PitchBook News - M&A is up for a fight on antitrust

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The Daily Pitch: VC

May 5, 2023

The Daily Pitch is powered by PitchBook’s industry-defining research and best-in-class data

In today's Daily Pitch, you'll find:

Antitrust regulation is yet another hurdle deflating M&A activity—but some acquirers aren't daunted by the courtroom.

Our latest Agtech Report sifts through an arid season of dealmaking.

Our VC Dealmaking Indicator reveals that the venture market continues to become more investor friendly.

Today's Top Stories

Dealmakers prepare to fight antitrust regulators

FTC chair Lina Khan has argued that antitrust increases competition. (Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images)

Biden administration regulators are pursuing the most stringent antitrust policy in decades. Their aggressive actions have stifled already weak M&A activity.

But antitrust no longer looks like an insurmountable obstacle to dealmakers. Potential acquirers are increasingly willing to fight the government in court after watching other buyers prevail by litigating deal blocks.

Recommended Reads

For top VCs, an IPO for the world's most valuable startup, ByteDance, remains a $220 billion mirage. [Forbes]

Shipping giant Maersk has warned that the industry's pandemic-driven boom is over as demand and freight rates fall. [Financial Times]

Addressing the tension between cost efficiency and customer intimacy is especially important for growing, midsized companies. [Harvard Business Review]

Since yesterday, the PitchBook Platform added:

17

VC valuations

2363

People

526

Companies

23

Funds

See what our data software can do

The Daily Benchmark:
2011 Vintage US PE Funds

Median IRR

18.05%

Top Quartile IRR

25.53%

1.55x

Median DPI

Select top performers

Monomoy Capital Partners II

Carousel Capital Partners IV

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners SBIC Fund

*IRR: net of fees

52 Funds in Benchmark »

Check out the latest version of PitchBook Benchmarks

VC Deals

Convergent Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company developing cancer therapies, has raised a $90 million Series A led by OrbiMed and RA Capital Management.

Fusion energy startup Energy Singularity has raised nearly 400 million Chinese yuan (around $58 million) in pre-Series A funding from investors including Mihoyo, Yunhe Partners and Enlightenment.

Angel investing and trading platform Funderbeam has raised $40 million in a round led by VentureWave.

Essential AI, a startup founded by two former Google AI researchers, has raised $8 million in a round led by Thrive Capital, Reuters reported.

Paris-based sustainable banking platform Green-Got has secured €5 million in a round led by Pale Blue Dot.

Pet insurance provider Barkibu has closed a $5 million round led by Kfund, Tech.eu reported.

Kertos, which offers no-code software to automate privacy operations, has raised €4 million in a round led by VR Ventures.

PE Deals

Apollo Global Management has agreed to acquire Arconic through a cash deal that would grant the aerospace supplier an enterprise value of around $5.2 billion. The take-private transaction has an equity value of around $3 billion, Reuters reported.

Apax Partners, Apollo Global Management, and a consortium formed by I Squared and TDR are interested in taking over Applus Services, a Spanish industrial testing company, Reuters reported.

Oak Hill Capital has agreed to invest $150 million in Lit Communities, which builds fiber-based networks in partnership with real estate developers, local governments and others.

PSG Equity-backed Spanish risk and compliance software platform Nalanda has acquired sector peer Dokify.

Blixt Group-backed legal services provider Lawfront has acquired UK peer Nelsons.

Amulet Capital Partners has invested in healthcare marketing agency Minds + Assembly, which helps pharma, biotech and digital health companies launch brands.

Portfolio Companies

VC-backed supply chain logistics specialist Flexport has acquired the assets of Shopify Logistics, including ecommerce delivery platform Deliverr. NYSE-listed online retailer Shopify will lay off 20% of its workforce as part of the strategic pivot, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Fundraising

Pictet Alternative Advisors, the alternatives unit of Pictet Group, has secured $2.5 billion across two funds: $1.6 billion for a multimanager PE vehicle and $900 million for a fifth co-investments fund.

Portal Innovations has raised $100 million to target startups in the life sciences industry, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Chart of the Day

"For PE funds, the increase in interest rates has led to higher borrowing costs, thus making it more expensive to use leverage, which is expected to eat into fund returns."

Source: 2022 Global Fund Performance Report (as of Q3 2022 with preliminary Q4 2022 data)

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PitchBook News - M&A is up for a fight on antitrust

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