🕵️♂️ Follow The Trophy
The plaque’s worth more than the numbers.
Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française
Good morning!
Randall Lane ran Forbes editorial for 9 of his 15 years there and was fired in July, once the magazine found he had banked some $6M from RJ Shook, whose research firm has manufactured the Forbes wealth adviser rankings since 2016. Lane calls it a gift, a thank-you for years of informal counsel to a man he met on a Forbes charity trip to Liberia in 2013, latterly on the sale of Shook’s stake to the private equity house PPC Enterprises. The money moved after the deal closed. No newsroom caught it. The buyer found it while reading the emails of the asset it had just acquired, which files editorial ethics somewhere between the pension schedule and the unpaid invoices.
A logo licence costs $2,500, and the engraved wall display comes with terms barring anyone from photographing it online without buying the separate digital licence, so the trophy and the right to be seen holding it are two distinct line items. Selection rests on interviews, compliance records, assets gathered and revenue produced for the employer. Portfolio returns appear nowhere, and the stated reason holds up: mandates differ, and the figures are not audited. With the only variable a saver cares about removed, the survey measures what an adviser gathers, not what becomes of it.
Morgan Stanley walked first and Wells Fargo followed. The SEC’s marketing rule obliges an adviser touting a third-party rating to hold a reasonable basis for believing the methodology impartial, and $6M in the account of the editor who brokered the partnership makes that memo hard to write. Within days Forbes and Shook froze every 2026 ranking and cancelled the Las Vegas convention. Nothing on the record shows a place being bought, the interviews were real, and neither bank has questioned a name. What they dropped was a credential that had become more expensive to explain than to lose.
Temple’s business school dean drew 14 months in 2022 for feeding US News false data until his online MBA topped the table, which at least took lying. Lane’s other invention, the 30 Under 30, produced a Hall of Shame of alumni Forbes wished it could retract, among them the founder of the student aid app Frank, who drew 85 months and $287M in restitution for selling JPMorgan 4.25M customers, 300,000 of whom existed. Adjective manufacturing is a real industry with one industrial accident, the loss of credibility. The suspension memo went out to the people who bought the plaques. The brand returns in 2027 under a new name. A retired couple has no way to audit a portfolio manager. They sit down, see a name in Forbes typeface behind the desk, and take it for the nearest thing to a rating agency they will meet. The inference was rational. The object cost $2,500, and nobody has been asked what the wall was worth to the person reading it.
A Free Lunch is looking for a business partner or advertising agency to monetize its ads. Contact us!
🗞️ Top Story
- 🇬🇧 State of Play. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledges stronger state control over essential services, starting with water, promising a ten-year plan to put public needs first. (Le Monde)
- 🇩🇪 Flight Risk. Berlin accuses Moscow of orchestrating an attempted drone attack on Leipzig airport, prompting Germany to close Russian consular and cultural sites in response. (Le Parisien)
- 🇪🇸 Hot Ticket. The Spanish summer claimed 5,111 lives due to extreme heat, setting a grim new record and leaving health officials bracing for more. (Libé)
- 🇪🇺 Unanimity Fatigue. Eleven nations, led by Germany and Spain, urge reforms to prevent one member from blocking foreign policy decisions, citing recent Hungarian obstruction as a warning. (El Pais)
- 🇷🇺 Skyfall. President Zelensky warns airlines that Russian airspace is now a drone zone, urging carriers and insurers to reconsider any flights over Russia. (Le Figaro)
- 🇺🇸 Bombs Away. The launched new airstrikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions as Tehran vows retaliation and oil prices climb. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Background Check. Erin Piacenti, a Bank of America 🇺🇸 vice president, was fatally stabbed in Times Square by a woman with prior police encounters, leaving authorities searching for a motive. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Name Drop. After Trump demands Lake Ontario be renamed Lake America, Google updates its maps, MapQuest refuses, and Apple sits on the fence, because nothing says power like a place name. (New York Times)
