🧾 Deadline, Shmedline

Obey now, regret later (deadlines are just page décor)

A Free Lunch newsletter archive of June 2, 2026

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🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States

Good morning!

On 1 January, roughly 800K homes in France stopped being energy slums. No insulation went in, no boiler was swapped, no draught was sealed. The government simply changed how it does the arithmetic, and a swarm of « F » and « G » dwellings were promoted on paper while their walls stayed exactly as cold as before. The landlords who had read the old rule, believed it, and dumped their worst flats at a 20% discount to dodge mandatory works now hold the receipt for a deadline that no longer exists. Obedience, it turns out, was the premium option.

Britain runs the same machine, only with more reverse gear. In 2021 landlords were told every rented home would need an EPC rating of C by 2028: a « C », or no tenant. Four in five dutifully got to work, at an average bill of £25K a head. In September 2023, mid-sermon about easing the load on hard-pressed families, Rishi Sunak binned the lot. The exemplary landlord who had torn out his storage heaters collected precisely the same reward as the one who had sat on his hands, which is what a moral hazard looks like when run backwards. Then Labour arrived, exhumed the corpse, and rebooked band C for 2030. Same target, fresh tombstone, £21.5B of retrofitting to attempt all over again.

The cars got the full pendulum. Theresa May aimed at 2040, Boris Johnson hauled it forward to 2030, Sunak shunted it to 2035, Keir Starmer dragged it back to 2030. Ford, which had staked $50B globally on going electric on the strength of the earlier date, watched the goalposts complete a full lap of the pitch. The motor-manufacturers’ lobby called the delay confusing, which was generous: confusion at least implies an attempt to follow. Buyers were less polite. The share planning to switch to electric slipped from 42% to 38% in the week Sunak blinked, some two million people concluding that a government unsure of its own deadline was a thin reason to spend tens of thousands switching early. A phase-out works only if the phase, and the out, outlive the next reshuffle.

A market can price almost anything. It can price scarcity, war, a pandemic, a central banker’s cough. What it chokes on is a state that drafts a threat credible enough to move concrete and capital, waits for the obedient to act on it, then quietly deletes it the moment it starts to bite. Every U-turn teaches the identical lesson, and it is a rotting one: the rational move is to do nothing, outlast the minister, and let the believers absorb the cost. Britain has burned through housing and net-zero deadlines at roughly the rate it burns through Prime Ministers willing to ditch them. The damage is not to any single policy. It is to the notion that a rule, once written, means what it says, and that is the one thing no fresh consultation can refit.

🧾 Deadline, Shmedline

🗞️ Top Story

  • 🇬🇧 Back to the Future. Treasury minister Lord Livermore calls UK rejoining the EU “an inevitability,” marking the first time a serving minister openly backs reversing Brexit. (Financial Times)
  • 🇩🇪 Rumor Has It. Friedrich Merz faces a wave of speculation about his possible replacement as German chancellor after disastrous polls and plunging popularity, with Hendrick Wüst’s name now everywhere but no official moves yet. (France Info)
  • 🇦🇹 Past Imperfect. Austria prosecutes two Assad-era officials for torture and abuse, applying legal standards from 2011-2013 that could mean reduced jail time. (El Pais)
  • 🇩🇰 Majority Rules. Mette Frederiksen forms a new Danish government after record-long coalition talks, securing another term despite her party’s historic low at the polls. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇦 Crowd Control. Former presidential fixer Andriy Yermak, ousted and indicted for laundering millions, turned to public donations to scrape together his $3.5M bail. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Art of the Scold. In a heated call, Trump tells Netanyahu to rein in operations in Lebanon, insisting the Israeli PM is risking diplomatic efforts for personal drama. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇺🇸 Control Alt Deceit. Justice Department records undermine Bill Gates’s public persona, highlighting his undisclosed connections with Jeffrey Epstein according to the WSJ. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇰🇷 Collateral Damage. Hanwha Aerospace 🇰🇷 lost five workers in an explosion during rocket propellant cleaning, with the company and president vowing a full investigation. (El Pais)
  • 🇮🇱 Capital Gains. Netanyahu directs the Israeli military to hit Beirut’s Dahieh district, escalating the conflict with Hezbollah and sidelining the April ceasefire in favor of firepower. (BBC)
  • 🇮🇷 Channel Blocked. Tehran halts indirect negotiations with Washington and warns of a full Strait of Hormuz closure, as regional tensions drive Brent crude up nearly 7 percent. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇹 Orderly Disorder. Ethiopia’s election looks stable on the outside, but the country’s unresolved conflicts are not fooled by appearances. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Vetting Zoo. Peter Mandelson received sensitive Foreign Office briefings and met with MI6’s chief before his security clearance was complete, according to newly released documents. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 No Deal, No Fee. The UK will not have to pay Rwanda over £100M for the collapsed asylum scheme, as an international court ruled no compensation is owed after Labour scrapped the plan. (BBC)
  • 🇬🇧 Redacted Reality. Facing pressure, the UK published a trove of Mandelson documents, laying bare cabinet anxieties and Starmer’s struggle to contain the Epstein fallout. (New York Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Transparency Issues. The government publishes Mandelson’s candid assessment of Starmer’s team as “beleaguered and bereft,” redefining transparency as public embarrassment. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Anchor Management. Defense Secretary Hegseth stalls eight Navy promotions to push through a trusted aide with a history of being overlooked. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Slush Hour. Trump’s $1.8B DOJ fund, meant to compensate alleged victims of Biden-era prosecutions, is being dropped under mounting court and congressional pressure. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Map Quest. California’s new congressional map, redrawn by a nonpartisan commission, has left just four competitive districts as most seats tilt safely Democratic ahead of Tuesday’s primaries. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Odds and Ends. Marco Rubio’s chances to lead the GOP in 2028 spike after military action, putting him neck and neck with JD Vance on Kalshi. (Cnbc)

