☕️ Clock's ticking

The countdown to the Canva IPO has officially begun

Good morning.

The clock is now ticking on the Canva IPO. Well, it feels like the clock has been ticking for years now, but finally the alarm is about to go off. Or, to use another metaphor, yesterday’s $150m secondary sale by Blackbird to US crossover funds suggests we’re entering the finishing straight for Canva’s run as a private company and that we might see it hit the US sharemarket boards at some point in the next 18 months or so.

When that happens, it will be a huge milestone for the local VC community, which is basically built on early Canva investments, and a big fee generating opportunity for armies of ECM bankers and lawyers. The sale reportedly values the company at US$25.5 billion ($38.8 billion), which compares to its peak valuation of US$40bn. That peak was set before last year’s tech rout, which prompted some investors to mark down their Canva positions significantly.

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MARKET MOVERS

*Stock data as of the market close. Commodities and crypto data in USD.

Market News: Come on Hardie let’s go party. James Hardie shares exploded higher after the company’s quarterly results, and more importantly outlook, impressed the market. The building materials supplier is heavily exposed to the US, where the housing market is starting to look less worse than feared despite a series of Fed rate hikes.

The US has an even bigger housing supply problem than Australia. That is one of the reasons why prices have held up better then many expected. But it also means they need to build a lot of homes, which is good when you supply building materials products in the country.

THE QUICK SYNC

  • Moody’s cut the credit ratings of a string of smaller and midsized US banks, and put some bigger Wall Street names on review. (CNBC)

  • China’s trade figures shrank more than expected. (Bloomberg)

  • Google and Universal are in talks over the licensing of artists’ voices and melodies for AI generated content. (FT | Yahoo Finance)

  • Zoom and other WFH champions are ordering staff back to the office. (WSJ)

TRADING FLOOR

M&A:

  • Canva brings ICONIQ Capital and Coatue Management to its register (AFR)

  • Lynas is looking at acquisition opportunities amid threats from the Brazil rare earths market. (The Australian)

  • Capricorn Metals’ Mark Clark believes consolidation will continue among Australian gold miners. (The Australian)

  • Patriot Battery received informal proposals in recent months from various parties. (The Australian)

  • Paramount sells Simon & Schuster to KKP. (SMH)

  • Sumitomo and Sojitz Corporation are buying a 10% stake in Woodside’s Scarborough gas export project. (SMH)

  • TPG Capital’s $1.8bn pursuit of InvoCare appears to be finally over. (AFR)

  • Barrenjoey valuation is eyed ahead of Magellan Financial Group’s annual results. (AFR)

  • Advent International has acquired a majority stake in Zimmermann. (AFR)

    • Permira was beaten by Advent International in Zimmermann contest. (The Australian)

  • AirTrunk and its big-bank syndicate are poised to rule off the year’s biggest loan deal. (AFR)

  • Creditors have voted to save Hills Limited after agreeing to a deed of company arrangement of 68c in the dollar. (BNA)

Capital Markets:

  • Adriatic Metals had its brokers drumming up bids into a $45.6m placement. (AFR)

  • Metro Finance is eyeing its next phase of growth after ruling off a $65m institutional equity placement. (AFR)

VC:

  • None

Others:

  • Bonuses are projected to slump up to 25% globally for M&A bankers this year (AFR)

  • ModnPods’ upgrade was aided by a strategic shareholding secured from the Queensland Investment Corporation. (BNA)

  • Emyria launched a new solution for tackling depression via a ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT) program. (BNA)

  • Myer Holdings’ share price slumped more than 14%. (BNA | SMH)

THE WATERCOOLER