🏝️ Postcard from Munduk

Seven villas, zero exit. Wish you were queued.

A Free Lunch newsletter archive of July 2, 2026

Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française


🌍 All editions
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States

Good morning!

On 30 June 2026, France’s markets regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers, struck Automata France off its register. Decent timing: the firm behind the Vancelian savings app had about 24 hours left to live anyway. Come 1 July, the old French crypto licence lapsed across the board under MiCA, and every unauthorised provider slid into the same pit. The regulator could have let this one expire with the rest. It reached for the paperwork a day early instead, and logged a reason nobody had asked for: the directors were not of good repute. That same week, Binance was ushering some 2M French clients toward the exit by polite email, no ceremony. The AMF saved its ceremony for the smaller outfit, because with this one there was more worth putting on record.

The activity in question was crowdfunding without the crowdfunding licence. The showpiece carried a brochure name, The Heights: seven luxury villas above Munduk, in the hills of Bali, financed by a crypto loan yielding 10.2% a year, credited every single day, the sort of daily-yield promise that buried Celsius and BlockFi before it. The exit clause deserved a frame of its own. To get a stake back before four years were up, the saver had to wait for a fresh arrival to buy his place in the queue. Capital unguaranteed, coupon fixed, the founders keeping any upside, and the whole return propped on an agricultural plot awaiting a hypothetical rezoning and an airport that existed mainly as a rumour. A financial product held up by planning permission and wishful geography.

The firm has form, most of it in the registry office. Born in Sophia Antipolis, France’s answer to Silicon Valley, as Akt.io, it became Rayn, then Vancelian, a fresh letterhead every 18 months or so. Its 2021 token sale raised €27M at $1.16 a coin; the thing now trades for pennies, down some 96% from a €5.70 peak. The corporate map is its own confession: British in origin, French on paper, financed out of Ireland, staff now decamping to Dubai, for the climate, evidently. In January it paraded a Dubai in-principle approval as proof of its governance. By spring the AMF had pulled its French licence for want of that same governance, and logged why: a mark against the men themselves, the sort that travels, now waiting on a desk in Dubai. The firm greeted the strike-off as a major step in its regulatory journey. Itier is no fool, with a derivatives-desk pedigree and a genuinely slick app to his name. Aiming that much competence at prising savings out of pensioners is a talent of a sort.

Somewhere in that queue sits a retiree who wanted €3K to earn a little on the side, telephoned four times by an in-house adviser, who has never once known what a token is and cannot now get his money back. It is working hard, that money. Just not for him.

🏝️ Postcard from Munduk

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🗞️ Top Story

  • 🇬🇷 Greek Fire. Homemade bomb attacks targeted homes of ruling New Democracy officials in Thessaloniki, injuring five people and sending the case to anti-terror police. (Libé)
  • 🇺🇸 Board Games. Marc Andreessen now sits on the Pentagon’s top advisory panel, shaping defense decisions that could boost his own VC portfolio. (Thenextweb)
  • 🇻🇪 Fault Lines. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez announces seven days of mourning as Venezuela reels from an earthquake that killed 2,295 and left thousands more unaccounted for. (Spiegel)
  • 🇭🇰 Addictive Content. Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department rolled out an AI anti-drug video for International Day Against Drug Abuse, only to be accused of making drugs look cool. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇲🇲 Lost in Naypyidaw. The military says Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest in the sprawling capital, but her exact whereabouts remain a state secret. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇮🇱 No Exit Strategy. Defense Minister Israel Katz declares Israeli forces will occupy security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza indefinitely, even as international negotiations continue. (France Info)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Stitch Perfect. The British Museum braces for record crowds as the Bayeux Tapestry returns to England for the first time in nearly 1,000 years, with tickets selling fast at £25 each. (Boursier)
  • 🇬🇧 Highway Robbery. To pay for its £15B defence plan, the government raids road budgets in Lincoln and Newark, prompting public outrage from MPs Hamish Falconer and Robert Jenrick. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Rate Race. ICE has doubled its pace to 10,000 immigrant arrests in five days after White House pressure for mass deportations, with agents targeting check-ins, traffic stops, and street encounters. (New York Times)