🏛️ Economy

  • 🇫🇷 Euro Vision. Macron claims a record €93B in foreign investment commitments at the Choose France summit, with over 15,000 jobs in the pipeline and global CEOs in attendance. (France Info)
  • 🇪🇸 Rate Expectations. Spain’s unemployment rate, once double Finland’s, has now converged at 10 percent, raising questions about Spanish progress or Finnish decline. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇺 Crude Intentions. The is moving to block Russia from accessing profits generated by frozen oil assets, aiming to keep the windfall out of Moscow’s reach. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇦 Help Wanted. Ukraine faces a growing labor shortage as war mobilization and mass emigration drain its workforce, leaving businesses scrambling for staff. (Le Monde)
  • 🇺🇸 Beyond the Gate. OpenAI and Oracle’s $16B Stargate campus in Michigan is just the start: data center guts will add another $30B to $40B to the tab. (Cnbc)
  • 🇨🇦 Resume Regrets. With youth unemployment at a post-pandemic high of 14.3%, young Canadians send out applications that rarely get a reply, let alone a job offer. (Le Monde)
  • 🇨🇳 Subsidy Doo Dah. The OECD calls out China for pouring billions into its key industries, accusing Beijing of tilting the global playing field with heavy-handed support. (Les Echos)
  • 🇸🇦 Current Affairs. OPEC+ faces analyst predictions that shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz will last all year, threatening global oil supply stability. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Green Means Go. CBI Economics reports the UK’s green economy is surging past £100B a year, creating over 1M jobs and making net zero look profitable after all. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Mythos Busted. After Anthropic blocked UK banks from its Mythos cyber tool, OpenAI swoops in to offer its GPT-5.5 Cyber for finding security flaws. Lloyds, HSBC, and Nationwide get access, while Anthropic keeps its doors shut. (BBC)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Fifty-Fifty Split. A survey reveals 51% of adults feel financially “conflicted,” balancing stability and anxiety without ever really landing on either. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Making Progress. U.S. factory activity grew for the fifth straight month in May, with the ISM index hitting 54, its highest level since 2022. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Trust Issues. Outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell warns that Trump’s political pressure on the central bank could destroy public confidence in its independence. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Remote Control. According to the New York Fed, remote work is driving up youth unemployment by making it harder for employers to onboard and mentor new grads. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Field of Schemes. The Illinois legislature greenlights a $56B budget yet punts the Chicago Bears stadium project, showing not every play gets a touchdown. (Bloomberg)

🏢 Real Estate

  • 🇨🇭 Tower Power. The Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, owner of Rolex, buys Geneva’s RTS tower for CHF 150M, with RTS set to remain the main tenant until 2029. (Le Temps)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Rate Expectations. UK house prices fell 0.6% in May, the first drop this year, as rising mortgage rates and Middle East tensions dampen demand. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Brick by Brick. construction spending rose 0.4% in April to an annualized $2.172T, outpacing forecasts and giving builders something to celebrate. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Home Run. Berkshire Hathaway is buying Taylor Morrison for $6.8B, signaling Warren Buffett thinks the housing market has finally hit bottom. (Cnbc)

