☕️Spilling Secrets

Good morning.

A Judge has ordered the secretive hedge fund, Jane Street, to turn over details of the “immensely profitable” Indian options strategy at the heart of a trade secrets case in the US. Jane Street is suing two of its ex-traders and their new employer, Millenium, arguing that the pair stole trade secrets when they left the firm. Jane Street has remained extremely concerned about further details of its trading strategy becoming public.

When making the order on Thursday the presiding Judge quipped: “You brought this trade secrets case without identifying the trade secrets.”

🏆 LOI Subscriber #TBD

Market movers

Shares in Aristocrat Leisure Limited rocketed over 12% to close at $45.75 during trading yesterday, after the group reported a double-digit profit leap for the first half, buoyed by a record performance in its gaming segment. Aristocrat posted first-half NPAT of $723.3 million, up 16.8% compared to the prior corresponding period. EBITDA grew 17.6% year on year to $1.2 billion, while revenue lifted 6.1% to $3.27 billion, boosted by a strong performance by the group's North American gaming division. $608 million in surplus cash was also returned to shareholders in the form of on-market share buybacks over the six months to 31 March 2024.

The quick sync

• Nine Entertainment has been experimenting with generative AI for content production and is in talks with Google about allowing its content to train the search engine’s large language models. (Capital Brief)

• Anglo American has instituted a hiring freeze amid restructuring plans. (Reuters)

• Samuel Terry, Sandon Capital ramp up activist campaign against Karoon Energy (Capital Brief)

• Telstra has signed a partnership with Infosys to drive its ‘AI-led engineering transformation.’ (Capital Brief)

• Dow Jones reaches new milestone, eclipsing 40,000 points for the first time. (Bloomberg)

• Founders of biodiversity platform Xylo Systems on conquering AI and navigating ‘tech bro’ VC culture. (Capital Brief)

M&A

• Incitec Pivot is in advanced talks to sell its fertiliser business to Indonesian state-owned company PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur. (Capital Brief)

• ACCC is concerned that Louis Dreyfus Company buying Namoi Cotton could hurt competition in cotton ginning and classing services. (Capital Brief)

• Santos may be restarting the sale process for its stake in the Dorado oil and gas project, after pausing it for merger talks with Woodside. (The Australian)

• Chevron is selling its remaining North Sea oil and gas assets after 55 years, exiting the basin entirely. (Reuters)

• AirTrunk is receiving acquisition bids today, with top contenders including Blackstone and the Digital Bridge and IFM consortium. (The Australian)

• Collapsed airline Air Vanuatu has attracted interest from Nauru Airlines. (AFR)

• Cromwell Property Group sold six retail centres in Poland to focus on core investments. (Capital Brief)

• Fonterra is selling its Australian and New Zealand assets for NZ$4b, with several PE firms expressing interest. (The Australian)

Capital Markets

• Investors are monitoring Bingo Industries as its long-dated debt trades at a discount following an S&P downgrade. (AFR)

• Crescent Capital has offloaded $43m in shares of ClearView Wealth. (The Australian)

VC

• Sydney proptech startup Asseti secured $2.5m to develop its AI platform for real estate management. (Capital Brief)

• Victorian government agency Breakthrough Victoria invested $5m in medical device startup Neo-Bionica. (Startup Daily)

• Insurtech company Cover Genius secured $119m in funding. (BNA)

• New Zealand agritech startup Metrovate raised $1m in a funding from several investors including Sprout Agritech and Fonterra. (Startup Daily)

People moves

• None

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