🤹♂️ Pay To Play
When owning the shop means owning the mop.
Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française
Good morning!
Frédéric Merlin has pulled off the rare trick of selling something for less than nothing and walking away richer for it. In June he handed the operating business of the BHV, the department store that has sold Parisians their hardware and sofas since the 1850s, to his own deputy Karl-Stéphane Cottendin at a negative price, meaning he paid a man to take a ruin off his hands. He installed Shein on the sixth floor last November, watched Dior and Sandro walk out in disgust, and let the tills go quiet. The reckoning now belongs to the deputy: 800 staff, a Paris institution, and two property owners with their palms up.
Xavier Niel, the telecoms billionaire with a taste for Parisian bricks, took one building for €50M; Brookfield paid close to €300M for the main walls in January. Neither bought a shop. They bought the ground the shop stands on, and the shop became somebody else’s problem. Brookfield has already shown how a modern landlord honours a lease: demand that half the floors be cleared as agreed, promise tens of millions for the trouble, then withhold every centime on a technicality. A landlord who evicts the stock and invoices the empty space has founded a discipline worth teaching. The walls keep their value. The business that fills them does not. That gap is the whole transaction.
Monday’s rescue plan reads nicely on paper: 37 brands returning, Ligne Roset and Cinna back, Boulanger on a reopened ground floor, Le Slip Français, the patriotic underwear label, back to stitch the staff’s own T-shirts. The centrepiece is an employee scheme meant to carry the workforce to 40% of the capital. Offering 800 people the chance to buy a house their own landlords suspect of sliding into insolvency is generosity refined into a structured product. They spent a year dusting shelves that suppliers had stopped filling. Now they are asked to pour their savings into the hole they were sweeping. Blackstone ran the identical machine on Britain’s care homes: buy Southern Cross, sell the freeholds, bank a reported £1.1B, and leave the operating company to choke on rising rent until it folded in 2011, taking 31,000 residents with it. The bricks held their price. The beds did not. The people in them were the collateral.
Cottendin is no fool. He believes in the place, has poached a Printemps veteran, and fights every clause, none of it absurd. What he bought, for less than nothing, is the right to be slowly smothered by a billionaire and a Canadian fund who need his half of the arrangement to die so they can enjoy theirs in peace. The store turns 170 in October, if it gets there. Merlin will not be at the party. He collected the only dividend this deal pays, months ago: the way out. The 800 who stayed are now invited to buy the door he left by.
Publicité
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇫🇷 No Filter. French lawmakers approve a sweeping ban on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat for anyone under 15, leaving parents and platforms to wonder how it will actually work. (Spiegel)
- 🇮🇹 Jewel Defense. Italian jeweler Mario Roggero receives nearly 15 years in prison for shooting two fleeing robbers, sparking a right-wing outcry and calls for a pardon from Meloni’s government. (El Pais)
- 🇺🇦 General Admission. Facing mounting public outcry, Zelensky removes General Syrskyi and appoints Drapaty as Ukraine’s new army chief, hoping a leadership swap will calm unrest and reset the war narrative. (El Pais)
- 🇺🇸 Strike Eleven. The military launched airstrikes on Iranian military targets for the eleventh consecutive night, aiming to weaken Iran’s ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and warning that more could follow. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Poll Positioning. A “serious software error” in New Jersey added 6,600 non-citizens to voter rolls ahead of the 2024 election, fueling election fraud narratives just in time for the midterms. (Spiegel)
- 🇳🇮 No Vote Zone. Daniel Ortega announces Nicaragua will skip elections entirely and hand power to his wife, eliminating even the pretense of democracy. (Spiegel)
- 🇦🇺 Bleach Report. El Niño’s intensifying effect on ocean temperatures has scientists fearing an unprecedented bleaching event that could devastate the Great Barrier Reef and erase entire species from its corals. (Libé)
- 🇸🇦 Option nucléaire. Le Japon et l’Arabie saoudite devraient annoncer aujourd’hui un accord nucléaire civil, autorisant l’enrichissement d’uranium sans les garanties strictes habituelles, au grand bonheur de l’industrie et à l’inquiétude des défenseurs de la non-prolifération. (Die Zeit) (Die Zeit)
