Daily Review

Eleusis, a clinical-stage life science company that aims to unlock the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, and Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. II, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced they have mutually agreed to terminate their agreement and plan of merger. 

Silver Spike II intends to continue in its efforts to identify a prospective target business for an initial business combination.

Motive Partners, a private equity firm, led a €120m ($126m) funding round in Backbase, a banking software provider.

“For more than a decade, Backbase has shown leadership and innovation in enhancing digital relationships between financial institutions and its customers. We’re excited to support Jouk and the Backbase team with this initial fundraise as they continue to expand, grow and build the leading, customer-centric, Engagement Banking Platform globally," Rob Heyvaert, Motive Partners Founder and Managing Partner.

Backbase was advised by De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. Motive Partners was advised by Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Loyens & Loeff and Proskauer Rose.

 

IndInfravit Trust, a financial services company, agreed to acquire 5 Road Projects from Brookfield Asset Management, an alternative asset management company, for $1.2bn.

"This is one of the largest acquisitions in the highways sector in recent times. It is a testament to the confidence of long-term patient capital in the India growth story, duly represented by the highways sector. All the five operating assets are part of the National Highways programme and in States contributing 30 per cent of India's GDP. With strong backing of its major unit holders, IndInfravit is well-positioned for infrastructure monetisation plans," Pawan Kant, IndInfravit Trust Investment Manager.

IndInfravit is advised by Ambit and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

 

Mubadala Capital, a ventures platform, and TriplePoint Capital, a venture capital firm, led a $206m funding in Juni, with participation from EQT Ventures, Felix Capital, Cherry Ventures, and DST Global.

"We're very proud to have secured this funding in such a challenging environment. We're on a mission to give ecommerce businesses peace of mind by making financial management easy. I know first-hand the frustrations of running an ecommerce business and time wasted on spend management, the lack of visibility of cashflow and scaling ad campaigns. With this funding, we will help ecommerce businesses win by building the right insights, features and integrations while injecting capital into their marketing spend. We're committed to building the best financial companion for ecommerce and we're thrilled to have fantastic investors onboard who share our strategic vision," Samir El-Sabini, Juni Co-founder and CEO.

 

GIC, an investment advisory firm, led a $140m Series F funding round in CRED, a fintech startup, with participation from Sofina, Tiger Global, Falcon Edge Capital and Dragoneer.

The investment comes at a time when CRED is finalizing the acquisition of Smallcase, an Amazon-backed startup.

 

Denso, one of the world’s top automotive semiconductor manufacturers and a key supplier to Toyota Motor, may consider spinning off its chip business, which generates around $3bn in sales, the company’s chief technology officer said.

Today, the semiconductors Denso makes in-house go into automotive parts that it then sells to carmakers or other suppliers. When examining the possibility of supplying semiconductors on their own, Denso will consider whether the semiconductor division is better positioned outside of the company, Bloomberg reported.

"We need to think about whether the time will come when we sell semiconductors, alone, externally. It’s worth looking into whether that kind of structure is possible," Yoshifumi Kato, Denso CTO.

 

Globe Telecom commenced a process to sell around half of its 12k cell tower assets in a deal that could fetch $1.5bn for the Philippines-based operator.

The Manila-listed telecommunications company is liaising with an advisor to evaluate interest from potential bidders for the tower sale. However, the process is in its early stages as the company has still not received board approval for a sale or leaseback transaction for its tower portfolio. Discussions remain premature and the company could decide to scrap the planned divestment.

 

In what could be Singapore’s first SPAC or blank-check merger, Kacific Broadband Satellites, a satellite operator, is discussing going public with Pegasus Asia, a special purposes acquisition company.

After the deal, Kacific’s valuation could go up to $1bn. However, the report noted that the merger talks are preliminary and could fall through. Kacific had previously considered merging with US-based blank-check firms but held off due to the possibility of a regulatory clampdown and poor market conditions. Pegasus Asia raised $126m in its IPO in January. It was the second SPAC to be listed in the city-state.

Virgin Australia mulls IPO in 2023.

Virgin Australia is considering listing in Sydney as early as next year, underscoring the airline’s faster-than-expected recovery since collapsing at the start of the pandemic.

“It’s a lot faster than we thought it would be and we are flattered that this soon after becoming a new company and starting from scratch we’re in a position where we’re having these conversations, because it’s extraordinary,” Jayne Hrdlicka, Virgin Australia CEO.

 

DCP Capital, a private equity firm that has backed some of China’s biggest companies, has reportedly held the first closing of its second China fund at $2.5bn.

With a total fundraising target of $3bn, DCP Capital Partners II reached the first closing with capital commitments from both existing and new limited partners. The new fund has already completed five investments so far, DealStreetAsia reported.

 

GF Xinde Investment, the wholly-owned private equity investment unit of Chinese investment bank GF Securities, has set up a new RMB-denominated fund to invest almost $450m in the new energy industry.

The new fund, which recently completed its registration with the Asset Management Association of China, counts the country’s publicly-listed water supply business Zhongshan Public Utilities Group as a key investor. The RMB fund mainly invests in new energy and related businesses, with a focus on new generation energy storage technologies, hydrogen energy, and other emerging industry opportunities, said the company.

“Our focused sector [new energy] bears great market potential with rising technological revolution opportunities and long-term prospects. GF Xinde will leverage its decade-long equity investment expertise and GF Securities’ strong capital market resources to create synergies with our industry partners and to deeply integrate finance with the industry development, in an attempt to better empower portfolio companies,” Zhao Tiexiang, GF Xinde Partner.