🔗 On-chain

  • 🇪🇺 Stable Condition. ECB board member Isabel Schnabel warns that the rise of dollar-backed stablecoins could undermine the euro’s global role and weaken central bank power. (Boursier)
  • 🇺🇸 HODL My Beer. Strategy 🇺🇸 sold 32 bitcoin for $2.5M, ditching its famous buy-and-hold pledge as shares promptly slid 6% in premarket trading. (Cnbc)

💱 Listed Markets

  • 🇬🇧 Gas Leak. BP’s head of gas and low-carbon energy, William Lin, is leaving after 30 years, marking yet another senior exit as the company pivots back to oil and gas under new CEO Meg O’Neill.
  • 🇫🇷 Trust Issues. Paris prosecutors have indicted two Swiss lawyers and a notary after Hermès heir Nicolas Puech accused his asset manager of secretly transferring his shares to LVMH. (Swissinfo)
  • 🇩🇪 St(e)ake Out. Uber 🇺🇸 moves to take a big bite of Delivery Hero 🇩🇪, only to find Prosus 🇳🇱 eyeing a larger helping for itself. (Les Echos)
  • 🇺🇸 Cloud Nine Figures. Alphabet plans to raise $80B by selling stock, including $10B to Berkshire Hathaway, to bankroll its AI infrastructure expansion and keep up with surging demand. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇺🇸 AI of the Tiger. Investors sent Hewlett Packard Enterprise 🇺🇸 stock up 37% as the company projected much higher 2026 sales, riding the AI infrastructure gold rush. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Crude Awakening. US-Iran military exchanges sent Brent crude up 6.5 percent to $97 a barrel, making global markets jittery and drivers nervous. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Quantum Copycat. Barclays claims IBM 🇺🇸 is channeling Nvidia‘s GPU-era strategy for quantum computing and could reward investors with a 50% rally. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Cable and Switch. Patrick Drahi’s Optimum Communications moved $2B in assets beyond creditor reach, escalating its $25B debt standoff with Apollo, Ares, Oaktree, and BlackRock. (Financial Times)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