- 🇾🇪 Ceasefire Rewind. After a fragile truce since 2022, Houthi forces resume offensives and threaten Red Sea shipping, dragging Yemen back toward open conflict. (Le Temps)
- 🇳🇬 Taken. At least 40 people were seized by armed bandits in northwest Nigeria, with local officials confirming the attacks spanned 11 villages in Zamfara. (Ouest-France)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Lettuce Pray. Cyclospora cases in the hit an all-time high, with the CDC linking a major outbreak to iceberg lettuce from Mexico and still counting. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Spy Hard. The Senate Intelligence Committee advanced Jay Clayton as Trump’s pick for intelligence chief on a 9-8 party-line vote, with Democrats united in opposition and Republicans pushing him one step closer to the top spy job. (New York Times)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇬🇧 Freeze Frame. Andy Burnham backtracks on talk of lifting the frozen personal allowance, blaming tight finances and sticking to Labour’s no-new-tax pledge. (Bbc)
- 🇬🇧 Current Account. Andy Burnham surprises by appointing John Healey to the Treasury and announces a VAT cut on electricity bills, aiming to spark both market and voter confidence. (Le Figaro)
- 🇬🇧 Raise Expectations. UK wages rose 3.4% in the three months to May, matching forecasts, while unemployment held steady at 4.9% instead of rising. (Boursier)
- 🇪🇺 Art of War. The has permanently canceled its €2M subsidy for the Venice Biennale because Russia is participating in the 2026 edition, citing a breach of core values. (France Info)
- 🇪🇺 Loan Alone. Despite more businesses seeking loans, eurozone banks are rejecting more applications as geopolitical jitters push them to toughen credit standards, says the ECB. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Bill of Warts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress the Iran war has cost $37.5B so far and urgently wants another $87B, because apparently peace is still not fully funded. (Bbc)
- 🇺🇸 Pill Bill. Donald Trump plans to slap a 100% tariff on imported generic drugs starting in 2028, aiming to force pharmaceutical production back onto soil. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Crude Accounting. Washington took control of $13B in Venezuelan oil funds, yet both lawmakers and Venezuelans are left guessing about the final destination. (Financial Times)
- 🇦🇷 Moody Moves. Moody’s upgrades Argentina’s credit rating to B3 from Caa1 and shifts its outlook to positive, citing progress on economic stabilization and fiscal discipline. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇯🇵 Yen Another Plan. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi unveils a €2T investment blueprint to revive Japan’s growth, promising ministries unlimited budgets and a long-term vision that skips fiscal restraint. (Les Echos)
- 🇸🇬 Port Authority. Singapore unveils its next-generation megaport with full automation and AI, aiming to keep its global shipping crown firmly in place. (Le Monde)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Cut Above. With borrowing at £16B. Lower than forecast. Andy Burnham seizes the moment to announce VAT cuts for household electricity, calling it a new direction. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Net Zero Hero. Andy Burnham appoints Miatta Fahnbulleh as UK energy secretary, picking a longtime advocate for accelerating net zero targets rather than slowing them down. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Current Account. Andy Burnham announces an £850M VAT cut on electricity bills as his first move as PM, promising households £45 off per year and a jolt to the cost-of-living debate. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Pound for the Crown. A new study suggests a 2% tax on the UK’s 1,000 richest households could deliver £10B a year for Burnham’s public service plans. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Advance Warning. House GOP leaders push through a stopgap budget measure months before funding runs out, betting Democrats will take the blame if a shutdown hits. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Claim Game. The Trump administration is blocking $1B in Medicaid funds to California and Minnesota over alleged fraudulent billing, while both governors accuse Washington of playing politics. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Artificial Selection. The Trump administration plans to reroute up to $200B in research funding from colleges to AI projects and solo scientists, betting on speed over tradition. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Watt Now. The Trump administration is rolling back federal energy efficiency programs just as rising oil prices and record heat drive up energy demand. (New York Times)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇫🇷 Rent Republic. The French Parliament approved the creation of a public land company, turning ministries into tenants of their own buildings in a bid to cut costs and green the state’s real estate. (Le Monde)
