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| 1 | | WE Soda, the world's largest natural soda ash producer, plans to go public in London at a $7.5B valuation. Despite declining IPO proceeds, London's Europe-centric focus and U.K. base persuaded the company to choose it over New York. More: - WE Soda believes there are advantages to attracting attention by going public while others are not, despite current worries about the London market.
- The Ciner Group's wholly-owned WE Soda produced $838M in core adjusted earnings on $1.8B in revenue in 2022.
- After the IPO, Turgay Ciner will keep around two-thirds of the company, and it has plans to invest $5B to increase manufacturing capacity and keep up with demand.
- Due to the demand for solar panels and the manufacturing of lithium carbonate, soda ash consumption is anticipated to rise to 81 million tonnes by 2030, favoring WE Soda's production technique, which has lower carbon emissions than synthetic soda ash.
Zoom Out: - BNP Paribas SA, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and JPMorgan are global coordinators, while Deutsche Bank AG, Liberum, Morgan Stanley, MUFG, and Numis Corp. are book-runners on the offering.
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What happened: Intel, once a leader in the semiconductor industry, has seen its grip slip due to competition from Nvidia and AMD. CEO Pat Gelsinger hopes to revitalize the company with a contract chip-making foundry business, though progress could have been faster. Intel's foundry business witnessed a 58.3% annual drop, the most significant fall among its business divisions. Intel reported its most enormous quarterly loss ever and is taking drastic measures to reduce costs by up to $10B by 2025. Relevance: Intel has seen a decline due to its failure to innovate, leading to the success of its rivals in chip design and manufacturing. The competition and delay in production have put Intel's future in the chip-making industry at risk. Where to see the impact: Intel's potential revival has the potential to dramatically alter the semiconductor industry and chip-making on a global level. The U.S. government supports Intel's efforts to become a major contract chip manufacturer in the U.S. | | | |
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| 3 | | A new $432M fund has been created by Pear VC, an early investor in DoorDash, targeting early-stage investments in industries like the life sciences, healthcare, consumer goods, and artificial intelligence. Pear has assisted several of its seed-stage businesses in obtaining Series A funding thanks to its proficiency in turning concepts into marketable goods. More: - The company was established in 2013 with an emphasis on assisting founders, and the founders' immigrant experiences have impacted the company's success.
- With initiatives like the Female Founders Circle and a portfolio that contains 41% female-founded businesses, Pear is dedicated to fostering female entrepreneurship.
- Pear also provides initiatives to assist student founders, such as PearX boot camp, PearX for AI, and Pear Dorm.
- When DoorDash went public in 2020, Pear's $1.9M investment from an early backer of the company was worth over $400M.
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| 4 | | Due to the pandemic-induced reduced export demand following a product demand boom, the world's shipping container output has decreased by 71%, from 1.06 million to 306,000 units. With up to 95% of the world's containers produced in China, the country is severely impacted as the primary producer of these units. More: - The production of dry containers will cease until at least 2024; however, AP Mller-Maersk may resume production of 20-foot containers sooner due to more stable demand.
- China International Marine Containers and Cosco Shipping Development have seen significant profitability declines due to the decrease in container commerce.
- The World Trade Organization's experts anticipate lackluster container demand and a slight 1.7% increase in goods trade this year.
- Stockpiles of empty containers in Asia-Pacific ports are at record highs, and this trend is expected to continue throughout the year, especially for 40-foot-high cube containers utilized in Asia-European and Asia-U.S. markets.
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- 70% of customer service teams are confident in using or the prospect of using AI
- Currently, AI only accounts for 4.2 hours of workweek interactions with customers
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, this report is a must-read. Get insights into how companies like yours are adopting and assessing AI. Explore the report 
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| 5 | | Femsa, the largest convenience retailer in Latin America, approved the sale of $3.5B of its shares in the Heineken Group. This divestment enabled Heineken to boost its earnings per share by buying the $355M value of the claims. More: - The only shares of Heineken NV or Heineken Holding NV that Femsa still owns are those that support its exchangeable bonds.
- The business is considering enlarging its locations close to the U.S.-Mexico border and even acquiring a local chain in the U.S.
- Before the most recent share sale, Femsa's initial 20% holding in Heineken was reduced from 2010 to 2017 from 20% to 14.8%.
- To increase its position in Europe, Femsa agreed to purchase Switzerland's Valora in 2022 for up to $1.2B.
Zoom Out: - Femsa, the largest convenience retailer in Latin America, operates around 20,000 stores and over 3,600 pharmacies.
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| 6 | | After completing an $18M investment round, Neat Burger's valuation has increased to $100M, bringing in investors, including B-Flexion, LionTree, and Thibaut Courtois. Lewis Hamilton, SoftBank's Rajeev Misra, and other existing investors participated in a new funding round, allowing Neat Burger to open a U.S. site and up to three in London by 2025. More: - Neat Burger is still upbeat about its expansion plans despite a downturn in the market for plant-based meals and conflicting investor sentiment in the industry.
- Due to several difficulties, including inflation and the consumer recession following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the company has delayed its expansion.
- The co-founders of Neat Burger want to compete with well-known burger restaurants and think that the number of individuals cutting back on meat intake is rising.
- In the first quarter, like-for-like sales at Neat Burger increased by 19%, although detailed revenue data were not provided.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Demo Divvy + get a $100 Amazon gift card. Divvy, BILL's spend and expense management solution, is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to manage your company spending.*
- Macquarie is reportedly considering selling its Korea-based gas company, DIG Airgas, for $2B and has enlisted a financial adviser to explore other investor interests.
- According to Bloomsbury Publishing, paperback books have become increasingly popular as cheaper alternative entertainment due to people forgoing subscription services like Netflix.
- Schmid, a family-owned electronics manufacturer, has agreed to a $640M SPAC deal to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Lucid is raising approximately $3B, with the majority, $1.8B, coming from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund through a private placement.
- AI investments: Harness the power of a technology expected to add $15.7T to the global economy by 2030.*
*This is a sponsored listing. | | | |
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Term of the Day Keyword research: Keyword research involves analyzing the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find information relevant to their search query. Question of the Week Should companies take steps to avoid employee burnout, or should it be the individual's responsibility to manage it themselves? Join the conversation |
INSIDE BUSINESS LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | Freelance Writer | | Shriram is pursuing Master’s in Business with Marketing at Warwick Business School. He worked as a Senior Consultant in Tech and Political Consultancies before his Masters. He is passionate about Tech, Marketing, Strategy, Anthropology and Politics. He is also the Postgraduate Ambassador for Warwick Business School. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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