🏦 Three Inches Higher
You’re still looking up, just now it’s at your phone.
Good morning!
The architecture of a British high street bank branch was designed, consciously or not, as a monument to asymmetric power. Marble columns. A teller window set three inches too high. A queue. The whole arrangement communicating, without words, that the customer was the supplicant and they were doing him a favour by holding his salary. This worked beautifully for about two centuries. Then a Lithuanian startup with a neon card and an app that loads in four seconds decided to charge £2.7B in subscription fees in a single year - a 50% jump - comfortably outpacing what any single legacy institution managed to extract from its customers through more legitimate means.
Illegitimate means, for the record, is not a metaphor. Between 2014 and 2018, Britain's biggest banks disgorged £1.6B in compensation for the particular talent they showed in bundling services into accounts customers had neither requested nor noticed. Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds and HSBC were the undisputed champions of the involuntary subscription long before fintech made it fashionable. The difference - and it is the only difference that matters - is that customers were furious about it. They knew how to extract money. They simply forgot to make it feel like a choice.
Revolut understood something that no amount of McKinsey consulting appears to have communicated to the Barclays board: the subscription economy runs on the illusion of agency. The premium tier comes with travel insurance the holder will never claim, lounge access used once at Manchester Airport, and an Uber upgrade that arrives when they've already taken the bus. Monzo has 1.6M paying subscribers on the same logic. The British consumer who in 2015 would sooner close their account than pay a monthly fee now hands over £9.99 without blinking because the card is a pleasing shade of coral and there's a Tinder logo somewhere in the benefits PDF. This is not banking. This is what happens when a SaaS company decides current accounts are an underserved vertical.
NatWest's answer has been to acquire Evelyn Partners, a wealth manager, doubling down on charging older, richer people to protect money they already have. Coherent. Also the strategic equivalent of a department store adding a fourth floor of men's suits while ground-floor queues form for a trainer drop. Charging someone for safeguarding inherited wealth is a craft perfected over centuries. Convincing someone slightly overdrawn that they deserve a premium lifestyle is newer, stranger, and apparently far more lucrative. The gap between those two skills is widening fast, and catching up will cost considerably more than a £1.6B compensation bill.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇬🇧 Summit Like It Hot. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host Zelenskyy, Macron, and Merz in London to coordinate Ukraine support after renewed Russian aggression. (The Guardian)
- 🇫🇷 Shelf Employed. Facing shrinking profits and more closures than openings, French bookstores now sell stationery, board games, and coffee to stay afloat. (Le Figaro)
- 🇩🇪 Far Right of Way. For the first time since World War II, a neo-Nazi party member is a mayoral finalist in a German town, rattling the national consensus. (New York Times)
- 🇪🇺 Lost in Space. Scientists say Russian satellites have been jamming GPS signals across Europe for years, causing outages and leaving officials scrambling for answers. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇦 Core Values. Russia hit a nuclear waste storage facility near Chernobyl with a drone, damaging the building and drawing condemnation from Ukraine and the IAEA. (Spiegel)
- 🇦🇲 Bear Market. Armenia moves closer to the EU and US, prompting Moscow to retaliate with economic penalties and Putin to issue thinly veiled threats about Ukraine-style consequences. (Washington Post)
- 🇺🇸 Exit Strategy. Sriram Krishnan, who helped shape AI policy at the White House, has announced he will leave his post by June’s end. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Press Eject. Donald Trump walked out of an NBC interview after being pressed on his unfounded election fraud claims and the controversial DOJ "weaponization" fund, leaving questions unanswered and microphones trampled. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Spy High. The Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence alert on Israel to the highest level after reports of Israeli attempts to eavesdrop on top officials about Middle East policy. (Libé)
- 🇺🇸 Festival of Arms. A shooting near Toledo’s Old West End Festival left 12 injured, most around 20 years old, as police search for multiple suspects. (Libé)