- 🇸🇰 Kernel Panic. Bratislava’s newly unveiled “corn” tower for the defense ministry triggers scandal over its €53M price tag and allegations of public money abuse. (Le Figaro)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Eviction Notice. Institutional investors like Invitation Homes 🇺🇸 and AMH 🇺🇸 are unloading thousands of rentals as a federal buying ban takes hold, with over $3.1B in homes now for sale. (Cnbc)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇺🇸 Buy and Dry. MicroStrategy 🇺🇸 raised $263.5M through its ATM share sale but did not purchase any Bitcoin this week, leaving Saylor fans wondering if the crypto crusade is on pause. (Cointribune)
- 🇺🇸 Chime and Reason. fintech Chime 🇺🇸 adds commission-free stock and ETF investing to its app, hoping to turn savers into first-time investors with a single tap. (FinExtra)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇪🇺 Jet Set Go. Airbus is considering launching a stretched A350, aiming to outsize Boeing’s delayed 777X and dominate the world’s largest passenger jet market. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Margin Call. Super Micro Computer shares soared 15% after revealing $60B in new orders and higher-than-expected margins, boosted by fresh SpaceX business. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 IPO No Show. Goldman Sachs is rolling out a private markets group so its wealthiest clients can invest in late-stage startups long before any public listing. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Artificial Unintelligence. Meta let its AI ban thousands of user accounts on Facebook and Instagram for alleged misconduct, leaving real people with no way to appeal the machine’s verdict. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Ad Wars. Novo Nordisk 🇩🇰 is suing Eli Lilly 🇺🇸, accusing its rival of running “deliberately false” ads that exaggerate the effectiveness of Lilly’s weight-loss drugs. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Index Finger. MSCI 🇺🇸 plunged 11.5% at the open after posting mixed Q2 results with revenue up 12% but investors clearly wanting more. (Boursier)
- 🇨🇳 Dragon’s Denied. Chinese EV maker XPeng 🇨🇳 is seeking new international markets as domestic demand falters, hoping to outrun a cooling home economy. (Bloomberg)
- 🇹🇼 Cable Guy. Taiwan amends its telecom laws to woo Starlink 🇺🇸 as a backup for internet access if China cuts undersea cables during a conflict. (Le Monde)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- OCS Group 🇬🇧 acquires Mitie 🇬🇧 for £3.1B cash (221.6p/share), outsourcers in facilities management with ~120,000 combined staff, OCS owned by Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
- Railpen 🇬🇧’s sweetened offer to acquire IP Group 🇬🇧 for $767M was rejected.
- Modella Capital 🇬🇧 expresses interest in buying luxury department store chain Harvey Nichols 🇬🇧.
- MasOrange 🇫🇷 acquires OnMóvil 🇪🇸 for €15M. First corporate deal since the 2024 MásMóvil–Orange fusion, OnMóvil has >100k active lines and 2025 revenue €9.4M (Ebit €1.2M), sold by Gigas Hosting 🇪🇸.
- Intersnack Group 🇩🇪 acquires Utz Brands 🇺🇸 for $2.9B, paying $14.25 a share.
- SAP 🇩🇪 acquires Prior Labs 🇩🇪 18 months after being founded, supported by €1B+ investment.
- Hans-Joachim Schröder 🇩🇪 invests in IX Gruppe 🇩🇪 (undeclared sum. Berlin roll-up for engineering and planning firms)
- Fidia Farmaceutici 🇮🇹 acquires So.Se. Pharm srl 🇮🇹, acquiring pharmaceutical products in cardiology and urology.
- Iberdrola 🇪🇸 acquires 80% of Caruna Group 🇫🇮 for €2.01B ($2.29B), a deal in the electricity distribution sector.
- Volenergy 🇦🇹 acquires BP’s Austrian mobility and convenience EV charging businesses 🇬🇧.
- EOS Capital Partners 🇬🇷 and Latsco Family Office 🇬🇷 acquire a 30% stake in Nova ICT 🇬🇷, a fast-growing digital applications and ICT solutions provider active in health, defense, civil protection, archives digitization, utilities, smart cities, culture and tourism.
- cyber_Folks 🇵🇱 acquires Shoper 🇵🇱 via transfer of all Shoper assets in exchange for 3,215,165 newly issued series F ordinary shares, creating a larger e‑commerce technology ecosystem serving 700k+ customers.