🏛️ Economy

  • 🇩🇪 Ticket to Hide. German police raided the football federation’s headquarters over alleged corruption tied to Euro 2024 ticket allocations, with several host cities and a French official under scrutiny. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇪🇺 Rate Retreat. The European Central Bank signals that another interest rate hike in July is now unlikely, reversing its earlier hawkish stance after oil prices fell. (Le Monde)
  • 🇪🇺 Artificial Alarm. Leading economists at the ECB’s annual gathering voice concerns that AI may drive up debt, investor risk, and unemployment worldwide. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇪🇺 Chill Factor. Inflation in the eurozone fell to 2.8% after months of pressure, as lower energy costs bring rare relief for the ECB. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇪🇺 Greenwashed Grid. The EU’s latest draft climate rules let tech giants claim clean energy status for gas-fueled data centres, as long as they buy the right paperwork. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇺 Collateral Damage. Europe’s CLO frenzy is rewriting the playbook, as regulatory easing and record equity inflows fuel growth with risk riding shotgun. (Agefi)
  • 🇺🇸 Rate Expectations. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh insists prices remain « too high » and warns anyone hoping for inflation above 2% will be disappointed. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇲🇾 Risky Business. The rise of Malaysia’s Islamist party PAS is making local firms rethink their strategies, as political momentum brings new economic questions. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇮🇷 Jet Lag. The Iran war clipped the wings of private aviation, causing a 30% drop in business jet departures across the Middle East. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 South Draw. Lisa Nandy says national lottery funds are too concentrated in southern England and opens a long-overdue review into how billions are distributed. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 AI of the Tiger. Burnham’s advisers are crafting a British-first AI strategy, ditching the US playbook in favor of local control and tech sovereignty. (Financial Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Name Drop. Lloyds Banking Group will erase the Halifax brand from the UK high street after 173 years, consolidating everything under the Lloyds banner for a cleaner look. (Financial Times)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Pink Slip Dip. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports job cut announcements fell sharply in June, with layoffs down 53% from the previous month. (Boursier)
  • 🇺🇸 Trade on Ice. The declines to extend the USMCA for another 16 years, keeping it alive for now but inviting renegotiation with its neighbors. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Factory Setting. manufacturing activity grew for a sixth straight month in June, with the ISM index at 53.3, defying expectations of a slowdown. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Hire Power Down. The latest ADP report shows private sector employers added 98,000 jobs in June, missing expectations and marking the slowest growth in three months. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Joule of Fortune. National Grid 🇬🇧 drops $1.75B on Joulent, securing a major slice of the power market just as demand surges. (Wall Street Journal)

🏢 Real Estate

  • 🇧🇪 Smoke Signals. Five people died and dozens were rescued after a violent blaze tore through an Antwerp high-rise, leaving a city in shock. (Boursier)
  • 🇦🇱 Eggs and Estates. Protests in Albania escalate over Jared Kushner’s $4B luxury resort planned for a protected coastal zone, with eggs thrown at officials and calls for Prime Minister Rama to resign. (Spiegel)
  • 🇺🇸 Rich Quick Scheme. A sudden surge in newly minted millionaires is fueling a luxury home frenzy in SoCal, with bidding wars now the norm. (Nypost)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 ARM and Out. Demand for adjustable-rate mortgages in the has dropped to its lowest share since January as their rate advantage over fixed loans shrinks. (Cnbc)

🔗 On-chain

  • 🇫🇷 Euro Vision. Credit Agricole 🇫🇷 launches EURXT, a stablecoin pegged to the euro, immediately using it to settle a tokenised Amundi fund purchase and declaring the future officially arrived. (FinExtra)
  • 🇸🇪 Chain Reaction. Moralis, once EQT’s blockchain star, loses its figurehead and is forced into austerity as losses mount and its valuation collapses. (Breakit)
  • 🇨🇿 Token War. The failed merger of Czech crypto firms Solmate and RockawayX 🇨🇿 erupts into lawsuits, with both sides accusing each other of siphoning company assets on the exchange. (Cc)
  • 🇺🇸 Coin Tossed. President Trump scored a $636M windfall from his namesake crypto, but thousands of fans who followed him into $TRUMP watched their investments evaporate. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Stable Genius. BlackRock, Visa 🇺🇸, Stripe 🇺🇸, and 137 other heavyweights launch Open USD, a new dollar stablecoin aiming to dethrone Tether 🇭🇰 and Circle 🇺🇸, with revenue-sharing and zero issuance fees to lure the industry’s biggest names. (Le Figaro)

