
• Reverence Capital Partners 🇺🇸 takes a majority stake in Eide Bailly 🇺🇸 in a $1.8B deal. Accounting firm to partner with private equity.
• Franklin Templeton 🇺🇸 acquires 250 Digital 🇺🇸, a crypto asset manager.
• MDA Space 🇨🇦 acquires Blue Canyon Technologies 🇺🇸 in a $620M all-cash deal.
• Danone 🇫🇷 acquires MADE 🇦🇺 and takes full ownership of its Australia joint venture, covering protein, coconut and yogurt in Asia‑Pacific.
• L’Oreal 🇫🇷 to acquire a majority stake in Innovist 🇮🇳, a beauty startup.
• The German state 🇩🇪 acquires 40% of KNDS 🇫🇷 from the Wegmann family ahead of its IPO. KNDS to list in Frankfurt and Paris, with 10% of family-held shares and 10% of French-state shares to be sold.
• Carl Zeiss 🇩🇪 acquires additional shares in Carl Zeiss Meditec 🇩🇪 for up to €200M via market purchases through Feb 2027. Stake to remain below 70% and no delisting planned.
• Germany 🇩🇪 acquires a 40% stake in KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 at a ~$20B valuation ahead of its IPO.
• RWE 🇩🇪 to acquire a 41% stake in Amprion 🇩🇪 from Swiss Life 🇨🇭 and AEBG 🇩🇪 at an $11.5B valuation.
• UniCredit 🇮🇹 secures over 42.5% of Commerzbank 🇩🇪, a $50B-listed rival, in a hostile bid.
• Asterion 🇪🇸 invests £300M equity in Southern Water 🇬🇧, helping the company reach a £1.2B equity target to fund major network upgrades.
• Portobello Capital 🇪🇸 delays sale of its 76% stake in Legálitas 🇪🇸. Portobello acquired the stake in 2021 valuing Legálitas at €120M. Legálitas reported €50M revenue in 2020.
• Filmin 🇪🇸 acquires Elastica 🇪🇸’s distribution business, marking the first time a streaming service takes control of a film distributor.
• EQT 🇸🇪 agreed to acquire Intertek 🇬🇧 for $12.4B, a product testing firm.
• EQT 🇸🇪 acquires Exolaunch 🇩🇪 for ~$400M, SpaceX-satellite launch partner.
• CRH 🇮🇪 acquires Arcosa 🇺🇸 for $8.5B including debt, a deal in the building-materials sector.
• Manchester United 🇬🇧 acquires Indurent 🇬🇧’s 10-hectare site for €2.3B for a new 100,000-capacity stadium located 350m from Old Trafford.
• Pollen Street Capital 🇬🇧 will acquire Universal Banking 🇬🇧, Finastra’s global core banking software business.
• Entain 🇬🇧 explores sale of CEE JV 🇪🇺, its Central and Eastern Europe joint venture.
• Obayashi 🇯🇵 acquires Multiplex 🇬🇧 from Brookfield for $650M, the UK construction firm that built London’s Wembley Stadium.
• Hyundai Motor 🇰🇷 acquires Boston Dynamics 🇺🇸 for $325M, buying SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in the robotics company.
• Prestige Estates Projects 🇮🇳 considers a $300M stake sale of Prestige Hospitality Ventures 🇮🇳.
• Aurobindo Pharma 🇮🇳 acquires Lannett Company 🇺🇸. FTC requires divestment of four generic drug products to complete the $250M acquisition.
• IFM Investors 🇦🇺 nears 50% stake in Atlas Arteria 🇦🇺, a deal involving the toll-road operator.
• Channel Capital 🇦🇺 merges with Fidante (Challenger unit) 🇦🇺 to create a $100B Australian fund manager.
• Arcelik 🇹🇷 acquires Whirlpool 🇺🇸’s remaining 25% stake in Beko Europe for $82M.
• PIF-backed King Abdullah Financial District 🇸🇦 in talks to sell district cooling business 🇸🇦 for $500M
• Foodics 🇸🇦 acquires Norma 🇬🇷. Norma’s natural language analytics, already adopted across 10,000 Foodics branches, will now power the next generation of agentic AI for restaurant operations.
• Fattal Hotel Group 🇮🇱’s $1.25B talks to acquire PPHE Hotel 🇳🇱 fell through after shareholder opposition.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