- 🇹🇭 Fleet Retreat. After more than 200 days at sea and headlines about dire conditions, the USS Abraham Lincoln arrives in Pattaya for five days of R&R, giving 5,000 US sailors a break from war zones and clogged toilets. (Die Zeit)
- 🇮🇱 Sleeping Beauty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims military chiefs deliberately let him sleep through the October 7 Hamas attack to avoid escalation, shifting blame for the disaster. (Le Monde)
- 🇮🇷 Byte by Byte. Tehran deploys cyberattacks as part of its harassment campaign against the US, proving that in this conflict, the keyboard is just as potent as the missile. (Le Figaro)
- 🇸🇾 Core Values. After years of evasion, Syria’s secret stash of 73 tons of uranium from Assad’s rule is now safely under IAEA surveillance. (Spiegel)
- 🇺🇳 Over the Line. The admits the world will surpass the 1.5°C climate target and now urges countries to focus on damage control instead of prevention. (Ouest-France)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Burnham Notice. Andy Burnham makes his first appearance as UK prime minister in Parliament, promising a « different kind of politics » but offering few specifics beyond decentralization and more public control of essential services. (El Pais)
- 🇬🇧 Exit Poll. Keir Starmer resigns as MP for Holborn and St Pancras to pursue international affairs, triggering a by-election and ending weeks of speculation about his future. (BBC)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Presence of Mind. Former President Joe Biden confirms he will join the 9/11 memorial in New York, a seat Donald Trump chooses not to fill. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Fleet Street. Trump taps Hung Cao, a Vietnam-born Navy veteran, for permanent Navy secretary as the administration promises a “fiercest and best” force amid ongoing leadership purges. (New York Times)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇬🇧 Rate Expectations. Long-term UK government bond yields hit a 28-year high, squeezing Burnham’s fiscal room just as he prepares his debut Budget. (BBC)
- 🇩🇪 Cabinet Fever. As the German cabinet prepares to pass Klingbeil’s income tax reform, CDU ministers air their grievances in public, prompting Klingbeil to warn that “opposition in government” will only backfire. (Die Zeit)
- 🇸🇪 Swede Dreams. Sweden, once famed for equality, now counts 51 billionaires and faces a heated election debate over taxing its ultrarich elite. (Le Monde)
- 🇪🇺 Rate Race. Inflation in the eurozone jumps back above 3 percent, hitting 3.3 percent in August as rising oil prices keep the ECB on edge. (Les Echos)
- 🇪🇺 Flat Line. The eurozone jobless rate held at 6.4% in July, missing the 6.3% forecast and proving stability is sometimes just stagnation. (Boursier)
- 🇪🇺 Lazy Billions. Ursula von der Leyen calls out Europe’s €10T in “idle” household savings, urging leaders to put the cash to work for growth. (Le Figaro)
- 🇺🇦 Boxed Out. Lawmakers in Kyiv shot down a parcel tax plan, jeopardizing $30B in IMF and EU support that hinges on passing the measure. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Artificial Assets. Nvidia joins Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, and Microsoft in piling up $1.85T in off-the-books debt for AI, as investors start to sweat. (Le Parisien)
- 🇺🇸 Token Gesture. The LLM Token Expenditure Index, tracking AI model token prices, hit a record low of $0.97 as competition and cost cuts squeeze providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. (CNBC)
- 🇨🇦 Meme Team. Mark Carney slams Trump officials for mocking Canada on social media and renaming Lake Ontario, calling it « beneath their office » during the ongoing tariff fight. (CNBC)
- 🇻🇪 Crude Awakening. Alejandro Betancourt, once stuck in a UK money laundering case, is now Washington’s go-to negotiator for reviving Venezuela’s oil industry. No charges, just business. (Libé)
- 🇯🇵 Peak Performance. Japan’s 10-year bond yield briefly topped 3% for the first time since 1996, signaling a seismic shift in the country’s borrowing costs. (Boursier)
- 🇦🇺 Kanga-Boom. Australia’s economy jumped 2.1% year on year in Q2, beating expectations and nudging the RBA closer to another rate hike. (CNBC)
