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| Private equity plays a starring role in 2020's SPAC boom | |  | Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, middle, has watched his PE shop join the SPAC frenzy.
(Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) | | | Special-purpose acquisition companies have become some of the hottest investment vehicles on Wall Street, offering businesses an alternative to a traditional IPO and opening up fertile new ground for dealmakers.
Entrepreneurs, business executives, hedge fund founders, politicians and sports executives have all gotten in on the act, launching new SPACs—also called blank-check companies—that are now hunting for acquisition targets. But few segments of the financial world have been as closely intertwined with the SPAC boom as private equity.
What's behind the connection? | | | | | | | | | | Can PE follow VC's footsteps in Israel? | | Annual venture deal activity in Israel more than tripled over the course of the past decade, as investors sought to increase their exposure to startups in a nation known for its high-end talent and cybersecurity expertise. Israel's private equity industry experienced growth of its own, but nothing compared to the venture space.
Is that set to change in the decade to come? Thanks to a spate of tech deals, Israel's private equity sector is coming off its best first-half deal figures in more than a decade, according to PitchBook's 2020 Israel Private Capital Breakdown. That's just one of several notable trends emerging across the country's private market ecosystem, with others including: - Government initiatives continue to help many Israeli startups achieve early growth
- During H1 alone, private equity firms struck more IT deals in Israel than any full year between 2014 and 2018
- Intel's $900 million acquisition of Moovit represents the latest major VC exit in Israel's mobility sector
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| A message from Xen Capital | | |
| Democratizing diversification for the next generation of investors | | In the wake of massive dislocations in public markets around the world and bond yields at record lows, accredited investors today have an increasing appetite for alternative investments. Digital asset & wealth management platforms are able to offer these investors increased access, transparency and control in private market opportunities. This rising class of digital wealth platforms are disrupting various aspects of finance by making the transfer of value more efficient and accessible for the next generation of investors.
This industry brief, featuring a Q&A with Katrina Cokeng, Co-founder & CEO of Xen Capital, draws on PitchBook datasets to capture the outperformance of alternative investments over the past decade and to spotlight the disruptive business models of VC-backed wealthtech platforms such as Xen Capital.
Download here | | | | | | | |
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| Agtech investment tops $2B in Q2 despite pandemic headwinds | | The coronavirus outbreak has created significant obstacles for the agtech industry, exposing vulnerabilities in supply chains and driving down demand for major commodities like cotton and corn. Yet in Q2, VC investment in agtech companies totaled $2.1 billion, up more than 170% from Q1.
At the moment, investors are focused on sustaining their existing portfolio companies—but that may change. The pandemic is likely to accelerate trends toward automation and robotics, and new opportunities are expected to arise as growers seek out solutions in their new environment, according to our inaugural Emerging Tech Research report on agtech. Other key takeaways include: - Venture funding in agtech had a CAGR of nearly 33% from 2010 to 2019, driven primarily by climate change and global population growth
- The ag biotech sector carried the bulk of VC activity last quarter, with $1 billion raised across 20 deals
- Agtech exit activity has remained remarkably low over the past decade, in part because of agriculture's long development times
| | | | | | | | | | ByteDance, US government reach tentative agreement on terms of TikTok deal | | TikTok owner ByteDance and Oracle have agreed in principle to changes made by the US Treasury Department to Oracle's bid for the video-sharing app, according to reports. The alterations would reportedly address the Trump administration's national security concerns.
One potential plan could include Oracle and Walmart taking a significant stake in a new TikTok entity, alongside existing ByteDance investors such as Sequoia, General Atlantic and Coatue Management, according to The Wall Street Journal. Such an arrangement would reportedly push US investor ownership to over 50%.
Another iteration of the plan, reported by Bloomberg, would have Oracle acquiring a minority stake in the new TikTok company, with an independent board composed entirely of US citizens approved by the US government. That board would also have a national security committee chaired by an American data security expert. Oracle would have complete access to TikTok's source code and updates to ensure ByteDance is prevented from accessing the data of the 100 million US users on the app, the report said.
A separate CNBC report indicated that if Trump were to approve a deal with Oracle and Walmart, ByteDance would take TikTok's global business public on a US exchange.