- 🇧🇴 Block Force. Bolivia's parliament has approved a law letting President Rodrigo Paz Pereira deploy the army to clear month-long protest roadblocks, escalating the standoff with striking workers demanding his resignation. (Le Monde)
- 🇰🇷 Han Solo. Han Seongsook is set to become South Korea's first female prime minister in two decades if parliament signs off, breaking a long male streak. (Cnbc)
- 🇵🇭 Ground Rules. A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck Mindanao in the Philippines, triggering a tsunami warning and reminding everyone who really sets the agenda. (Boursier)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Labour of Love. Keir Starmer tells supporters he will stand and fight any Labour leadership contest, refusing to step aside amid mounting pressure from rivals. (BBC)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Hostile Check-In. Texas billionaires Robert and Blake Rowling are trying to wrest control of West Virginia's iconic Greenbrier resort from Senator Jim Justice, promising a new era of luxury management. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Selective Service. Kennedy Jr. prioritizes his anti-vaccine agenda at Health and Human Services, ignoring emergencies like Ebola and keeping his circle tight and loyal. (New York Times)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇪🇸 Full House. Spain’s foreign tourist arrivals break records as Middle East turmoil diverts vacationers, but the welcome mat is wearing thin for many residents. (BBC)
- 🇪🇺 Margin Call. Industrialized nations face shrinking fiscal room as borrowing costs hit highs not seen in decades, with France’s latest bond sale clocking a 3.8% rate. (Le Monde)
- 🇪🇺 Tariff Drift. European and British automakers want the to delay post-Brexit EV import tariffs for a second time, admitting they are not ready for the rules. (The Guardian)
- 🇳🇴 Strike Out. Norwegian oil firms and unions clinch a last-minute pay agreement, narrowly avoiding a strike that could have rattled global energy markets. (Boursier)
- 🇷🇺 Smoke and Mirrors. Ukraine’s drone strikes on St Petersburg upstage Putin’s economic forum as thick black smoke greets delegates and the Kremlin insists all is stable. (BBC)
- 🇷🇺 Crude Intentions. Russia's Igor Sechin accuses the US of using the Strait of Hormuz crisis to tilt the oil market in favor of its own producers. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Deal Team Six. The Pentagon is hiring 30 Wall Street bankers at up to $600K each to invest $200B in strategic sectors, because supremacy is now a portfolio strategy. (Le Figaro)
- 🇺🇸 Show Business Class. With production costs soaring, Broadway producers eye London’s tax breaks and cheaper stages, leaving New York to sing for its supper. (Bloomberg)
- 🇨🇳 Great Wall Street. China unveils new rules to screen outbound investments by its own companies, building barriers to keep money and technology from escaping as global tensions rise. (New York Times)
- 🇸🇦 Barrel Scrape. OPEC+ announces a modest quota hike for July, offering the market a symbolic gesture instead of any real supply boost. (Bloomberg)
- 🇦🇪 Suite Deal. Dubai’s luxury hotels slash prices by up to 75% to lure local residents as international tourists vanish amid Middle East conflict, making five-star stays suddenly affordable. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Tax and the City. Santander chief Ana Botín blasts the UK’s special bank taxes as irrational, warning that singling out lenders for extra levies only stifles growth. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Credibility Gap. UK MPs slam the government for repeated delays to its defence investment plan, warning that stalled spending has undermined Britain’s standing with allies. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Rate Expectations. Kevin Warsh barely settles in as Fed chair before a strong jobs report sparks calls for rate hikes and an early policy showdown. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Working on It. May brought 172,000 new jobs to the economy, yet the unemployment rate stubbornly stayed at 4.3% without blinking. (Wall Street Journal)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇨🇭 Summit Exclusion. As Swiss Alps real estate prices hit new heights, locals watch from below while wealthy buyers snap up second homes without hesitation. (Le Temps)
