JP Morgan names new Germany head
Cracking the Vault: Your daily roundup on all things finance
Cracking the Vault is your daily news roundup with a focus on Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
JP Morgan appointing new German and Austrian business lead; Flaconi launching in Switzerland; The Exploration Company marking European space travel milestone; and Rewe opening AI-controlled supermarket.
Let’s jump in!
Headline recap
JP Morgan appointed former Goldman Sachs banker Alexander Mayer as new head of German and Austrian business (REU)
German online perfume giant Flaconi launches in Switzerland (HZ)
The Franco-German start-up The Exploration Company wins the Esa tender - a historical moment in European space travel (HB)
Rewe opens AI-controlled supermarket (T3N)
Surging German wage growth casts doubt on timing of ECB rate cuts (FT)
Earnings
Ypsomed makes investors rejoice (FuW)
Swiss Life made a solid start to the 2024 financial year and the group is back on track (FuW)
Landis+Gyr first half 2023 earnings: EPS beats expectations (YHO)
HORNBACH Group delivers solid performance in 2023/24 and is confident about FY 2024/25 due to strong spring season (EQS)
Upcoming:
Today: CTS Eventim
Transaction update
M&A
Italian Fabrick acquires open banking subsidiary Finapi from Schufa (FM)
Pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA intends to acquire US company Mirus Bio for $600m (MM)
DiHAG Integrated Foundry Group acquired insolvent automotive supplier Eisenwerk Hasenclever & Sohn (WiWo)
Austrian Alfies acquires Zurich-based flash delivery service Stash (ST)
IPO
Springer Nature, the BC Partners-backed academic publisher, added banks for a renewed listing attempt with a market value of as much as €7bn (BBG)
Flix hesitates with its billion-euro IPO (HB)
Venture capital
German artificial intelligence (AI)-driven translation startup DeepL was valued at $2 billion in a $300m-round, led by investor Index Ventures (REU)
Captain T Cell secures a seed financing round of €8.5m with participation of i&i Biotech, Brandenburg Kapital and HIL-INVENT (MAJ)
DAAV, a manufacturer of AI-enabled mobility devices, completes first funding round of CHF1m, let by Spicehaus Partners (ST)
WeatherXM, a Zug-based contributor to the WeatherXM Network, raised $7.7m in Series A funding, led by Lightspeed Faction (FS)
Limula, a Swiss developer of cell therapy manufacturing tech, raised $6.8m in seed funding, led by LifeX Ventures (VLS)
Bankruptcies
Austrian property tycoon Benko makes rare appearance before lawmakers (REU)
CEO of Berlin insurance start-up Wefox suspected of threatening investors with insolvency in order to force a potential sale (BI)
Podcast picks
Why auditors are missing red flags (Behind the Money)
The most powerful media boss you’ve never heard of (Big Take)