  • Yorkshire Building Society 🇬🇧 weighs a takeover bid for Atom Bank 🇬🇧; owners have appointed Jefferies and hope to secure a deal worth more than £600M, having raised £350M last year.
  • Atari 🇫🇷 acquires Hipster Whale 🇦🇺 for an initial $29.3M ( $26M cash + $3.3M in newly issued Atari shares) plus up to $10M earn-out; Hipster Whale posted $8.28M revenue and $4.63M EBITDA in the 12 months to 31 Jan 2026, 3.3M of the purchase price to be settled by debt set-off via issuance of 117,813 new Atari shares at €24 per share, deal expected to close in the coming days.
  • Groupe Magellan Partners 🇫🇷 acquires Mobilité & Services Web Transactionnels 🇫🇷 from Worldline 🇫🇷 for an enterprise value of €400M; net cash proceeds ≈ €280M.
  • Mercedes 🇩🇪 and Toto Wolff 🇦🇹 end bid to buy a 24% stake in Alpine 🇫🇷 at a $3B valuation.
  • DUBAG Group 🇩🇪 acquires HKO 🇩🇪 and its French subsidiary Deltec 🇫🇷 from Saint-Gobain 🇫🇷; the activity reported about €45M revenue in 2025 and employs ~220 people.
  • Sapio Group 🇮🇹 acquires New Medical Concept 🇫🇷, Experf holding active in home infusion and nutrition; deal signed 21 May 2026 with conditions lifted end‑May.
  • MPS 🇮🇹 is not holding merger talks with Banco BPM 🇮🇹, $24B-listed peer.
  • Radionor Communications 🇳🇴 explores a sale at a potential $4.5B valuation.
  • Elliott Management 🇺🇸 calls for sale of Northern Star Resources 🇦🇺 after building a near-5% stake for A$1bn; shares down 43% since March, market cap A$29.6bn (US$21.2bn), CEO to step down.
  • Castlelake 🇺🇸 is considering a takeover of EasyJet 🇬🇧, valuing the airline at a minimum of £3.06B ($3.89B) and indicating an offer of no less than 403.23p per share; Castlelake owns a ~2.14% stake and has AUM of £27B ($36B).
  • People Inc. 🇺🇸 offers to buy remaining shares of MGM Resorts 🇺🇸 at $48.30 per share, valuing the company at about $12.4B ($18B including debt); People already owns 26.1%.
  • Pfizer 🇺🇸 agrees a $10.5B global licensing and collaboration deal with Innovent Biologics 🇨🇳 to develop 12 early-stage cancer medicines.
  • Stone Ridge Asset Management 🇺🇸 offers to acquire Devon Energy 🇺🇸’s Marcellus shale assets for $8B, supported by the largest ever ABS financing in US O&G history.
  • Berkshire Hathaway 🇺🇸 acquires Taylor Morrison Home 🇺🇸 for $6.8B in cash, home builder.
  • CSG 🇺🇸 pursues a stake in KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪, a tank maker, ahead of its $6B Europe IPO.
  • KarpReilly 🇺🇸 and Enlightened Hospitality Investments 🇺🇸-owned Salt & Straw 🇺🇸 is exploring a sale at an over $200M valuation.
  • Wagner College 🇺🇸 acquires St. John’s University 🇺🇸’s Staten Island campus for $30M.
  • LongRange Capital 🇺🇸 in exclusive talks to acquire Pizza Hut 🇺🇸 from Yum! Brands 🇺🇸, beating out bidders including Sycamore Partners 🇺🇸.
  • Chevron 🇺🇸 acquires HelleniQ Energy 🇬🇷’s 70% stake in a Greek offshore block.
  • Bill Ackman 🇺🇸 voit son offre pour acquérir UMG 🇳🇱 rejetée.
  • Fibra MTY 🇲🇽 acquires Fibra Macquarie 🇲🇽 in a $1.7B deal.
  • Ningji 🇨🇳 acquires General Mills’ Häagen‑Dazs Mainland China ice‑cream shops 🇺🇸, sale of Häagen‑Dazs retail stores in mainland China.
  • Jardine Matheson 🇭🇰 considers selling more assets following a $10B deal spree.
  • Vincent Tan 🇲🇾 considers selling his 30% stake in Prudential Assurance Malaysia 🇲🇾 at a $5B valuation.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

  • 🇬🇧 Easy Pickings. Castlelake, a US private credit firm little known in Britain, has confirmed interest in acquiring easyJet after its shares plunged 75 percent since their peak, making the airline a tempting target. (Financial Times)
  • 🇫🇷 AI of the Tiger. French private equity firm Ardian is investing up to €5B in a massive AI data center and research campus near Paris, aiming to boost Europe’s digital muscle without waiting for US tech handouts. (Financial Times)
  • 🇧🇪 Wise Guys. Wise 🇬🇧 confirms it is under investigation by Belgian prosecutors over money-laundering controls, sending its shares sliding and its compliance claims into question. (The Guardian)
  • 🇪🇺 Rate Race. A new study finds European venture capital returns closely match those in the US, but each side plays by its own rulebook. (Option Finance)
  • 🇺🇸 Short Circuit. Andrew Left, famed for betting against stocks, is convicted of fraud for manipulating prices with misleading opinions that benefited his own trades. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Fin Win. fintechs rebound from their slump years as profits and revenues jump, showing the sector can still cash in after all. (FinExtra)
  • 🇺🇸 Pay to Play. Strava will now require developers to pay $12 monthly for API access and restricts public data, aiming to outpace AI scrapers as it eyes an IPO. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇯🇵 Son Also Rises. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son declares physical AI and robotics the next trillion-dollar gold rush, betting $87B on a future where machines do the heavy lifting. (Cnbc)

