Axios Pro Rata: Private equity ports

America dodged a sledgehammer last night, when striking stevedores reached a tentative agreement to return to work.

The big picture: It sounds like the White House successfully cajoled the employers into boosting their wage offer, up to a reported 62% raise over six years, but the two sides couldn't come to terms on the future of port automation and semi-automation.

• Negotiations will continue while workers are on the dock, with the master agreement extended until Jan. 15, 2025 (when it could become the next president's problem).

Behind the scenes: Private equity wasn't directly at the table, but it was represented.

• Most U.S. ports are controlled by quasi-public entities, like port authorities, while the actual cargo terminals are usually owned by private companies.
• The largest and oldest of those in the U.S. is Carrix, the parent company of SSA Marine, which is controlled by Blackstone.
• Another major marine terminal owner and operator is Maher, which is owned by Australian investment firm Macquarie.

Why it matters: Private equity's involvement means that the union doesn't really know how much money many of the employers make, despite claiming to know.

• Carrix, for example, hasn't reported its financials since Blackstone's buyout in 2021.
• Moreover, many of the other relevant marine companies are closely held European groups that also keep their revenue and profit data secret.

Zoom in: Nonetheless, union boss Harold Daggett has insisted that the marine companies are "greedy bastards" that earn "hundreds of billions of dollars."

• For example, Daggett recently claimed that Italian cargo shipper MSC "made three times the money of Amazon." But that was cherry-picked data based on leaked MSC financials for the one year in nearly a decade that Amazon recorded a net loss. In general, Amazon's top and bottom lines are much higher.
• Then again, Daggett also said in that interview that "Companies that work in the maritime business come from overseas — not only of them belong to America." That would come as a surprise to Seattle-based Carrix.
• A spokesman for the International Longshoreman's Association didn't respond to an interview request about employer profits.

The bottom line: Private equity has permeated all parts of America's economy, including its ports. That makes it much more complicated to suss out who's in the right when vital work comes to a halt.

Seven & i Holdings (Tokyo: 3382), the owner of 7-Eleven, is weighing a sale of shares in its supermarket unit ahead of listing the business, according to Reuters.

Why it's the BFD: The Japanese convenience store giant is under activist pressure to improve earnings, and seems to be throwing its Slurpees against the wall to see what sticks.

• The supermarket news comes one day after a report that Seven & i may seek buyers for part of its banking business, and all of this comes after it rejected a takeover approach from Circle-K owner Alimentation Couche-Tard.

The bottom line: "The supermarket business includes the Ito-Yokado chain, one of Japan's best-known grocery store businesses. ... Selling down some of its stake would allow Seven & i to bring in a partner that could accelerate its overhaul of the unit [and] free up its resources to better focus on its core convenience store unit." — Ritsuko Shimizu, Reuters

• Zepz (fka WorldRemit), a London-based money transfer service, raised $267m. Accel led, and was joined by IFC, Leapfrog, TCV, and Coller Capital. axios.link/3TPT75Z

• Voyage AI, a Palo Alto, Calif., developer of RAG tools to reduce AI hallucination, raised $20m in Series A funding. CRV led, and was joined by Wing VC, Conviction, Snowflake, Databricks, Pear VC, Tectonic Ventures, and Fusion Fund. axios.link/3NdlXtw

• AirOps, an SF-based AI workflow platform, raised $15.5m in Series A funding. Unusual VC led, and was joined by Wing VC, Founder Collective, XFund, and Alt Capital. airops.com

• Valdera, an SF-based sourcing platform for chemicals and raw materials, raised $15m in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, per Axios Pro. axios.link/3Bwxwth

• Barte, a Brazilian payments startup, raised $14.3m led by AlleyCorp. axios.link/3YcgEzN

• Voliro, a Swiss aerial mobile robotics startup, raised $12m in Series A equity and debt funding led by Cherry Ventures. axios.link/3XSjCZT

• Paren, an SF-based electric mobility data platform, raised $3m in first-round funding. Base10 Partners led, and was joined by Founders Network Fund and Luc Vincent. paren.app