• 🇺🇸 Artificial Selection. Major tech companies including Oracle 🇺🇸, Google 🇺🇸, and Meta 🇺🇸 have cited AI as the reason for tens of thousands of layoffs in 2026, even as profits and revenues hit record highs. Apparently, the future of work means less work for humans. (TechCrunch)
• 🇺🇸 Compute and Conquer. SpaceX lands a $6.3B contract with Reflection AI for Colossus data center access, showing Musk’s ambitions now include renting out the future of artificial intelligence. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 Moat Point. Bain & Company now uses AI « vibecoding » to rapidly clone target software, letting private equity buyers test whether any real moat exists before paying up. (Financial Times)
• 🇺🇸 Withdrawal Symptoms. Investors tried to pull 17 percent from Apollo Debt Solutions, but the fund only allowed 5 percent out, proving exits are strictly rationed when stress rises. (Financial Times)
• 🇪🇺 Tank You Very Much. France and Germany have agreed to share control of tank maker KNDS, clearing the way for a joint IPO and equal ownership, after months of cross-border wrangling. (Le Parisien)
• 🇸🇦 Fund and Run. The Saudi central bank has reportedly withdrawn money from at least two asset managers, sending a clear signal to global finance that patience is not unlimited. (Bloomberg)

Fundraising

• Baseten 🇺🇸 (AI): $1.5B (Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Wellington Management, IVP, Greylock, 01A, Blackbird, Durable Capital Partners, Verified Capital, Battery Ventures, D. E. Shaw Ventures)
• AppsFlyer 🇺🇸 (Adtech): $1B (Moloco, Google, Meta, Unity)
• CRED 🇮🇳 (Fintech): $900M
• Groq 🇺🇸 (Semiconductors): $650M
• Articul8 🏳️ (AI): $500M
• Nearfield Instruments 🇳🇱 (Semiconductors): $380M (Fidelity Management & Research Company, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Temasek, Innovation Industries, M&G, Invest-NL, The Qatar Investment Authority, TNO Ventures, ING)
• General Intuitio n 🇺🇸 (AI): $300M (Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst)
• Evoken (AI): $300M (Granite Asia, Tencent, Shunwei Capital)
• Dream (Cybersecurity): $260M (Bicycle Capital, Group 11)
• Upscale AI 🇺🇸 (AI networking): $190M (Premji Invest, NVIDIA, Salesforce Ventures, Seligman Ventures, Temasek, Maverick Silicon, Mayfield, Prosperity7 Ventures, StepStone Group, Tiger Global)
• Behavox 🇬🇧 (Regtech): $175M (HPS Investment Partners, BlackRock)
• Bionyra Pharma 🇫🇷 (Biotech): €143M (Jeito Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Arkin Bio, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Vives Partners, Apollo Health Ventures)
• Prem AI 🇨🇭 (AI infrastructure): $100M (Jim Breyer, Index Ventures, others)
• Twenty 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $100M (Accel, Friends & Family Capital, Point72 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital)
• HyperLight 🇺🇸 (Photonics): $80M
• fomo 🇺🇸 (Trading): $75M (Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Benchmark)
• Nura Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $73.8M (The Column Group, Euclidean Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Sanofi Ventures)
• Isometric 🇬🇧 (Certification): $40M (AVP, Plural, Lowercarbon Capital, John Doerr, Walter Kortschak)
• Prosper AI 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $30M (Andreessen Horowitz, Base10, Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, Company Ventures)
• Lys Therapeutics 🇫🇷 (Biotech): €25M+ (The Michael J. Fox Foundation, Bpifrance, France 2030, private investors)
• Architect Labs 🇺🇸 (Semiconductor): $24M (Kindred Ventures, TQ Ventures, Race Capital, Together Fund, Srinivas Narayanan, Lukasz Kaiser, Aravind Srinivas, Kunle Olukotun, Trevor Blackwell, Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross, Shaad Khan, executives from NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI)
• Orbio AI 🇪🇸 (HR): $21M (Dawn Capital, Visionaries VC, Plus Partners, Enzo Ventures)
• Aether AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (MPCi, Inno Angel Fund, SWC Global)
• NeuralTrust 🇪🇸 (Cybersecurity): $20M (Alstin Capital, Seaya, Kibo Ventures, Banc Sabadell)
• Cuprum Metals 🇺🇸 (Metals): $19.4M (Lundin Family Office, Woodline Partners, BHP Ventures)
• HUD 🇺🇸 (AI): $16M (Standard Capital, Y Combinator, and others)
• Flease 🇫🇷 (Mobility): €13M
• Causa Prima 🇪🇸 (Fintech): $10M (Creandum, Kfund, HelloWorld)
• Linc 🇫🇷 (Payroll): €8.5M (Founders Future, Acadian Ventures, Adnexus, 50 Partners, Motier, 199 Ventures, Aonia, Better Angle, Clover, Headline, Resonance)