- 🌍 Yield Sign. Global bond yields jumped as surging oil prices stoked inflation fears, pushing the US 10-year Treasury to its highest level since January 2025. (Wall Street Journal)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Middle Class Action. The Resolution Foundation urges John Healey to target middle earners with tax hikes if he wants to finance higher defence spending in the UK. (The Guardian)
🏢 Real Estate
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Brick Bounce. UK house prices rose 0.2% in August to £275,465, marking the first monthly increase since April according to Nationwide. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Server and Serve. The cements its AI dominance as global data centre projects rely on American chips and infrastructure, trading local control for access to Nvidia’s ecosystem. (Financial Times)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇬🇧 Stock Chain. The London Stock Exchange will launch tokenized shares, bringing blockchain to blue chips and giving digital assets a seat on the trading floor. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Fifth Element. Strive vaults into the top five public bitcoin holders after snapping up 1,800 BTC for $143M. That brings its total to 23,156 coins. (Cointribune)
- 🇺🇸 Clarity Check. The crypto industry’s flagship Clarity Act faces a make-or-break September vote, with insiders bracing for defeat and preparing to operate without new legislation. (CNBC)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇫🇷 Margin Call. Elliott Management targets Air Liquide 🇫🇷 with a new stake, sparking a rally as investors bet on activist-fueled efficiency. (Les Echos)
- 🇺🇸 AI of the Tiger. Dell 🇺🇸 upgraded its 2027 outlook as AI server sales are now expected to triple, sending the stock up 9% in after-hours trading. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Spec-Tacular Risk. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel insists on debuting $2,195 smart glasses in public, betting that style and price will finally click for consumers. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Ellison Wonderland. David Ellison pitches a fantasy of 30 movies per year after merging Paramount and Warner, but Hollywood prefers reality checks to fairy tales. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇨🇳 Max Appeal. Mainland China investors have flocked to Minimax 🇨🇳, making it their new favorite stock as trading volumes surge and sentiment shifts. (Bloomberg)
- 🇯🇵 Tea Party. Shares of Ito En 🇯🇵 jumped 8% after the green tea giant posted a 22% profit surge, outperforming Japan’s falling market and leaving investors steeped in surprise. (CNBC)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Silent Rover. Range Rover launches its first electric vehicle, rolling out in Solihull despite JLR’s falling profits, cyber woes, and looming layoffs. (BBC)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- Epiris 🇬🇧 acquires Gamma Communications 🇬🇧 for £1B in the telecom sector
- Frasers Group 🇬🇧 seeks to acquire a majority stake in Hugo Boss 🇩🇪, currently holding 47.89% and aiming to exceed 50%, after a failed takeover and while reviewing support for supervisory board chair Stephan Sturm.
- Societe Generale SA 🇫🇷 acquires OXG 🇩🇪, a German fiber joint venture with Vodafone Group Plc 🇬🇧, buying Patrick Drahi’s 50% stake from a holding company he controls. Financial terms not disclosed.
- Mollie 🇳🇱 acquires GoCardless 🇬🇧 for $1.3B, strengthening its position in direct debit and payments.
- Euroclear 🇧🇪 acquires Inversis 🇪🇸, taking 90% of the Spanish investment services platform.
- New Wave Group 🇸🇪 acquires Uhlsport 🇩🇪, 100% stake signed, completion by early October.
- Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners 🇩🇰 acquires Windlab 🇦🇺’s full ownership of a major Australian wind and battery project and secures a $1.2B facility from 10 banks.
- Aon 🇮🇪 acquires USI 🇺🇸 for $17B from KKR and other shareholders, US middle-market insurance broker (~$3B revenue, ~10,500 employees). Closing expected Q4 2026.
- ArcelorMittal 🇱🇺 drops takeover of the JV 🇮🇹 after a government ruling.
- SLB 🇺🇸 acquires Kelvion 🇩🇪, a cooling equipment maker, in a $3.4B cash deal, including debt, with SLB as an oilfield services provider.
- Eli Lilly 🇺🇸 acquires Merida Biosciences 🇺🇸 for $2.9B cash, expanding its presence in autoimmune and allergic diseases.