💱 Listed Markets

  • 🇮🇹 Zombie Revival. Bending Spoons 🇮🇹 jumped 40% on IPO day, as its strategy of resurrecting faded SaaS names delivers a $25.7B market cap and a reality check for skeptics. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇸🇪 Pay Later. A Swedish court orders Google 🇺🇸 to pay $1.97B to Klarna 🇸🇪 for favoring its own shopping service in search results, proving irony is alive and well. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Inside Job. Susquehanna 🇺🇸 faces scrutiny as the SEC probes alleged insider trades that reportedly cost the firm millions, proving information is still the hottest commodity. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Catch Me If EU Can. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is pushing the bank to close the gap with Europe’s fintech leaders, refusing to play second fiddle. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 IPO on the Go. Lime, the scooter and bike rental company, raises $167M in its long-awaited IPO after nearly a decade of financial detours and uncertainty. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇺🇸 Cloud Nine. Meta shares jumped 10% after the company announced plans to sell excess AI computing power to outside customers, turning costly infrastructure into a new revenue stream. (Cnbc)
  • 🇨🇳 Full Speed Ahead. BYD and Xiaomi both posted robust June sales, fueling a rally that lifted their shares and revived bullish forecasts from analysts. (Cnbc)
  • 🇹🇼 Raid to the Core. Taiwanese officials stormed Super Micro’s local office and homes of staff, escalating their investigation into Nvidia chip smuggling to China. (Thenextweb)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

  • Chanel 🇫🇷 acquires Charvet 🇫🇷, the storied Place Vendôme maison known for bespoke shirts, ties and pajamas.
  • Eurobio Scientific 🇫🇷 acquires CareDx 🇺🇸’s Lab Products division for €145M ($170M), deal in in vitro diagnostics for transplantation, oncology and infectious diseases.
  • DEKUPLE 🇫🇷 acquires subko&co 🇵🇱, a Warsaw-based digital marketing, programmatic and MarTech agency.
  • Crédit Agricole 🇫🇷 acquires CAWL 🇫🇷, reclaiming 100% of the capital of the payment joint venture launched in 2024 with Worldline.
  • Crédit Coopératif 🇫🇷 acquires Worldline 🇫🇷’s stake in payment joint venture CAWL. Partnership signed in 2024 and Crédit Coopératif now holds >10% of Worldline’s capital.
  • Ipsen 🇫🇷 acquires Memo Therapeutics 🇨🇭 for at least €200M, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company.
  • House of Gaia Holding 🇩🇪 acquires Codio Impact 🇩🇪 (ESG software buy to sharpen product-compliance focus).
  • Eni 🇮🇹 forms a commodities trading joint venture with Mercuria 🇨🇭, splitting the trading business equally.
  • P101 🇮🇹 acquires PranaVentures 🇮🇹, creating a VC hub of over €600M. Launches Prana101 targeting €100M for pre-seed/seed, with potential to reach €700M and ultimately €1B+.
  • Creditors 🇳🇱 acquire Accell 🇳🇱 after a creditor takeover, company readied for sale.
  • SITA 🇨🇭 acquires Big Blue Analytics 🇪🇸, developer of OCC Assistant Manager (OCCam), an AI-enabled disruption optimization platform for airlines.
  • Placepoint 🇳🇴 acquires Combify 🇸🇪. Backed by Backing Minds and Bonnier Capital, valuation fell significantly before the sale.
  • Norges Bank 🇳🇴, in association with Sonae 🇵🇹, acquires Balkany family shopping centres🇪🇸 for €1.5B.
  • ACON Investments 🇺🇸 acquires YumEarth 🇺🇸, an organic, allergy‑friendly confectionery brand. Includes The Fini Company 🇪🇸 as strategic industry partner with an ownership stake.
  • Harvest Partners 🇺🇸 acquires Integra Testing Services 🇺🇸, completed July 1, 2026. National provider of commercial HVAC TAB and controlled-environment testing and certification services, with management remaining significant owners.
  • SoFi 🇺🇸 acquires Composer 🇨🇦, an AI-powered, Toronto-based no-code retail investing platform enabling natural-language strategy design, backtesting and automated execution. SoFi serves 14M customers.
  • Lyten 🇺🇸 acquires Northvolt Drei Project GmbH 🇩🇪 for €60M, assumes costs to secure assets and personnel at the Heide battery construction site. KfW and prior €600M convertible loan by the state/federal government referenced.
  • KKR 🇺🇸 acquires EDF Power Solutions’ North American operations 🇫🇷 for $4.2B, with potential additional payments up to $390M. Deal covers solar, wind and battery storage assets and related development, construction and O&M across the U.S. and Canada.
  • Kroger 🇺🇸 acquires Giant Eagle 🇺🇸 in a $1.65B deal ($1.25B cash plus assumption of ~$400M liabilities), grocery retailer deal expected to close in 2027.
  • Clara Vista 🇺🇸 acquires Frosinone 🇮🇹 for €41.5M, taking an 80% stake. The club is promoted to Serie A.
  • Getty Images 🇺🇸 scraps $3.7B merger with Shutterstock 🇺🇸 after UK competition regulator ordered the sale of Shutterstock’s editorial business, sending Shutterstock shares about 30% lower.
  • JPMorgan 🇺🇸 leads race to acquire Idex 🇫🇷, a French cooling network provider.
  • Chinese operator 🇨🇳 acquires Silence 🇪🇸, Acciona’s electric mobility brand producing electric scooters and the S04 nanocar in Barcelona’s Zona Franca.
  • Amova AM 🇯🇵 acquires Aham Capital 🇲🇾, taking >97% of the Malaysian asset manager.
  • Bangchak Corporation Public Company 🇹🇭 acquires Chevron Hong Kong 🇭🇰 for HK$2.1B (US$270M), buying Caltex petrol stations in Hong Kong.
  • Cimic 🇦🇺 übernimmt Thiess 🇦🇺 komplett für A$1.18B. Erwirbt die verbleibenden 40% an dem Bergbaudienstleister, tätig u.a. in der Kohleförderung.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

