☕ Toll relief

Goldman Sachs has surrendered its coveted status as the world’s top M&A adviser

June 30, 2023

Good morning.

Goldman Sachs has surrendered its coveted status as the world’s top M&A adviser for the first time in five years, according to a Bloomberg report overnight. Rival firm JPMorgan is now in the top spot.

It’s not great news for the so-called vampire squid but the past year hasn’t been a particularly swell time for anyone in M&A. Global volumes were down a whopping 42% last year, in one of the worst periods for deals in the last decade. Meanwhile, declining fee income (and the UBS - Credit Suisse tie-up) have led to signifiant job cuts across the industry.

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MARKET MOVERS

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

Market News: Australia’s largest owner of toll roads roads Transurban took a hit after Gina Cass-Gottleib’s ACCC raised concerns about its proposed acquisition of a majority stake in Horizon Roads.

Transurban owns or controls just about every toll road in NSW and Queensland, and has a growing presence in Victoria. Horizon owns the EastLink toll road in Melbourne. And the ACCC is worried that the deal could eliminate a potential competitor to the $44bn industry giant.

THE QUICK SYNC

  • Goldman Sachs lost the mantle of world’s top M&A adviser for the first time in five years. (Bloomberg)

  • Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino is preparing a series of measures to woo back advertisers who left the platform after Elon Musk’s takeover. (Financial Times | ARS Technica)

  • Inflection, a US-based AI-startup behind the chatbot Pi, raised US$1.3 billion in fresh funding. (Forbes)

  • Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go and other video games laid off 230 employees, or about 25% of its workforce. (TechCrunch)

  • Nike beat sales expectations but missed on earnings in its fourth quarter result .(CNBC)

TRADING FLOOR

M&A:

  • Transurban’s plan to take a majority stake in Horizon Roads hit a snag after the competition regulator the ACCC raised concerns. (SMH | AFR | The Australian)

  • Global Infrastructure Partners is considering whether to offload a large stake in Pacific National. (AFR)

  • Lanyon Asset Management is calling time on its investment in the Fat Prophets Global Property listed investment trust (FPP) after four years. (AFR)

  • Retail Apparel Group has been in discussions to acquire Politix from the Country Road Group. (AFR)

  • Intermediate Capital Group is being tipped as a strong contender in the competition to buy Cura Group. (The Australian)

  • Lightsource BP is understood to have attracted Engie and Tenaga as potential buyers of its ANZ solar power business. (The Australian)

  • The sale of Ceres Terminals to Carrix will generate around 15x more revenue for Macquarie's asset management division. (AFR)

Capital Markets:

  • Booktopia is raising $8m for its mooted consolidation of customer fulfilment centres into a single site. (AFR)

  • VentureCrowd raises $3.5m to support the roll-out of its platform into new markets. (BNA)

  • BlackRock has raised more than $500m to help fund a giant grid-scale battery project in Australia. (SMH)

VC:

  • Sherlok, a fintech startup, has secured $3.4m in a funding round led by Rampersand. (SmartCompany)

  • Jumar Bioincubator, a new Melbourne biotech incubator, has $70m to invest in early-stage and scaling biotech ventures. (StartupDaily)

Others:

  • Nine Entertainment could make more job cuts as costs keep rising. (The Australian)

  • Medibank faces another class action lawsuit over a cyber attack. (BNA)

  • Namoi Cotton’s CEO has resigned to “pursue other opportunities”. (AFR)

  • ASX is exploring winding down and closing its mFund product. (AFR)

  • Jaxsta appoints Vampr co-founder Josh Simons as CEO. (BNA)

  • Allegro Funds has begun the process of selecting non-executive directors and a chief executive for PwC-spinoff Bell. (The Australian)

THE WATERCOOLER