Fund Watch

• Seedcamp 🇬🇧: $320M (7th fund $220M + select fund 2 $100M, seed funds. Reaches $1B AUM)
• Crescenta 🇪🇸: €250M (AUM. Launching « Crescenta Private Equity Strategic Selection SCR » — SCR vehicle for corporates, insurers, foundations and family offices. Min €500k, target 15% net IRR, 1.8–2.3x MOIC)
• Columbus Venture Partners 🇪🇸: €210M (Columbus Innvierte Life Sciences Fund V, growth-stage biotech, healthtech, AI-for-health)
• M&G Investments 🇬🇧: €200M (M&G AAA EUR CLO Active UCITS, active ETF for AAA European CLO tranches; €180M external)
• Bootstrap 4F 🇬🇧: £130M (Women Backing Women Fund, VC for women founders. First close March 2026)
• Mantis Ventures (The Chainsmokers) 🇺🇸: $100M (4th venture fund, currently raising)
• Norrsken Launcher 🇸🇪: SEK900M

🔔IPO

• Lime 🇺🇸 (Micromobility): seeking to raise $180.9M in its IPO.
• ITG 🇺🇸 (Digital infra): seeking $429.3M in a IPO, targeting a valuation of up to $2.67B.
• Kardigan 🇺🇸 (Cardio biotech): surged 38% in its trading debut after raising $400M in an upsized IPO that priced it at a $2B market cap.
• Reformation 🇺🇸 (Fashion): preparing a confidential filing for an IPO.
• Sinda 🇺🇸 (Mining): seeking $345.2M in a IPO and placement.
• Global Auto Holdings 🇨🇦 (Auto retail): exploring a Canada IPO.
• OHB 🇩🇪 (Aerospace): raising €879M via a share sale (€510M to OHB for buy‑and‑build and investments, €368M proceeds to KKR).
• Bending Spoons 🇮🇹 (Software): seeking to raise up to $1.62B in a Nasdaq IPO targeting a $19B valuation.
• UniCredit 🇮🇹 (Banking): sounded out Delfin to more than double its stake in $75B-listed insurer Generali to 20%.
• Ellos 🇸🇪 (E-handel): planerar notering på Stockholmsbörsen i Q3 och vill ta in 300 miljoner kronor, där investerare åtagit sig drygt 200 miljoner.
• DSC Holdings 🇨🇳 (Auto software): seeking to raise $55M at a $900M valuation in a US IPO.
• CR New Energy 🇨🇳 (New Energy): recorded a Shenzhen IPO with strong retail demand.
• Momenta 🇭🇰 (Autonomous driving): said to be nearing a Hong Kong IPO, with the deal size not disclosed.
• PLDT data center unit 🇵🇭 (REIT): seeking to raise 24.2 billion pesos ($397M) in a REIT IPO.