  • 🇬🇧 Private Practice. Wayve will be the inaugural UK tech company to use the LSE’s Pisces platform, offloading $85M in employee shares and letting London see if its new system can keep local stars from drifting abroad. (Sifted)
  • 🇬🇧 Private Drive. British self-driving start-up Wayve will become the first major company to trade shares on London’s new Pisces private market, launching an $85M employee tender offer as a test case for the platform’s ambitions. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇺 Fund and Games. The UK and France spar over the €5B Scaleup fund, with Brussels proposing a quota fix so everyone can keep pretending it is about innovation. (Sifted)
  • 🇪🇺 Cash and Carry. Facing a tougher fundraising climate, European startups are hitching a ride with SPACs, hoping the shortcut leads to public markets and new money. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Public Option. Sam Altman proposes giving the Trump administration a $42.6B slice of OpenAI, hoping government ownership buys peace and a little goodwill. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 That ’70s Fund. Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures to launch a new VC firm with Morgan Beller, targeting early-stage AI infrastructure and deep tech startups instead of established names. (TechCrunch)

Fundraising

  • Switch 🇺🇸 (Data center): $2B
  • Together AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $800M (Aramco Ventures, Vista Equity Partners, General Catalyst, Emergence Capital, NVIDIA, March Capital, Pegatron, S Ventures (SentinelOne))
  • Beeline Medicines 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $426.3M (Bain Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Bristol Myers Squibb)
  • Ollin Biosciences 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $330M (TCGX, ARCH Venture Partners, a16z Bio+Health, Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, Commodore Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, RA Capital Management, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, a leading sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Capital, Monograph Capital)
  • General Intuition 🇺🇸 (AI): $320M (Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Bezos Expeditions, Eric Schmidt, Nico Rosberg)
  • Peregrine Technologies 🇺🇸 (Technology): $250M (Fifth Down Capital, Sequoia Capital, OG Venture Partners, Goldcrest Capital, XYZ Ventures, Godfrey Capital)
  • Mirendil 🇺🇸 (AI): $200M (Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, NVIDIA)
  • Quantifind 🇺🇸 (Risk Intelligence): $200M (Summit Partners, Citi Ventures, S&P Global, Deloitte, Stephens Group)
  • Osanni Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $190M (Patient Square Capital, the Horowitz Group, Invus Opportunities, the Retinal Degeneration Fund)
  • 8090 🇺🇸 (AI): $135M (Salesforce)
  • InSoil 🇱🇹 (Fintech): €120M
  • TwelveLabs 🇺🇸 (AI): $100M (NEA, NAVER Ventures, Amazon, Radical Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, Index Ventures, Quadrille Capital, Red Bull Ventures)
  • PLL 🇺🇸 (Sports): $100M (Ares, Joe Tsai, ESPN, Glen Powell, Rob Mac, Warren Zeiders, Tony Cavalero, Creator Sports Capital, Next 3, FirstTracks Sports Ventures, Jed Hart, West End Investment Management, James Young, Bolt Ventures, Chris Shumway)