Fundraising

  • Maxwell Power 🇺🇸 (Energy): $750M
  • Multiverse Computing 🇪🇸 (Quantum software): $580M
  • DriveNets 🇮🇱 (Networking): $410M (Bessemer Venture Partners, Atreides Management, AMD, Red Dot Capital, Pitango, D1 Capital Partners)
  • Vast 🇨🇳 (3D modeling): $200M (Ince Capital, VC fund backed by China Life Insurance)
  • XCENA 🇺🇸 (AI hardware): $135M (Atinum Investment, IMM Investment, SBI Investment, Mirae Asset Capital / Mirae Asset Venture Investments, STIC Ventures, Wonik Investment Partners, SV Investment, LB Investment, Corstone Asia, Kiwoom Investment, DSC Investment, Shinhan Venture Investment, Korea Development Bank, KDB Capital, Premier Partners, Kolon Investment, Company K Partners, K2 Investment Partners, Partners Investment, Kyobo Securities / Kyobo Life)
  • Inherent 🇬🇧 (AI): $50M (Index Ventures, Radical Ventures)
  • Picogrid 🇺🇸 (Defense): $45M (Bessemer Venture Partners, Washington Harbour, GSBackers, Initialized Capital, Starburst Ventures, Credo Ventures, Giant Step Capital, Alumni Ventures, industry angels)
  • Pax (Public safety): $40M (Greenoaks, Benchmark)
  • Saris 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $28.8M (8VC, Audacious Ventures, Homebrew, Btech Consortium, Service Ventures)
  • Countable Labs 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $26M (ARCH Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, Primer Ventures)
  • Tilt 🇬🇧 (Live commerce): $26M (Vinted Ventures, Balderton, Earlybird, Seedcamp)
  • Gradient Labs 🇬🇧 (Fintech): $26M (Redpoint Ventures, LocalGlobe, Puzzle Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Exceptional Capital, Octopus Ventures, CommerzVentures)
  • Unastella 🇰🇷 (Aerospace): $24M (Altos Ventures, Korea Development Bank, Strong Ventures, Hana Ventures)
  • Waypoint Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $20M (Amplify Partners, General Catalyst, Time BioVentures, Mitsui Global Investments, Lux Capital, Hummingbird Ventures)
  • Drafted 🇺🇸 (Home design): $16M (Buckley Ventures, Y Combinator)
  • Khloud 🇺🇸 (Food): $15M (K5 Global)
  • Veritas Aortic Solutions 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $12M (Cedars-Sinai Intellectual Property Company, inQB8’s existing investors, a group of MedTech angel investors)
  • Psilera 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $8.8M
  • SpeedLabs 🇺🇸 (Sports): $6.5M (Parlay Capital, Bullpen Capital, TA Ventures, EdgeEquity)
  • Noa 🇫🇷 (Fitness): €5M (Founders Future, Kima Ventures, Drysdale, Eden, Intuition, business angels)
  • Handshake 🇬🇧 (Retail): $3.2M (Triple Point Ventures, Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, Octopus Ventures, and other retail technology investors)
  • Paralign Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $3M (Flyover Capital, SixThirty Ventures, Springtime Ventures, Forum Ventures, Sorenson Impact Foundation, Stone Mountain Ventures, GovTech Ventures)
  • France Cake Tradition 🇫🇷 (Food): €675,000 (Finorpa, Hauts-de-France Avenir TPE PME, la Région)

Fund Watch

  • Blackstone 🇺🇸: $13.1B (Blackstone Capital Partners Asia III, Asia private equity fund)
  • Broad Reach 🇬🇧: $3B (EM macro hedge fund, closing to new capital)
  • Ampersand Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $1.5B (12th flagship private equity fund, healthcare-focused)
  • Shiprock Capital Management 🇺🇸: $1B (EM distressed debt investor, closed to new capital)
  • Elham 🇨🇳: $600M (2nd APAC-focused private credit fund, currently raising)
  • Gigascale Capital 🇺🇸: $250M (first institutional fund, early-stage companies rebuilding the physical economy for climate impact)

🔔IPO

  • OpenPayd 🇬🇧 (Fintech): to list on Nasdaq via a SPAC at a $1.145B valuation, receiving up to $276M in gross proceeds.
  • TotalEnergies 🇫🇷 (Energy): France took a 1.33% stake worth $2.8B, becoming the tenth-largest shareholder.
  • Semco Technologies 🇫🇷 (Tech): joins Euronext Tech Leaders, gaining access to 110+ growth tech firms and greater visibility with international investors.
  • vVardis 🇨🇭 (Dental): preparing a US IPO.
  • OpenAI 🇺🇸 (AI): discussed adding Citigroup and JPMorgan to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead underwriters for an IPO that could fetch a $1T+ valuation.
  • Sempra 🇺🇸 (Utilities): activist Voss Capital urged the $60B-listed utility to spin off its Oncor electricity unit.
  • Liftoff Mobile 🇺🇸 (Adtech): seeking to raise $420M at a $3.6B valuation in a renewed IPO attempt.
  • McCormick 🇺🇸 (Food): activist Toms Capital built a significant stake amid a $45B merger with Unilever’s foods business.
  • Quantinuum 🇺🇸 (Quantum computing): boosted its IPO size to as much as $1.46B by raising the shares offered and the price range.
  • Anthropic 🇺🇸 (AI): confidentially filed an SEC IPO prospectus, after a $65B funding round that valued it at $965B.
  • MiniMax 🇨🇳 (AI): preparing a China listing after a $34B Hong Kong valuation.
  • Zhengxin 🇨🇳 (Restaurants): exploring raising $300M in a Hong Kong IPO.
  • GLP 🇭🇰 (Logistics): planning to raise up to US$3.0B in a Hong Kong IPO, targeting a Q4 listing.
  • Big Caring Group 🇲🇾 (Pharmacy): seeking to raise $750M in Malaysia’s biggest IPO of the past decade.
  • Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting 🇸🇦 (Construction): seeking to raise $800M in Saudi’s first major IPO this year.