- 🇦🇷 Palantir in Palermo. Peter Thiel considers relocating to a luxury Buenos Aires villa, finding a warm reception from President Milei and plenty of space to plot his next move. (Spiegel)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Steel Yourself. The UK’s new steel tariffs and import quotas, set for July, will delay housebuilding and infrastructure projects, with industry leaders warning of shortages and rising costs. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 House Arrest. New research from Shelter reveals that England’s social housing waitlist would take 119 years to clear at the current building pace, leaving 1.3M households in limbo. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 No Tuition, No Mortgage. The former Green Mountain College campus in Vermont is up for grabs at no cost, making higher education look cheap by comparison. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Lone Star Check-In. Dallas hoteliers Robert and Blake Rowling want to oust Senator Jim Justice as owner of the Greenbrier, aiming to remake “America’s Resort” in their image. (Wall Street Journal)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇬🇧 Coin Operated. Reform UK rakes in £9.3M in Q1, mostly from crypto billionaires like Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, outpacing both Labour and the Tories as the party becomes a magnet for offshore digital wealth. (Les Echos)
- 🇨🇭 Coin Footprint. Swiss academics show Bitcoin’s energy-hungry mining pumps out massive emissions, while Ethereum’s new approach keeps its carbon almost invisible. (Swissinfo)
- 🇺🇸 Block and Old. Bitcoin’s original promises of revolution and easy riches are looking tired as the cryptocurrency faces questions about relevance and staying power. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Buyback to the Future. While bitcoin crashes, Bitwise 🇺🇸, 21shares 🇨🇭, and Grayscale 🇺🇸 rake in $150M for hyperliquid ETFs, luring investors with a model that recycles fees into token buybacks. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Token Gesture. JP Morgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo will launch a tokenised deposit network in 2027, hoping to out-crypto the crypto firms muscling in on their turf. (FinExtra)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇬🇧 Board Games. BP veteran Carol Howle offloaded £2M in shares a week before chair Albert Manifold’s abrupt exit, leaving the company’s leadership shuffle in the spotlight once again. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Berry Bull Run. Raspberry Pi's 🇬🇧 shares soared 19.5% after the company posted a strong earnings outlook, tripling their value since the start of the year. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Chip Happens. Marvell Technology and Flex are set to enter the S&P 500, replacing Pool Corp and Campbell's, as AI infrastructure powers the latest reshuffle. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Board Out. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman will step down from Microsoft's board after nearly a decade, shifting his focus to his new AI startup Manas. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Cloud Nine Figures. Google 🇺🇸 will pay SpaceX 🇺🇸 $920M per month for access to 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, boosting its AI muscle just as SpaceX preps its record IPO. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Level Up. Paramount and Skydance are launching a new videogame studio, with Tony Driscoll leading both the gaming push and the Warner Bros. integration. Corporate synergy just got a new boss level. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇭🇰 IPO-llusion. Hong Kong tops the global IPO charts by funds raised, but its new listings are flopping after launch, with half trading lower in three months. (Cnbc)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Locked In. A cross-party committee calls out the UK’s reliance on Palantir for NHS and defense data, citing security risks and a “mismatch with UK values.” (Financial Times)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- Frasers 🇬🇧 weighs £500M bid for shopping center 🇬🇧.
- Hg 🇬🇧 and General Atlantic 🇺🇸 explore a $6B sale of Gen II 🇺🇸, a New York-based fund administrator managing $1.5T and servicing 14,000 fund entities. Also backed by Cobepa 🇧🇪 and previously invested in by IHS Markit 🇺🇸.
- Rémy Cointreau 🇫🇷 explores options for its drinks portfolio.
- Bouygues Telecom, Free - Groupe iliad & Orange 🇫🇷 acquires SFR 🇫🇷 for an enterprise value of €20.35B, with a potential earn-out up to €0.65B and break-up fees ranging €0.1B-€2B.
- Banco BPM 🇮🇹 proposes a deal to acquire Monte Paschi 🇮🇹 for €50B, banking sector.
- Bally’s Intralot 🇬🇷 acquires Evoke 🇬🇧 for £243M in an all-share offer. Evoke is owner of William Hill and 888, deal subject to regulatory approval and expected to complete late 2026-early 2027.
- Mercuria Energy 🇨🇭 acquires Raizen 🇧🇷's Argentine refinery and network of gas stations for $1.42B after a bidding war with Vitol
- Nestlé 🇨🇭 acquires full control of yfood Labs 🇩🇪. Nestlé held a 49% stake since 2023, yfood generated €150M revenue last year and founders' shares transfer on July 3.
- Apollo 🇺🇸 doesn't plan to make a firm $2B takeover offer for Bodycote 🇬🇧. Shares fall 9.4% to 746p, up 6.6% year to date.