  • Higharc 🇺🇸 (Proptech): $95M (Insight Partners, Wellington Management, Fifth Wall, Spark Capital, Lux Capital, SE Ventures, Simpson Strong-Tie, PSP Partners, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Suffolk Technologies, Vertex Ventures, NC Tweener Fund, MetaProp)
  • Venice AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $65M (Dragonfly, Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures)
  • Aligned 🇺🇸 (Sales): $60M (PeakSpan Capital, Hetz Ventures, JAL Ventures, NFX)
  • CarbonSix 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $40M (DSC Investment, LB Investment, IMM Investment, Korea Development Bank (KDB), SV Investment, Cortentia (U.S.), ASQ (A Squared, U.S.), Foothill Ventures, Storm Ventures, Zeitgeist Capital, Xquared, CarbonBlack Fund)
  • Amarris 🇫🇷 (Accounting): €39M (Naxicap Partners, BNP Paribas Développement, Arkea Capital, Ouest Croissance, associate managers, CIC Private Debt, Zencap Asset Management)
  • Substrate AI 🇪🇸 (AI): €39M (SETT)
  • OXMIQ Labs 🇺🇸 (AI): $35M (Fundomo, Samsung Catalyst Fund, MediaTek, AM Intelligence Labs, Pegatron Venture Capital, CDIB-TEN, Darwin Venture Management, Morgan Creek Digital, Intel Capital)
  • Isometric 🇬🇧 (Certification): €34M (AVP, Lowercarbon Capital, Plural, Kleiner)
  • MDOTM 🇬🇧 (Fintech): $27M (Expedition Growth Capital)
  • Pie 🇺🇸 (AI): $23.7M (Lightspeed)
  • Telum Therapeutics 🇪🇸 (Biotech): €18M
  • Almetra 🇩🇪 (Manufacturing): €16M (Blisce)
  • Six Robotics 🇳🇴 (Defence): €12M (DTCP Defence, Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, Scale Capital, other private investors)
  • Flagright 🇬🇧 (Fintech): £9.3M
  • FOSSA 🇪🇸 (Space): €9.25M (Kibo Ventures, Sociedad Española para la Transformación Tecnológica (SETT))
  • Build 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (Proptech): €7.4M (Index Ventures, Pebblebed, Puzzle Ventures, Tiny.vc)
  • Wultra 🇨🇿 (Fintech): €6.8M (Seventure Partners, Marc Norlain, Guillaume Despagne, J&T Ventures, Elevator Ventures)
  • Offa 🇬🇧 (Fintech): £6.5M
  • Nordic Forestry Automation 🇸🇪 (Forestry): €4.3M (Navigare Ventures, Almi Invest Greentech)
  • PowerBank Corporation 🇨🇦 (Energy): $4.2M
  • Epitome Therapeutics 🇦🇹 (Biotech): €4M (XISTA Science Ventures, Caesar Ventures, Navec Venture Holding GmbH, Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS), Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG))
  • Ora Computing 🇦🇹 (AI): €3.5M
  • Acodyne 🇩🇰 (Aerospace): €2.5M (Gungnir Capital, PSV Hafnium, EIFO, SAP9 Group, GreenUP IV Invest)
  • eYou 🇷🇴 (Social): €1.3M

Fund Watch

  • MGX 🇦🇪: $49B (AI fund, one of the largest ever)
  • Starwood Capital Group 🇺🇸: $10.2B (SOF XIII, opportunistic real estate fund, final close)
  • RGreen Invest 🇫🇷: €500M (Infrabridge III, short-term senior debt fund)
  • Behrman Capital 🇺🇸: $250M (Behrman Capital CV II L.P., single-asset continuation vehicle for Shurco)
  • EOS Global Investors 🇬🇷: €209M (EOS Atlas, private equity fund for critical infrastructure & green transition. First closing, target >€300M)
  • Tapestry VC 🇬🇧: $80M (Fund III, seed/pre-seed for repeat immigrant founders, London & SF)
  • Magnify Ventures 🇺🇸: $46.6M (Fund II, early-stage VC for care economy AI infrastructure)
  • Aster Capital Partners 🇫🇷: €37M (Asternova Vest, VC fund for Western Romania. Target €37M, launched with >€26M anchor from ADR Vest. Tickets €0.5–4M)
  • 201 Ventures 🇪🇸: undisclosed (2nd defence fund, raising. Prior $22M to invest in European defence/dual-use)