🧳 Debt

  • DMS Group 🇫🇷: drew €4M of a €20M EIB financing.
  • Winamp Group 🇫🇷: restructured and cut debt from ~€10.4M to ~€5.2M, with the €5.2M rescheduled over 3 years (€1M/€2M/remainder).
  • Engie 🇩🇪: secured €1.033B in export financing guaranteed by Germany’s Euler Hermes.
  • Intesa Sanpaolo 🇮🇹: arranged two SRTs tied to US corporate loans and ESG corporate loans totaling $4.8B.
  • Polar 🇳🇴: raised €800M in a senior secured Nordic bond.
  • IDB Invest 🇺🇸: raised 100M CHF in a 10-year blue bond to fund water and marine projects.
  • Paramount Skydance 🇺🇸: preparing to sell $50B of debt to fund its $110B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
  • Shutterfly 🇺🇸: Apollo-backed, raising $1.9B in junk debt to refinance.
  • Worthington Steel 🇺🇸: raised $1.4B in junk debt led by Wells Fargo to help fund its $2.4B acquisition of Klöeckner.
  • IDB Invest 🇺🇸: raised CHF 100M (~$127M) in a 10‑year Swiss franc Blue Bond.
  • Vesper Energy 🇺🇸: closed $236M financing for the 201 MW Nazareth Solar.
  • CoreWeave-tied data center 🇺🇸: seeking $850M junk bond sale.
  • QXO 🇺🇸: kicked off a $3B loan offering to finance its takeover of TopBuild.
  • Citadel Securities 🇺🇸: seeks to extend and upsize a $4B loan.
  • Liberty Puerto Rico 🇵🇷: raised $200M secured term loan ($150M drawn, $50M available) maturing 2030 at 12.0% p.a.
  • IREN 🇦🇺: raised $3.6B in debt to buy Nvidia chips to provide computing capacity to Microsoft.

❌ Failures

  • Fibre Excellence 🇫🇷: placed into receivership Apr 27, takeover bid filed Jun 1 to save its two pulp mills and 670 jobs.
  • UBS 🇨🇭: has cut several hundred roles across EMEA as part of the Credit Suisse takeover, with 101,594 FTEs (≈17,500 fewer since the purchase) and ~3,000 Swiss redundancies expected.
  • American Axle 🇺🇸: nearly 1,000 workers struck at the Three Rivers plant, stalling GM truck-parts production after wages were halved in 2008.
  • Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection 🇺🇸: lenders agreed to push back repayments and relax terms on $1.5B of debt.
  • Blue Diamond 🇨🇦: ceased tourism operations in Cuba with immediate effect, ending management of 62 properties amid rising US sanctions.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

  • 🇬🇧 Stripe Hype. The red bands in Bacon Hole, once written off as mineral streaks, are officially the oldest cave art ever found in the UK. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Text and the City. Rosamund Pike paused her West End performance to call out an audience member for texting during a key emotional scene, reminding the crowd that theatre is not a group chat. (BBC)
  • 🇫🇷 Space Invité. Thomas Pesquet is set for his third spaceflight in 2027, commanding the Vast mission to the ISS according to the French president. (Ouest-France)
  • 🇫🇷 Monkey Business. A female golden lion tamarin stolen in 2013 from Beauval Zoo has resurfaced in Slovakia after 11 years, exposing the long reach of the exotic animal trade. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇺🇸 Seed Capital. Newly released Justice Department files reveal Jeffrey Epstein stored sperm at California Cryobank, raising questions about the fate and control of his genetic material after his death. (New York Times)

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