🧳 Debt

• SpaceX 🇺🇸: in talks to sell $20B of investment-grade bonds to refinance a bridge loan.
• Pellera Technologies 🇺🇸: banks led by Bank of Montreal offered an 8¢ discount at a 450 bps premium on a $775M loan after being hung for over a year.
• Robinhood Markets 🇺🇸: is raising $2B in zero‑coupon convertible senior notes due Oct 2029 to buy back stock.
• California 🇺🇸: plans an $11B housing bond for the November election.
• Mexico 🇲🇽: tapping global debt markets to fund a bond buyback.
• Climate fund guarantees 🇲🇽🇧🇷: set to woo $5B for Mexico and Brazil.
• Argentina 🇦🇷: approved dollar borrowing amid multilateral loan talks.
• Eolo 🇮🇹: in advanced talks with Apollo for a $575M private credit to refinance liabilities.
• Cenergy Holdings 🇬🇷: about 6M existing shares (~3% of capital) sold in an accelerated placement by majority owner Viohalco. Cenergy receives no proceeds.
• Hillhouse Investment 🇨🇳: in talks for a $600M loan to fund its investment in DayOne Data Centers.
• Godiva Japan 🇯🇵: seeking extension on $464M LBO loan.
• SMBC 🇯🇵: in talks for two SRTs tied to $4B of LatAm corporate loans and $1.8B of infrastructure loans.
• Sony 🇯🇵: plans first dollar-bond sale in nearly three decades.
• State Bank of India 🇮🇳: among lenders planning to raise a combined $2.5B bond sales via central bank swaps.
• AirTrunk 🇦🇺: in talks for a $3B loan.

❌ Failures

• Oracle 🇺🇸: cut about 21,000 jobs and booked roughly $1.8bn in severance while planning at least $50bn in AI infrastructure spending.
• Lucid 🇺🇸: cutting roughly 18% of U.S. workforce and eliminating the COO role, targeting ~$158M in annualized savings and incurring ~$32M in severance after a $2.7B loss in 2025.
• Bain Capital 🇺🇸: a junior tranche on a European CLO managed by Bain Capital defaulted, the first such default in Europe since 2008.
• OTB Hospitality 🇺🇸: the operating company of On the Border filed for Chapter 7 liquidation after closing all company-owned locations. Franchised restaurants remain open.
• Ebra 🇫🇷: the regional press group announced up to 400 voluntary departures after an operational loss exceeding €10M in 2025.
• Tuvalum 🇪🇸: the Valencian second‑hand bike marketplace entered liquidation after voluntary insolvency, having reported €4.26M revenue in 2024 and €573k in losses.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

• 🇺🇸 Lost and Founders. The government is challenging RMS Titanic Inc 🇺🇸 as it tries to auction 100-plus Titanic artifacts instead of keeping them in public exhibitions. (The Guardian)
• 🇫🇷 No Game in Paris. US masculinist influencer Clavicular tried his signature street pickup routine during Paris Fashion Week, only to become a viral punchline after French women rejected him on TikTok. (Le Parisien)
• 🇬🇧 Strum and Sell. Johnny Marr is auctioning around 80 guitars, including the iconic Rickenbacker from « This Charming Man, » with Christie’s expecting bids up to £150,000. (The Guardian)
• 🇺🇦 Band of Others. The « Bolivar Battalion » brings 300 Latin American fighters, mostly ex-military, into Ukraine’s ranks as Kyiv leans on foreign recruits to face Russia. (Le Monde)