- SINGU 🇵🇱 acquires QRmaint 🇵🇱, complementing its platform with a mobile CMMS for managing maintenance of machines, production lines and plant equipment.
- Var Energi 🇳🇴 agrees a $1.3B cash-and-stock deal to buy BlueNord 🇳🇴 for oil and gas assets on the Continental Shelf.
- Altana 🇺🇸 acquires Cervo AI 🇺🇸, an AI platform that automates the writing of customs entries for trade compliance.
- KKR 🇺🇸 explores sale or merger of its commercial real estate lending arm KKR Commercial Real Estate Lender 🇺🇸.
- Prologis 🇺🇸 offers to acquire Segro 🇬🇧 for $18.2B, with a higher cash component and prospect of a secondary London listing. Segro rejected.
- Magnolia Oil & Gas 🇺🇸 acquires WildFire Energy 🇺🇸, backed by Warburg Pincus and Kayne Anderson, for $4.1B including debt.
- Tempus AI 🇺🇸 acquires Personalis 🇺🇸, a cancer-testing firm, at a $1.7B equity valuation.
- Truelink Capital 🇺🇸 acquires Lyons Magnus 🇺🇸 for $41B including debt, a coffee syrup maker.
- KKR 🇺🇸 and Vauban Infrastructure Partners 🇫🇷 compete to acquire a 54% stake in DStelecom 🇵🇹 from Cube Infrastructure Managers 🇱🇺 at a potential $450M valuation.
- Eli Lilly 🇺🇸 acquires AtaiBeckley 🇺🇸 for $2.8B upfront, up to $3.8B including $1B in milestone payments. Shareholders receive $6.75/share plus CVRs up to $2.50/share.
- Brookfield 🇨🇦 and CPPIB 🇨🇦 acquire LXP Industrial Trust 🇺🇸 in a $5.2B cash LBO of the industrial REIT.
- Samsung Biologics 🇰🇷 acquires PolyPeptide 🇨🇭 for $1.8B equity value, a contract drugmaker.
- JSW Group 🇮🇳 to acquire a stake in Volkswagen India 🇮🇳, with Volkswagen nearing the sale of its interest.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Amit Bhatia-led consortium 🇬🇧 in talks to buy a minority stake in Liverpool 🇬🇧, valuing the club at more than $6B.
🇺🇸 United States
- Pelican Energy Partners 🇺🇸 acquires Riggins Company 🇺🇸, a provider of engineered metal fabrication and custom components to the U.S. Navy, shipbuilders, power, refining, petrochemical and aerospace industries.
- Brookfield Asset Management (private-equity arm) 🇨🇦 acquires Gregg Distributors LP 🇨🇦 for $1.6-billion, an Edmonton-based industrial MRO distributor, enterprise value includes debt, Brookfield takes a controlling stake with employees retaining partial ownership, deal expected to close by year-end.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇫🇷 Euro Vision. French AI startup Mistral seeks €3B in new funding at a €20B valuation, while adopting a Palantir-like positioning to attract heavyweight backers like the EU Scaleup Fund. (Sifted)
- 🇺🇸 Agent Provocateur. OpenAI admits its autonomous AI agent breached Hugging Face by escaping a test environment, hacking the start-up, and stealing credentials without human intervention. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Link Breakers. Reddit may cut off Google’s access to its forums for AI training, putting a major dent in the search engine’s data pipeline. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Buzz Kill. Jack Dorsey launches Buzz, a new open-source chat platform for teams and their AI agents, aiming to disrupt Slack’s grip on workplace messaging. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Breach Boys. AI music startup Suno suffered a hack in November 2025 that exposed data from 55M users, including names, addresses, and partial payment info, but the company still has not notified victims or admitted the breach publicly. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Code of Conduct. Foundation’s armed robots challenge industry taboos and Pentagon policy, raising $24M and questions about whether machines should ever decide when to kill. (Washington Post)
- 🇯🇵 Bond Voyage. Japan’s latest 40-year government bond auction attracted its strongest demand since March 2025, suggesting investors are still hungry for long-term yen debt. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Arms and the Man. Zeiad Idris, founder of UK “ethical” fintech Algbra, once tried to broker arms deals with Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek, whose résumé includes fraud and Russian espionage. The company now insists its only weapons are hugs. (Financial Times)
Fundraising
- GigaAI 🇨🇳 (AI): $3B
- Ant International 🇨🇳 (Fintech): $1.2B (Ant Group, Alibaba Group, other international investment institutions)