- Veritas 🇺🇸 acquires Bodycote 🇬🇧 for £1.84B, FTSE 250 industrials group listed since 1972.
- H.I.G. 🇺🇸 is said to consider sale of Rising Pharma 🇺🇸, a drugmaker valued at $1B.
- Salesforce 🇺🇸 backs HiBob 🇮🇱 at $3.2B valuation.
- Morgan Stanley Investment Management 🇺🇸 acquires a portfolio of two Class A senior living residences (300 units) in the Orlando and Tampa metro areas, covering independent living, assisted living and memory care.
- Starman Optical 🇺🇸 acquires GoPro 🇺🇸 for $285M, $1.14 per share, will remain a public company and the deal wipes $92M of debt.
- Yellow Wood Partners 🇺🇸 acquires Nestle 🇨🇭’s mainstream vitamins, supplements and minerals business for $1B, including brands Nature’s Bounty and Sisu (primarily U.S. sales $1.2B last year).
- Chobani 🇺🇸 acquires minority stake and Allentown, Pennsylvania manufacturing facility from Keurig Dr Pepper 🇺🇸 for $925M ($800M for stake, $125M for plant).
- iPipeline 🇺🇸 acquires Origo 🇬🇧 after receiving regulatory clearance, targeting the UK wealth and retirement markets.
- Bombardier 🇨🇦 acquires MHI Canada Aerospace’s Mississauga facility 🇨🇦, which manufactures wings for the Global 5500 and 6500.
- Descartes Systems Group 🇨🇦 acquires Extensiv 🇺🇸 for $120M, logistics software firm focused on warehouse management and fulfilment.
- House Foods Group 🇯🇵 considers sale of CoCo Ichibanya 🇯🇵, the $1.1B-listed iconic curry rice chain.
- SBI Holdings 🇯🇵 acquires a 20% stake in Ajaib 🇮🇩 for $270M, Series C pushes the Jakarta-based trading app’s total funding to >$500M and highlights its appeal to younger investors with zero minimum deposits.
- CoCo Ichibanya 🇯🇵 might be for sale.
- Hyperliquid Labs 🇸🇬 is in talks with Payward 🇺🇸 to offer Hyperliquid perpetuals to US traders via Bitnomial.
- ITC Infotech 🇮🇳 acquires a 22% stake in Happiest Minds Technologies 🇮🇳 for $140M cash. Happiest Minds to list in India after the deal.
- GRT Jewellers 🇮🇳 will take a 74% stake in Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri 🇮🇳 for up to $110M, followed by mandatory full ownership.
- ZCCM Investments Holdings 🇿🇲 considers a share sale to boost liquidity.
🇺🇸 United States
- GI Partners 🇺🇸 acquires a majority interest in Otodata Holdings Inc. 🇨🇦, remote monitoring and vehicle tracking solutions provider. Existing investor Renovo Capital 🇺🇸 and management retain minority stakes.
- Ares Venture 🇺🇸 acquires US student housing properties 🇺🇸 for $435M in a student-housing real estate deal.
- Stan Kroenke 🇺🇸 acquires Los Angeles Angels 🇺🇸 for $4B, valuing the team and its regional sports network. Deal expected to close Q1 2027.
- Nickolas Asset Management 🇺🇸 invests $100M in Kreate 🇺🇸 for a 542,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility in Tiffin, Ohio, deploying 32 ENGEL injection-molding systems, FANUC robotics, autonomous material handling, Krevera read-write AI and creating ~120 jobs.
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners 🇺🇸 acquires The Colt Group 🇺🇸. Private equity buyout of a specialty industrial services company in partnership with management.
- Great Hill Partners 🇺🇸 makes a strategic investment in Aurenity 🇺🇸, accelerating underwriter recruitment, launching new specialty programs, and enabling AI across its E&S MGA platform.
- Oaktree Capital Management 🇺🇸 and StepStone Group 🇺🇸 invest in System One 🇺🇸, strategic investment announced. Financial terms not disclosed.