🔔IPO

  • Abivax 🇫🇷 (Biotech): suspended ordinary shares on Euronext Paris over an ADS offer after issuing €38.5M of ADS.
  • KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 (Defence): postponed its IPO after investors balked at a valuation above €12bn, with shareholders insisting on at least €12.5bn.
  • Kuka 🇩🇪 (Robotics): Midea is said to be considering a China IPO for the German robot maker.
  • Digi Spain 🇪🇸 (Telecom): preparing a Spanish IPO that could value the company at up to €1.7B, seeking ~€150M in new shares and backed by a €100M cornerstone investor.
  • Indexa Capital 🇪🇸 (Robo-advisor): preparing to move to the Mercado Continuo after free float surpassed 14% following a 5% share sale. Manages €5.6B and has a €195M market cap.
  • Infracore 🇨🇭 (Real estate): targeting a CHF826M ($1.02B) valuation and seeking to raise about CHF200M in its SIX IPO.
  • Ionic Digital 🇺🇸 (Crypto mining): filed for a Nasdaq direct listing with holders to sell up to 10.8M shares after a $400M raise at a $2B pre‑money valuation.
  • ITG 🇺🇸 (Digital infrastructure): priced at $16 (below its $19–$22 range), raising $312.2M in its IPO.
  • Plaid 🇺🇸 (Fintech): said to be considering a IPO.
  • Lime 🇺🇸 (Micromobility): raised $174M in its public debut.
  • Nexchip Semiconductor 🇨🇳 (Semiconductors): seeking to raise up to HK$6.98B (~$890M) in a Hong Kong share sale.
  • Kunlunxin 🇨🇳 (AI chips): targeting a $50B Hong Kong IPO and asked prospective investors to commit to buying its semiconductors.
  • SK Hynix 🇰🇷 (Semiconductors): planning a Wall Street dual listing to raise $29B (≈290bn SEK).
  • Dien May Xanh 🇻🇳 (Retail): raised over $505M in its IPO.
  • Oravel 🇮🇳 (Hospitality): updating its filing for a $703M India IPO.
  • Fertilizer Firm 🇴🇲 (Agriculture): drew $12B in orders in an Oman IPO.

🧳 Debt

  • Veolia 🇫🇷: placed €400M of synthetic non-dilutive convertible bonds maturing 2 Jan 2032.
  • Société Générale 🇫🇷: launches benchmark euro senior-preferred double-tranche bonds maturing July 2028 and July 2031.
  • CenTrio 🇺🇸: completed a $485M HoldCo refinancing (incl. $210M senior term loan, $150M delayed draw, $50M revolver, $75M LC).
  • Merritt Properties 🇺🇸: secured $750M strategic investment led by Centerbridge.
  • Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) 🇵🇷: federal board offered a $3B settlement to restructure more than $10B of PREPA debt.
  • Kawasaki Heavy Industries 🇯🇵: plans to raise about ¥200bn ($1.23B) via new shares and convertible bonds.
  • VPBank 🇻🇳: raised $1.44B in a 3-year sustainability-linked syndicated loan arranged by 15 international institutions.

❌ Failures

  • TG Jones 🇬🇧: rescue restructuring approved to close up to 150 stores after facing a cash shortfall of nearly £8m and relying on a £10m loan.
  • TikTok 🇮🇪: about 300 more jobs to be cut at its European hub in Dublin.
  • Oracle 🇷🇴: will lay off 526 employees in Romania, with 3–12 months’ severance and a 2‑month paid notice.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

  • 🇲🇹 Trial by Fire. Malta opens the long-awaited trial of businessman Yorgen Fenech, accused of ordering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s 2017 car bomb murder, with justice now on the stand. (Libé)
  • 🇺🇸 Disco Inferno. Trump calls “Y.M.C.A.” a “monster hit” thanks to his rallies, but the Village People’s blessing was always more complicated than the beat. (New York Times)
  • 🇭🇰 Addictive Content. Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department rolled out an AI anti-drug video for International Day Against Drug Abuse, only to be accused of making drugs look cool. (Bbc)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Happy Ending. A new study finds that the way Mancunians pronounce the final vowel in words like « happy » reveals their social class more than you might think. (The Guardian)

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