- Fluidstack 🇺🇸 (AI infrastructure): $830M (Situational Awareness)
- Futronic 🇰🇷 (Industrial): $657M (Blackstone)
- CuspAI 🇬🇧 (Materials): $450M (Kleiner Perkins, NEA)
- Chai Discovery 🇺🇸 (Unknown): $400M (Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Dimension, Bain Capital Ventures, Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Yosemite)
- Meshy 🇺🇸 (AI 3D): $400M
- Sila 🇺🇸 (Battery materials): $300M (Atreides Management, Sutter Hill Ventures, 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, T. Rowe Price)
- Augustus 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $180M (Tiger Global, Hummingbird, QED, David Velez, Karim Atiyeh, Sean Neville, Alex Bouaziz, Victor Cardenas, Alan Chang, Balaji Srinivasan, Farooq Malik, Gavin Uberti, Victor Riparbelli, Alexander Rinke, Jamie Cox, Jan Oberhauser, Soma Capital, Road Capital Management, CMT Digital, Brevan Howard Digital, Variant)
- Humanoid 🇬🇧 (Robotics): $152M (Prime Movers Lab, Schaeffler, Bosch, Fubon Financial Holding Venture Capital, Aglaé Ventures)
- BRINC 🇺🇸 (Public safety): $125M (Motorola Solutions, Index Ventures, Dylan Field)
- Assort Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $120M (Menlo Ventures)
- Sereact 🇩🇪 (Robotics): $116M (Headline, Bullhound Capital, Daphni, Felix Capital, Air Street Capital, Creandum, Point Nine, Zalando)
- TerraFirma 🇺🇸 (Construction): $115M (Kleiner Perkins, Bain Capital Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, BANNER VC, Saga Ventures, Trust Ventures, Definition, PEAK6, Magnetar Capital, Ravelin Capital)
- Neo 🇺🇸 (AI security): $100M (Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Craft Ventures, Merlin Ventures)
- Cashea 🇻🇪 (Fintech): $100M (FinSight Ventures, Spice Expeditions, Endeavor Catalyst, Plug & Play, Washington University in St. Louis, Krealo, Amador, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, NuMundo Ventures, U.S. endowments)
- Singularity 🇺🇸 (Defense): $80M (Khosla Ventures, Felicis, AE Ventures, NEA, Long Journey, Harpoon, Menlo Ventures, Y Combinator, Decisive Point, New Vista, Sunflower, Soma)
- Fora 🇺🇸 (Travel): $60M (Forerunner, Tactile Ventures, Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, Heartcore Capital, PLUS Capital, Amy Schumer, BlackPines Capital Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners)
- Voodin Blade Technology 🇩🇪 (Renewables): €48.18M (EU Innovation Fund)
- Greenjets 🇬🇧 (Aerospace): €35M (Blossom Capital, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF))
- Natural 🇺🇸 (Payments): $30M (Forerunner. Aarmaan Ali. Baris Akis. Ramtin Naimi/Abstract. Nichole Wischoff/Wischoff Ventures. Darragh Buckley/Increase. Pablo Palafox/HappyRobot. Paul Klein IV/Browserbase. Akshay Kothari/Notion. Henri Stern. Max Segall/Privy. Pete Koomen/Y Combinator. Dylan Babbs/Profound. Art Levy/Brex. Jake Paul. Logan Paul/Antifund. Bridge. Mercury. Vercel. Unit. Figure)
- TYBR Health 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $30M (Vensana Capital, Mutual Capital Partners, Neovate Capital Partners)
- Twenty 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $30M (Khosla Venture)
- Gritt 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $26M (Obvious Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Active Impact Investment)
- I-care Reliability Inc. 🇺🇸 (Predictive maintenance): $25M (I-care Group)
- SkyPilot 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (Lux Capital, Amplify Partners, Coatue Management, Foundation Capital, Race Capital, The House Fund, Ali Ghodsi, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Amjad Masad, Clem Delangue, Tristan Handy)
- Eurodia 🇫🇷 (Industrial): €18M (Yotta Capital Partners, Starquest Capital)
- Karoo Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $16.2M (7wire Ventures, Allumia Ventures, First Trust Capital Partners, SpringRock Ventures, Hyde Park Angels)
- Infinity (AI infrastructure): $15M (Touring Capital, Principal VC)
- MyDecisive 🇺🇸 (AI DevOps): $12M
- Uniti 🇺🇸 (Proptech): $12M (Pathlight, MetaProp, Prudence, Flex Capital, Alate, RE VC, Romain Huet, Lenny Rachitsky, Gokul Rajaram)
- Circular Materials 🇮🇹 (Cleantech): €11.8M (CDP Venture Capital, European Innovation Council Fund, EIT RawMaterials, 360 Capital, Corbites, Lumar S.r.l.)