- Green Canada Uranium Corp. 🇨🇦 acquires Marshall uranium project 🇨🇦 for a 100% interest. GCUC to begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under « GCUC » around Sept. 9, 2026.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇬🇧 Buyout Britain. Private equity firms and foreign rivals are snapping up London-listed companies at record pace, with $182B in UK deals so far this year and ministers worried the stock market is turning into a clearance sale. (Financial Times)
- 🇪🇺 Customs Fit. Shein sidesteps new European import taxes by rapidly adapting its delivery strategy, proving that regulatory barriers are just another item on its to-do list. (Les Echos)
- 🇺🇸 Access Denied. OpenAI’s Astra model can break into computer systems without human help, so the company is limiting its most advanced features to select users. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Speed Run. San Francisco’s AfterQuery 🇺🇸 rockets from launch to a $3.2B valuation in record time, setting a new Y Combinator milestone. (TechCrunch)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Downing Tools. A fake 10 Downing Street listing slipped past Booking.com 🇳🇱 controls, prompting Which? to call the site’s fraud checks “unfit for purpose” and warn of real risks to holidaymakers. (BBC)
- 🇪🇺 Billy Relief. IKEA 🇸🇪 cuts prices on its iconic furniture lines in Europe, betting that a discount on Billy bookcases is the answer to cost-of-living blues. (Wall Street Journal)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Jack(ed) Henry. Jack Henry 🇺🇸 confirmed a ransomware breach by ShinyHunters, leaking customer data from 10 banks but refusing to pay the hackers a cent. (FinExtra)
Fundraising
- Mech-Mind Robotics 🇨🇳 (Robotics): HK$12.71B (Qiming Venture Partners)
- Polymarket 🇺🇸 (Prediction markets): $1B (1789 Capital)
- Felix Pago 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $200M (Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund)
- Quaise Energy 🇺🇸 (Geothermal): $180M (Nabors Industries)
- Alice 🇮🇱 (AI security): $140M (Apax Digital, Samsung Electronics, SentinelOne, Resolute Ventures, Grove Ventures, CRV, Highland Europe, Norwest, NFX)
- AusperBio Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $120M (leading strategic investor, RA Capital Management, HanKang Capital, Sherpa Capital, InnoPinnacle Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, YuanBio Venture Capital, CDH Investments)
- PLD Space 🇪🇸 (Space): €108M (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, COFIDES, Endeavor Catalyst, MCH Private Equity’s Spain Oman Private Equity Fund)
- Blank Street 🇺🇸 (Food & Beverage): $105M (General Atlantic, General Catalyst, Left Lane Capital, HOF Capital)
- Scan.com 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $90M (Noteus Partners)
- Cloover 🇩🇪 (Energy): €86.2M
- Odyssey Energy Solutions 🇺🇸 (Energy): $74M (Broadscale Group, FMO, Al Mada Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Twelve Below, FJ Labs, MCJ, Transition Ventures, British International Investment, BIO, Facility for Energy Inclusion (Cygnum Capital), Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (TripleJump))
- AIR 🇮🇱 (Cybersecurity): $50M (Sequoia, Greenoaks, Swish, Netz, Zach Frankel, Yinon Costica, Ofir Ehrlich, Anne Neuberger, Omer Adam, Varun Anand)
- Light 🇺🇸 (Energy): $46M (Matrix, Activate Capital, Spark Capital, Mischief, Gigascale Capital, MCJ, BoxGroup)
- Deep Cogito 🇺🇸 (AI): $43M (TQ Ventures, Benchmark, Nexus Venture Partners, Atreides Management, South Park Commons, Zscaler)
- Reframe Systems 🇺🇸 (Construction): $40M (Energy Impact Partners)