🚑 Empathy Health Technologies, a digital health app focused on addiction recovery, raised $2.8m in seed funding from HealthX Ventures, Nina Capital, Ikigai Growth Partners, 46 Ventures, The Venture Center, High Street Equity Partners, and Suncoast Ventures. sobersidekick.com

• Connected Data, a British debt management startup, raised £2.2m led by Maven Capital Partners. axios.link/4dxb4NX

🚑 Marlow, a Toronto-based menstrual and sexual health startup, raised US$1.9m from Love x Money Ventures, and Dream Ventures. axios.link/47TTXEO

🚑 Flora Fertility, a Canadian insurtech, raised C$1.5m in pre-seed funding. Highline Beta led, and was joined by Cartography Capital and Everywhere Ventures. heyflora.co

• Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is in talks to invest in Coreweave, a Roseland, N.J.-based cloud computing platform, at a $23b valuation, per Bloomberg. Coreweave was last valued by VCs at $19b. axios.link/3Yl6QVr

An unprecedented $1.2 trillion in private equity dry powder coupled with macro drivers is causing a robust ripple effect of M&A and financing opportunities.

An expert take: Goldman Sachs' whitepaper dives into how private equity activity is catalyzing opportunity this year.

Learn more.

• Apollo Global Management is in talks to acquire Barnes Group (NYSE: B), a Bristol, Conn., maker of aerospace components with a $2b market cap, per Reuters. axios.link/4elHWdH

• Blue Owl Capital is in talks to buy IPI Partners, a Chicago investment firm focused on digital infrastructure like data centers, per Bloomberg. A deal could be valued at around $1b. axios.link/3N9usG7

🏈 The NFL is discussing the future of its media properties, including NFL Media and the NFL Network, with Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4erxXUf

• Temasek is in talks to buy a 10-15% stake in Indian snackmaker Haldiram Snacks at around an $11b valuation, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3XRjw4L

• Springer Nature, a German academic publisher owned by BC Partners, raised €522m in its Frankfurt IPO and then saw shares rise nearly 10%. axios.link/47SHBwx

• Willow Lane Acquisition, a consumer goods SPAC led by blank-check vet Luke Weil, filed for a $110m IPO. axios.link/3zyfAOo

• MrBeast acquired Vouch, a hiring platform for creators that had raised $4m in seed funding from Seven Seven Six, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Shrug Capital. axios.link/4dx4Mho

• Watches of Switzerland Group agreed to buy Hodinkee, a New York-based wristwatch enthusiast site that had raised $46m from TCG, LVMH, True Ventures, Future Shape, GV, Tom Brady, and John Mayer. axios.link/3Netecy

• Elis (Paris: ELIS), a uniform and linen cleaning services company, made an informal takeover offer for Wilmington, Mass.-based peer UniFirst (NYSE: UNF), just weeks after making a preliminary takeover approach for Vestis (NYSE: VSTS), per Bloomberg. axios.link/3BH3BhR

⚡ Helix Energy Solutions (NYSE: HLX), a Houston offshore drilling services firm valued at around $1.8b, is exploring a possible sale, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3Nbj2S3

• SingleStore, an SF-based enterprise database company valued by VCs at $1.32b, acquired BryteFlow, an Australian enterprise data delivery company. axios.link/3BxguLD

• Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) is in talks with bondholders about filing for bankruptcy, months after U.S. antitrust regulators successfully blocked its takeover by JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU), per the WSJ.

• Blackstone plans to seek more than $10b for its third Asia buyout fund, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4eLfNfV

• GHK Capital Partners, a PE firm focused on North American midmarket industrial companies, raised $870m for its second fund. axios.link/3Y8j43w

• Julie Furber and Tina Pham joined Igneo Infrastructure Partners as a managing director and senior director, respectively. Furber previously was CEO of Sensience, while Pham was at Wilshire. igneoip.com

The U.S. economy added 254k jobs in September, crushing expectations, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%. Go deeper.

Even with a more constructive IPO market, issuers are considering the opportunities and potential upsides of staying private longer.

Here's what else: The mainstreaming of secondaries has provided a dynamic set of liquidity alternatives for companies in pre-IPO mode.

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