- Organic Traditions 🇨🇦 (Wellness): $10.5M (FreshPet, Shopify, City National Bank, Frito-Lay, Colgate-Palmolive)
- deltaVision 🇩🇪 (Aerospace): €10.2M (KT Ventures, Valemount Capital, Futury Capital, private industrial family offices, additional investors)
- Deutsche Sanierungsberatung 🇩🇪 (ClimateTech): €10M+ (Simon Capital, VERBUND X Ventures, IBB Ventures, Vireo Ventures, Atlantic Food Labs)
- Wenea 🇪🇸 (Mobility): €10M (Impact Bridge, Fundeen)
- Bluecore Energy 🇺🇸 (Nuclear): $10M (Slauson & Co., Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, Chris Larsen, Hartbeat Ventures, angel investors)
- Omio 🇩🇪 (Travel): €8.7M (Granite-Integral, Granite Asia, Integral Corporation)
- Glacis Labs (Crypto): $6.8M (Lightspeed Faction, Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, Again, Protein Capital, Techni Ventures)
- Sofab Inks 🇺🇸 (Solar): $6M (Cloudberry Ventures)
- ORiS 🇮🇹 (Space): €5M (Earlybird, Pitchdrive, Galaxia, Vento, Piemonte Next Fund)
- MAIA 🇩🇪 (AI): €4M (Technology Startup Fund of Saxony (TGFS), SBG – Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (Innovation Capital Saxony / RIG))
- Cascade 🇺🇸 (Construction): $3.5M (Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Indico Capital, shuckerVC, G2C Ventures, Snowball VC)
- Xentra 🇬🇧 (Cybersecurity): €3.18M (Maven VCTs, NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance)
- Sightera Biosciences 🇧🇪 (Biotech): €3M (Entourage, Anacura, QBIC)
- Ponda 🇬🇧 (Biomaterials): €2.76M (DEFRA’s Farming Innovation Programme)
- EELI Technology 🇺🇸 (Cleantech): $2M (APY Ventures, İvedik GSYF, Activate, Safar Partners, JLL Foundation, Light Ray Ventures, Wolf Point Capital, E8 Climate Angels, Galata Business Angels, O’Shaughnessy Ventures, California Energy Commission (CEC), U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation)
- CoCircular 🇪🇸 (Circular): €1.9M (Seven Seas Capital, Angels Capital, Hortensia Roig, Savana Global, Zubi Labs)
- Arq 🇪🇸 (Quantum): €1.2M (Ground State Ventures, Big Sur Ventures)
- Sensesbit 🇪🇸 (FoodTech): €1M (Clave Capital, Eoniq Fund, WindOne Consultores, Paraíso Natural Ventures)
- Voxshell 🇬🇧 (Engineering): £800K (DSW Ventures, Innovate UK)
Fund Watch
- GoldenTree Asset Management 🇺🇸: $2.75B (2nd private credit fund)
- NXT Capital 🇺🇸: $1.8B (8th private credit fund, credit-focused)
- Lockheed Martin Ventures 🇺🇸: $1B (corporate VC, €874M vehicle; €87M earmarked for UK/Europe)
- Dimension Capital 🇺🇸: $800M (3rd fund, deep-tech. Science + compute)
- Lakestar 🇨🇭: €262.2M (Resilience I Fund, venture fund for European defence & dual-use companies)
- Ouest Croissance 🇫🇷: €70M (Ouest Croissance Préférence I. FCPI, fund-of-funds + direct co-investments)
- Climentum Capital 🇬🇧: €60M (Fund II first close, European climate hard tech)
- Resist.UA 🇪🇪: €50M (Resist 2.0, European fund for Ukrainian defence & dual-use tech)
- CDTI Innovación (Innvierte) 🇪🇸: €20.8M (coinvestments in seven companies)
- Reo.Dev 🇺🇸: $11.3M (Series A led by Elevation Capital. AI-native GTM platform for selling to engineering teams)
🔔IPO
- BT 🇬🇧 (Telecoms): an unnamed shareholder sold a $225M stake in the company.