- KKR 🇺🇸, Blackstone 🇺🇸 and Goldman Sachs 🇺🇸 are among fifteen bidders to acquire Sankei Building 🇯🇵 for $3B-$6.3B.
- Castlelake 🇺🇸 taps MSC 🇨🇭 to support a potential $4.8B takeover bid for easyJet 🇬🇧.
- LS Power 🇺🇸 is in advanced talks to buy Électricité de France's North American renewable power business 🇫🇷 for $4.7B+.
- Glazer family 🇺🇸 considers selling their stake in Manchester United 🇬🇧, $4B-listed.
- Ares 🇺🇸-backed medical spa chain LaserAway 🇺🇸 is exploring a $2B sale.
- Peloton 🇺🇸 acquires Skōp 🇺🇸, a Pilates-focused startup.
- Carlyle 🇺🇸 acquires a home appliance rental firm 🇰🇷 for $700M.
- Incyte 🇺🇸 acquires Star Therapeutics 🇺🇸 for up to $2B ($1.25B upfront plus $750M in milestones. Blood-disorder biotech developing VGA039 for von Willebrand disease, in late-stage trials with FDA fast-track).
- Western Asset Management 🇺🇸 settles with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 🇺🇸 for $100M over an investigation into trading allocations by former co-CIO Ken Leech. DOJ has declined further action.
- Equatorial Energia 🇧🇷 submits the sole bid for Copasa 🇧🇷, offering $1.6B for a 30% stake.
- Sinoma 🇨🇳, Huaxin Building Materials 🇨🇳, Italcementi 🇮🇹 and Votorantim 🇧🇷 are bidding for CSN's cement unit 🇧🇷 for $2B.
- PayPay 🇯🇵 (SoftBank's payments unit) acquires T&D Financial Life Insurance 🇯🇵 for $840M, the life-insurance unit of T&D Holdings.
- MMC Port Holdings 🇲🇾 approaches prospective bidders for a minority stake at a potential $10B valuation.
- Airwallex 🇦🇺 acquires Leapfin 🇺🇸, a financial data automation platform specialising in revenue recognition and reconciliation.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇬🇧 Factory Settings. PhysicsX, a London-based startup, lands a $2.4B valuation as it aims to automate manufacturing with its AI-powered solutions. (Bloomberg)
- 🇫🇷 Auto-Pilot. KNDS is taking a page from the automotive playbook, using assembly-line methods to accelerate its output of armored vehicles for France and Belgium. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Software buyout deals in the have crashed to $50B for early 2026, their lowest since the pandemic, as AI uncertainty freezes private equity activity. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Growth Spurt. Supabase’s valuation soared from $5B to $10B in eight months, thanks to a $500M raise and surging AI-powered developer adoption. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Chat Is Dead. OpenAI will revamp ChatGPT into a multifunctional platform focused on coding and AI agents, chasing business growth and investor attention before its public listing. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Buyer’s Remorse. The AI boom has triggered a flood of mega stock deals from tech firms, raising fears that investor appetite cannot keep up with supply. (Bloomberg)
Fundraising
- Rapidus Corporation 🇯🇵 (Semiconductors): ¥150B (Information-Technology Promotion Agency (IPA))
- Flourish (Neuroscience): $500M (Jeff Bezos, others)
- Supabase 🇺🇸 (Infrastructure): $500M (GIC, Accel, Y Combinator, Craft, Felicis, Peak XV, Coatue, Stripe, Salesforce Ventures)
- Helion Energy 🇺🇸 (Fusion): $465M
- Generalist AI (Robotics): $400M
- Allen Control Systems 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $200M (Smash Capital, Craft Ventures, Rally Ventures, Inspired Capital)
- Thena Capital 🇬🇧 (Healthcare): £45M
- Innovafeed 🇫🇷 (Agtech): €51M (Creadev, Temasek, ADM, QIA)
- InCharge Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $46M (S2G Investments, QIC)
- Honeycomb 🇺🇸 (Insurtech): $40M
- Opal Security 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $23M (Greylock, Battery Ventures, Cambium Capital)