And in the midst of racing to get a deal done in the US, TikTok has been looking for a replacement for former CEO Kevin Mayer, according to The New York Times. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom is reportedly among the individuals TikTok has approached. | | | | | | | | | | The coronavirus is, of course, still rampaging around the world. But coffee farmers across Latin America—not to mention coffee consumers—also have another blight to deal with. [The Atlantic]
New research argues that scientists may be foregoing a tool that could reveal new insights into animal psychology and intelligence: the magic trick. [Gizmodo]
Many US hospitals and their financially focused owners have spent years prioritizing efficiency above all else. Over the past six months, we've seen the results. [The Wall Street Journal] | | | | | |
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| | Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added: | | 282 Deals | 1324 People | 329 Companies | 13 Funds | | | | | | |
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| Apollo weighs mega-deal for German plastics giant | | | Apollo Global Management has reached out to German plastics company Covestro about a possible takeover, according to Bloomberg. A former division of Bayer, Covestro raised €1.5 billion (about $1.8 billion at today's conversion rate) in a 2015 IPO that valued it at some €4.9 billion. The company had a market cap of some €8.1 billion as of Thursday's close. | | | | | | | | Clearlake, Aurora link on insurance SBO | | | Clearlake Capital Group has agreed to purchase Zywave from Aurora Capital Partners, which has backed the provider of cloud-based insurance distribution software since 2013. Based in Milwaukee, Zywave currently works with more than 6,000 brokerages to help manage renewals, deliver quotes, track customer data and more. | | | | | | | | Peak Rock wraps up Halo Foods takeover | | | An affiliate of Peak Rock Capital has partnered with company management in its acquisition of Halo Foods, a UK-based manufacturer of cereal bars, nut bars and other related healthy snack products. Dutch investment firm Nimbus previously purchased the business from food and fish feed manufacturer Raisio in 2016. | | | | | |
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| Uber looks to shed part of Didi stake | | | Uber is attempting to sell part of its $6.3 billion stake in Chinese ridehailing giant Didi Chuxing, according to Bloomberg. Uber has reportedly been in talks with SoftBank, which could team up with other investors to buy a minority of Uber's 15% stake. A deal would continue Uber's reported plans for divestitures aimed at raising both new cash and its share price. Earlier this week, the company agreed to offload its European freight business to German startup Sennder. | | | | | | | | MetLife to purchase Versant for $1.7B | | | An investor group including Centerbridge Partners and FFL Partners has agreed to sell eyecare specialist Versant Health to MetLife for $1.675 billion in cash. Centerbridge backed the formation of Versant Health through the merger of Davis Vision and Superior Vision in 2017, while FFL Partners invested in the combined business that same year. Centerbridge first backed Superior Vision in 2015. | | | | | | | | Tesla battery supplier set for spinout | | | South Korean chemical giant LG Chem has announced plans to spin off its battery business under the tentative name LG Energy Solution. The unit is believed to provide electric vehicle batteries for US automakers including Tesla and GM. The spinout will be effective Dec. 1, pending a shareholder vote Oct. 30. Shares in LG Chem closed Thursday down 6%. | | | | | | | | Delivery Hero to gobble up Glovo ops for $272M | | | Berlin-based delivery company Delivery Hero has agreed to acquire the Latin American operations of Barcelona-based peer Glovo for as much as €230 million (about $272 million). The deal includes Glovo's activities in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Delivery Hero has traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2017. | | | | | |
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"[W]e expect corporate divestitures across multiple industries going forward, as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc upon companies, many of which may were in dire straits even before lockdown. This already plays out in the data, with corporate divestitures in H1 comprising 13.8% of MM deal flow, up from 10.7% full-year 2019. If this dynamic holds throughout the rest of the year, it would make for the highest annual proportion of corporate divestitures in six years."
Source: PitchBook's Q2 2020 US PE Middle Market Report | | | | | |
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اللباس التقليدي الحضرمي للرجال مرحبا بكم في سلسلة اللباس التقليدي الحضرمي .. لنتعرف معا على تراثنا ...وربما أن بعض هذه الملابس لم تعد مس...
شغل الشاعر سعيد فرج باحريز رحمه الله الناس في المكلا وحضرموت عموماً باشعاره التي كانت لها مدلولات عميقة وثاقبة ومعانٍ بليغة وحكيم...