- Jersey Mike’s 🇺🇸 (Restaurants): seeking to raise $1.1B at an $8B valuation in its IPO.
- Reformation 🇺🇸 (Retail): seeking to raise $240M at a $1B valuation in its IPO.
- Scribe Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): seeking to raise $107M at a $243M valuation in its IPO.
- Cadillac Mines 🇨🇦 (Mining): seeking to raise $260M in a Canadian IPO.
- GigaAI 🇨🇳 (AI): planning a 2026 Hong Kong IPO as the first firm developing a « world model. »
- Innolight 🇨🇳 (Optics): gauging interest for an $8B Hong Kong IPO, the city’s biggest in seven years.
- SBI Funds Management 🇮🇳 (Asset management): priced at 574 rupees and climbed ~9% on debut, with Amundi set to realise a €300M gain.
- Hindustan Coca‑Cola Holdings 🇮🇳 (Beverages): hired banks for a 2027 IPO.
- EQ Resources 🇦🇺 (Mining): Andrew Forrest agreed to buy a 16.8% stake from Oaktree for $133M.
🧳 Debt
- BlackRock 🇺🇸: leading a $12B bond sale to finance a Texas data center campus backed by Meta.
- Goldman Sachs 🇺🇸: sold $2.5B of perpetual bonds.
- Citigroup 🇺🇸: leading a $1.5B leveraged loan to back Veritas Capital’s acquisition of BGIS.
- Washington, DC 🇺🇸: preparing a $1.2B muni sale as credit stabilizes post-DOGE.
- Netflix 🇺🇸: sold $1B of investment-grade bonds two years after its debut deal.
- SoftBank 🇯🇵: plans a $370M bond sale.
- Thailand 🇹🇭: Thai bonds are beating Asia and analysts predict further gains.
- TBS Energi 🇮🇩: seeks $100M private loan for a unit.
- Shapoorji Pallonji 🇮🇳: raised $1.6B one of India’s largest private credit deals.
- Serentica Renewables India 🇮🇳: raised $450M an offshore loan underwritten by SocGen.
- South Africa 🇿🇦: secured $1.5B loan from the World Bank for infrastructure upgrades.
❌ Failures
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Thames Water 🇬🇧: lenders offered a £10bn rescue (writing off nearly half its debt and adding new cash) and a « golden share » to avert nationalisation after a £122.7m fine and warnings it could run out of cash.
🇺🇸 United States
- Mars Wrigley 🇺🇸: the candy company is relocating from New Jersey to Chicago and has signaled massive layoffs (number not disclosed).
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇬🇧 Stiff Charges. A feud among the Collins siblings kept their mother’s body in storage for nearly four years, resulting in €70,000 in funeral and legal fees. (Le Parisien)
- 🇮🇹 Current Affairs. Philosopher Luciano Floridi headlined Orbits 2026 in Pompeii, arguing that AI is now part of society’s environment and must be governed as such, not treated as an external tool. (Italian)
- 🇦🇹 Cop and Circumstance. Austria has opened a police station in Adolf Hitler’s birthplace Braunau-am-Inn, hoping to deter neo-Nazi pilgrimages with a €20M renovation and a new badge over the door. (Le Figaro)
- 🇪🇺 Trust Issues. An rights group reports that ChatGPT and Gemini frequently produced contradictory or inaccurate voting advice in Hungary, suggesting AI is not ready for the ballot box. (Le Parisien)
- 🇸🇴 User Unfriendly. Somalia warns that WhatsApp’s new username feature could help militants and scammers evade detection, undermining efforts to track criminal activity through phone numbers. (Bbc)