- Scotch 🇺🇸 (Retail POS): $20M
- Red Metals 🇺🇸 (Metals): $10M (Gigascale Capital, Future Ventures, MCJ, JB Straubel)
- Finovox 🇫🇷 (Cybersecurity): €8.2M (TX Ventures, Auriga Cyber Ventures II, MTech Capital, Start Ventures, Force Over Mass, FDJ UNITED Ventures, Blast Club, Groupe IMA)
- Scispot (Lab software): $8M
- Offroad (Identity security): $7M (Ibex Investors, Skywell Capital Partners)
- Willow 🇮🇱 (AI governance): $7M (Hetz Ventures, Avishai Abrahami, Nir Zohar)
- Kodesage (AI): $6.6M
- Réempro 🇫🇷 (Construction): €1.6M (several banking partners, Finorpa Gestion, Makesense Seed II)
Fund Watch
- Benchmark 🇺🇸: $750M (12th flagship early-stage fund) + $1.25B (1st growth fund)
- Tishman Speyer 🇺🇸: $300M (first closing of Korea Living Venture. Korea multifamily living platform. APG & Bouwinvest commitments, $400M equity target)
🔔IPO
- INNIO 🇩🇪 (Power): raised $2.4B in its US IPO for a $25.5B valuation and jumped 23% on debut.
- Nyxoah 🇧🇪 (Medtech): pricing a US subscribed offering to raise about $95M by selling 55,232,558 shares at $1.72 each.
- Databricks 🇺🇸 (AI): will not IPO this year and is valued at $134B.
- Parabilis Medicines 🇺🇸 (Biotech): seeking to raise $475M in an IPO at a $2.1B valuation.
- Liftoff Mobile 🇺🇸 (Adtech): raised $437M in a IPO at a $4.75B valuation and jumped 24% on its trading debut after pricing above the marketed range.
- Sunshine Silver Mining & Refining 🇺🇸 (Mining): rose 27% in its trading debut after raising $270M at a $2.4B valuation in an upsized IPO.
- LongBio Pharma 🇨🇳 (Biopharma): listed in Hong Kong with a market capitalization of HK$10.7B.
- SK Hynix 🇰🇷 (Semiconductors): received positive feedback for its proposed $14B US listing.
🧳 Debt
- McKesson 🇺🇸: sold a $2.25B leveraged loan ahead of its $13B spinoff.
- Pathway Power 🇺🇸: finalized $150M senior-secured facility from AB CarVal to fund late-stage development of hybrid and battery-storage projects.
- Hut 8 🇨🇦: seeking $4.25B in private debt to finance an AI data center campus in Texas.
- Nigeria 🇳🇬: plans to refinance high-cost debt and raise funds to plug a $22B budget deficit.
- Africa Finance Corp 🇳🇬: raised a $2B syndicated loan.
❌ Failures
- Thames Water 🇬🇧: Andy Burnham said nationalisation of the water company would "absolutely be an option" under his leadership.
- Poundstretcher 🇬🇧: the Fortress-backed discount retailer is facing legal challenges from two landlords over its plan to cut store rents as part of a restructuring.
- Reno de Medici 🇮🇹: will hand control to creditors holding $700M of bonds in a debt restructuring.
- Swiss Post 🇨🇭: to cut around 60 full-time IT positions in Switzerland, with about 20 contract changes also planned.
- Nassau County Tobacco Settlement Corporation 🇺🇸: defaulted for the first time after failing to make a principal payment on a $430M bond.
- Sleep Number 🇺🇸: mattress maker preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- Raizen 🇧🇷: reached a $13B out-of-court deal with creditors.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇨🇭 Silent Partner. A long-lost 1900 silent film by British director Robert W. Paul has resurfaced in the Swiss national archives, delighting film historians with a one-of-a-kind cinematic treasure. (Swissinfo)
- 🇺🇸 Prime Time. June Squibb, Broadway’s legendary late bloomer, lands her first Tony nomination at 96 for her role in "Marjorie Prime" and shows no signs of slowing down. (New York Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Snow Fall. Former Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow has revealed he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, discussing his condition in an upcoming documentary. (The Guardian)