- ID Finance 🇪🇸 (Fintech): €21M (nordIX)
- Empirik 🇺🇸 (Observability): $21M (Sequoia, Canapi, Alumni Ventures)
- INLEAP Photonics 🇩🇪 (Defence): €20M (UVC Partners, HTGF, Balnord, Sentris, Scale Capital)
- Clipto 🇺🇸 (AI): $15M (HSG, GL Ventures, EnvisionX Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Hans Tung, Lu Zhang, 522 Ventures)
- Norbert Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $14M (William A. Marino, Cardinal Group, Exor Seeds, CareIT, Alexis Le-Quoc, Olivier Pomel, Saeju Jeong, Thomas Clozel)
- Apate.AI 🇦🇺 (Cybersecurity): $11.4M (Lobby Capital)
- Aranya 🇺🇸 (Infrastructure): $11M (First Round Capital, Box Group, Vermilion Cliffs, Asylum Ventures, Founder Collective, Parable VC, Uncommon Ventures)
- Visko 🇺🇸 (AI): $10M (Llama Ventures)
- DataAgent 🇮🇱 (Infrastructure): $10M (MizMaa Ventures, Alicorn Venture Partners)
- Diffraqtion 🇺🇸 (Quantum imaging): >$10M (Lockheed Martin Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Ground State Ventures, SBI US Gateway Fund, Plug and Play, Collaborative Fund, TekVentures, Aether VC, milemark capital, ADIN)
- Molten Salt Solutions 🇺🇸 (Advanced nuclear): $7M (Dolby Family Ventures, Vanedge Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, True Ventures, Future Ventures)
- Hearvana (Audio AI): $6M (Point72 Ventures, SCB 10X)
- xorlab 🇨🇭 (Cybersecurity): €5M (Spicehaus Partners, Grapha Holding, EquityPitcher Ventures, ZKB Start-up Finance)
- Guickly 🇺🇸 (AI): $4.2M (Engineering Capital, Converge VC, Neon Fund, angel investors)
- Orchestra 🇬🇧 (Data orchestration): $3.3M (Differential Ventures, Moonfire, Breakers, Tokyo Black, Contour Venture Partners)
- Full Health Medical 🇮🇪 (Medtech): €3M (Elkstone, Enterprise Ireland, strategic angel investors)
- Holifya 🇮🇹 (Healthcare): €2M
- Instarc 🇪🇪 (Regtech): €1.25M (HFO Investments, Athena Capital, Option 3 Capital)
- Tripo AI 🇨🇳 (AI): 3 billion yuan (MPCi, Perfect World, BlueFocus, SPC, Yanqu Games, ThunderSoft, 37 Interactive Entertainment, CDH Venture and Growth Capital, CICC, CMC Capital Partners, Hongtai Aplus, 3H Health, Zhongping Capital, GreatOrigin Asia, Fortune Capital, Primavera Capital, 4399 Network, Muhua Tech Ventures, Vitalbridge Capital, INCE Capital, T-Capital)
Fund Watch
- Ares Management 🇺🇸: $4B (Japan Logistics Development Partners V LP, 5th Japan logistics development fund)
- India Infrastructure Fund 🇮🇳: $3.2B (infrastructure fund, seeking Japan/Europe capital)
- National Investment and Infrastructure Fund 🇮🇳: $2B (targeted $3.2B infrastructure fund)
- Dragoneer 🇺🇸: $1B (continuation vehicle for Amwins Group & PointClickCare. Holds stakes in OpenAI, SpaceX, Databricks, Creative Planning)
- Carrick Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $600M (single-asset continuation vehicle for Saviynt. Committed $255M new capital)
- Spark Capital 🇮🇳: $265M (new late-stage private equity and credit fund)
- Cherubic Ventures 🇹🇼: $68.88M (Fund VI, early-stage AI-native VC. AUM >$500M)
- Auxxo 🇩🇪: €33.3M (Female Catalyst Fund II, VC fund for teams with ≥1 female founder)
- Redstone 🇩🇪: €10M (North Karelia Growth Fund II, early-stage DeepTech/defence/energy-transition fund in Finland)
- F&F Ventures 🇺🇸: $10M (ecommerce fund with SHOPLINE, pre-seed–Series A consumer brands & commerce tech)
- High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) 🇩🇪: N/A (HTGF V, seed fund focused on deeptech. Fundraising, first close mid-2027, ~150 investments planned)
- Mykhailo Fedorov 🇺🇦: new defence tech fund, backing and building Ukrainian battlefield technologies
🔔IPO
- Air Liquide 🇫🇷 (Industrial gases): activist Elliott built a stake in the $125B-listed group.
