One big media scoop to start: German billionaire Mathias Döpfner and private equity group KKR are negotiating a break-up of media conglomerate Axel Springer. Details here.
Plus, one Masa thing: SoftBank has bought UK-based chipmaker Graphcore, as Masayoshi Son’s group accelerates a multibillion-dollar push into AI. The sale values the company at just above $600mn — less than the amount of venture funding it had raised.
Finally, one new banking boss in town: Citigroup’s recently hired head of banking Viswas Raghavan is receiving more than $40mn worth of shares from his new employer. The New York Post reports that Raghavan has bought a nice penthouse in his new hometown.
In today’s newsletter:
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Business royalty descends on Mumbai
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The man leading the Shein IPO
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The fund behind CATL’s global push
The most expensive wedding in history
During a recent evening gathering — not far from the looming 400,000 square foot Tetris-like Mumbai residence of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani — a small group of executives gossiped over who had received a ticket to the hottest networking event in the world.
Further north, the crescendo of celebrations to mark the wedding of Ambani’s youngest child Anant Ambani to fellow billionaire offspring, Radhika Merchant, will draw a wildly diverse range of pop stars, sporting celebrities, powerful politicians and global tycoons to India’s monsoon-drenched, traffic-clogged financial capital.
The Ambanis have spared no expense, reports the FT’s Chris Kay from Mumbai. Planning app Bridebook.com calls it the most expensive wedding in history, estimating the family behind India’s largest company by market capitalisation has spent $664mn on the extravaganza. Here’s a video dedicated solely to the unboxing of the lavish invite.
Months of extravagant prenuptial parties hosted by Ambani, chair of petrochemicals-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries, have boasted of performances from the likes of Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Rihanna.
Already most of India’s business elite, Bollywood megastars and cricketing legends such as Sachin Tendulkar, as well as US billionaires Bill Gates, Larry Fink and Mark Zuckerberg, have marked their attendance.
In a projection of unabashed power, wealth and influence, they have dragged the global A-list to Mumbai during the worst season of the year, when the megacity’s already shaky infrastructure buckles under torrential lashings. Earlier this week schools were closed and the city’s notorious traffic came to a standstill after a thunderous deluge caused widescale flooding.
Adding to the stormy chaos, police imposed traffic restrictions from Friday afternoon to Monday evening to deal with the mob of VIPs that have left Mumbaikars fuming. The expected attendance by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of the many leaders the Ambani family have courted over the decades, is set to exacerbate the city’s gridlock.
The Mumbai head of an international bank attending the bash said they were girding themselves for the congestion around the Ambani-owned Jio World Convention Centre, where the final marriage ceremony will take place.
Many workers based in the area have been told to work from home.
Others who did not make the invite list have rolled their eyes at the mention of the last round of festivities. “I’m not sure why they had to be so public about it all,” said another executive based out of an office close to the action.
“I guess when you get to that level you don’t really have friends, you just have chess pieces to move around the board or rivals to outmanoeuvre.”
The former Bear Stearns banker guiding Shein’s IPO
When he was 17, Donald Tang moved to the US “for love” with just $20 in his pocket.
Since that journey to California from his native China in 1982, he has worked in jobs ranging from dishwasher to Bear Stearns investment banker.
Four decades later, Tang was drafted in by Xu Yangtian, who also goes by Sky Xu, the reclusive co-founder of the online fast-fashion giant Shein for what has proved to be his most high-profile role yet: serving as the face of the company as it pursues an initial public offering.
Tang formally joined Shein in November 2022 as executive vice-chair to help lead its rapid expansion overseas and eventually prepare it for a stock market listing, reports the FT’s Laura Onita and Eleanor Olcott.
He has now become “the most visible leader” of Shein, according to one person who works with him.
His latest role as executive chair at Shein, valued at more than $60bn in a recent funding round, has propelled him on to the global stage. He faces the task of getting an IPO over the line in London after ditching earlier plans to list in New York in the face of US political opposition and scepticism around its vast supply chain.
He is “charismatic and intelligent” and has “been a powerful force in shaping the future of Shein”, the person added, but his role is becoming more challenging as ties deteriorate between the US, Shein’s main market, and China, where it was founded and most of its clothes are made.
Some executives at the company have begun to question whether Tang is the right person for the job, according to one Shein insider, especially after a faux pas in May at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles where he said Shein, now headquartered in Singapore, was essentially an “American company”.
The remarks received a cold reception in China, where they were taken as a sign that Shein was trying to “de-Chinafy” itself ahead of an IPO.
CATL’s version of supply chain finance
China’s CATL is the world’s biggest producer of electric vehicle batteries and had the equivalent of about $40bn of cash on its balance sheet as of March.
And yet the company, a Tesla supplier, has been knocking on the doors of sovereign wealth funds and the world’s super-rich to raise a comparatively measly $1.5bn fund.
It wants to bankroll an ecosystem of suppliers in Europe and other foreign markets, as it expands production outside China. But the country’s strict system of capital controls means it could be arduous and time-consuming to invest directly in foreign companies.
That’s where Hong Kong-based asset manager Lochpine Capital comes in, DD’s Kaye Wiggins and FT colleagues report in this scoop. A filing dated August 2023 said Lochpine is owned by British Virgin Islands-based CATL Capital Investment. Lochpine was named CATL Capital until May.
Lochpine would manage the $1.5bn fund, to which CATL plans to contribute about 15 per cent. It had approached Mercedes-Benz and the family behind another luxury car company about investing in the fund, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
The battery maker has “a big gap in supply . . . and it’s a good investment return”, the person said, describing it as “a market solution to [the] problem” of not having sufficient suppliers in Europe and it being difficult to bankroll new ones directly.
It is doing so at a time when Brussels is planning tariffs for electric vehicles imported from China, a move analysts said would encourage more local manufacturing by Chinese carmakers.
But CATL has found itself in the crosshairs of US politicians as geopolitical tensions rise. Lawmakers including Republican senator Marco Rubio alleged last year that the battery maker was close to the Chinese leadership.
In March, CATL’s founder and chief executive Robin Zeng told the FT it was “like a joke” to suggest batteries presented a security risk. “Batteries are like rocks or bricks, you buy them to build a house . . . how can bricks spy?”
Job moves
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HSBC has revamped parts of its investment bank, consolidating its sector teams into five new groups. Technology, digital and financial services will be led by Alexander Paul and Dan Bailey. Consumer, health and retail will be led by David Plowman and Guy Slimmon. Jan Laubjerg will head up resources, industrials and energy transition. Real assets and services will be led by Jon Connor and its private capital group will be led by James Horsburgh.
Smart reads
Squeezed out The world of private credit is becoming a difficult place for small players, as funds with less than $1bn of assets received the least amount of cash on record last year, Bloomberg reports.
Equity draught Thames Water’s all-out crisis has shown that the future of the UK water sector — which is in need of transparency over corporate governance, accounting and performance — should be listed, writes Lex.
News round-up
Thames Water faces break-up threat under new Ofwat measures (FT)
France’s football league in last-ditch talks over TV deal (FT)
Vivendi explores London listing for streaming service Canal+ (FT)
Wall Street groups to buy software maker Envestnet for $4.5bn (FT)
Li Ka-shing’s CK Infrastructure considers secondary listing in London (FT)
Daily Mail owner hits out at law change after admitting Telegraph defeat (FT)
Allen & Overy partner pay reached £2.2mn before blockbuster merger (FT)
Oasis takes larger bite of sandwich maker Greencore (FT)
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