- Wella 🇩🇪 (Haircare): filed for an IPO after being backed by KKR.
- Blackstone 🇺🇸 (Real estate): sold a $1.3B India REIT in a fully subscribed offering.
- Enflame 🇨🇳 (Semiconductors): backed by Tencent, seeking to raise $910M in its China IPO.
- Longsys 🇨🇳 (Semiconductors): seeking to raise $800M in a Hong Kong listing, valuing the China-listed chipmaker at $25B.
- Unitree 🇨🇳 (Robotics): shares plunged 50% from their peak in a fast reversal after a huge debut pop.
- SB Energy 🇯🇵 (AI infrastructure): registered to list on Nasdaq as SBE with offering size and pricing TBD, majority-owned by SoftBank and backed by Nvidia.
- Jollibee 🇭🇰 (Fast-food): weighing a Hong Kong listing for its international arm as it splits overseas and domestic businesses.
- SHEIN 🇭🇰 (Fashion): raised $1.75B at a $26.5B valuation in a Hong Kong IPO priced below the top end of its marketed range.
- TPG 🇲🇾 (Healthcare): filed a confidential IPO for Malaysian hospital assets valued at about $8.0B, with the offering possibly raising up to $2.5B.
- Continental Reinsurance 🇧🇼 (Reinsurance): plans Botswana’s first IPO in almost a decade (amount not disclosed).
🧳 Debt
- HomeServe 🇬🇧: in early talks for a $1.8B ABS sale to fund a dividend recap for owner Brookfield.
- Archos 🇫🇷: reduced its BEI debt from €3M to €935K, repayable over 7 years.
- Apollo 🇺🇸: seeking to convert its $9B Oneok stake into investment-grade debt to sell to investors.
- MediaTek 🇹🇼: will sell $3.5B of convertibles to Nvidia.
- Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦: in early talks to raise $8B in a fresh loan to diversify funding amid the Iran war.
- Sénégal 🇸🇳: secured a $2.2B IMF loan under a 36-month Extended Credit Facility.
❌ Failures
- WPP 🇬🇧: prévoit de supprimer jusqu’à 1.000 emplois supplémentaires d’ici à la fin de l’année, après avoir déjà coupé environ 11.000 postes depuis 2025 dans le cadre d’une vaste restructuration.
- Opel 🇩🇪: sales fell from 230,000 to 136,000 (−40%) while Stellantis directs 70% of investments to four other brands, risking the marque’s survival.
- Swiss Life 🇨🇭: compte supprimer environ 600 postes d’ici fin 2028 sur un effectif mondial d’environ 11 000 salariés.
- Brookfield 🇨🇦: CDK Global agreed to subordinate $675M of Brookfield’s debt in exchange for a maturity extension.
- LIV Golf 🇸🇦: set to file for bankruptcy after PIF pulled funding and is in talks with BC Partners to support a slimmed-down 2027 season.
- Senegal 🇸🇳: agreed a $2.2bn IMF bailout and will seek to restructure external debts after hidden borrowing pushed debt to around 100%+ of GDP.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇨🇿 Rolling Wipeout. The head of Czech Railways resigns after public outrage over missing toilet paper on trains, proving some scandals really are paper thin. (Kurier)
- 🇨🇦 Young and Restless. In Montreal, Club Pays café is run by twentysomethings who never saw the 1995 referendum but are pouring energy (and coffee) into Quebec’s independence cause. (Le Monde)
- 🇯🇵 Hotel California. Japanese police arrest a 36-year-old man for killing at least 50 hamsters in love hotels, filming the acts for his own collection. (Le Parisien)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Wall to Wall. Helch, famed for emblazoning his tag on London bridges and motorways since 2018, has died, leaving the cityscape a little less loud. (The Guardian)
THE NEWSLETTER
Your daily market recap (usually), minus the boring parts.
Free · zero spam · unsubscribe in one click
