The Main Edition - Exits & Deep Reads

Will UK neobanks Monzo and Starling go public this year? (TWIF 3/5)

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Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

Investment banks are starting to approach UK neobank Monzo over a potential IPO.
Reverence Acquisition, a blank-check company chasing a fintech acquisition, withdrew its $300 million IPO.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Indian payments and API provider Cashfree Payments announced its acquisition of one-click checkout provider Zecpe.
Wealth management infrastructure provider BetaNXT will acquire investor communications firm Mediant Communications.
Quantexa, a risk data provider, will acquire Irish NLP firm Aylien.
Noventiq, a cybersecurity firm focused on financial services, finished its acquisition of Saga Group, a comparable firm operating in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

Card network Visa is considering an acquisition of Fidelity Information Services, the embattled core provider that recently spun out Worldpay, at a significant premium to its $64 share price - in the $85 to $105 range (which would value it as high as $60 billion).
Spain's Banco Sabadell sold an 80% stake in its payments unit Paycomet to Italy’s Nexi for €280 million and signed a 10-year exclusive distribution deal with the firm.
Spanish multinational insurance firm MAPFRE bought a majority stake in French boutique fund manager La Financière Responsable.
Asset manager BlackRock sold its roboadvisor business, FutureAdvisor, to Ritholtz Wealth Management.
Private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice entered an agreement to purchase wealth management conglomerate FOCUS for over $7 billion.
Private equity firm Ares Management will acquire a minority stake in fixed-income manager BlueCove.
Goldman Sachs is looking to sell its lending unit Greensky, which it acquired in 2021 for $2.24 billion.
Australian private equity firm Macquarie is looking into a £5 billion bid for fund manager and insurer M&G.
The US FTC is looking to block the proposed $13 billion takeover of mortgage firm Black Knight by exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange.
European exchange operator Euronext pulled its $5.8 billion offer to buy fund distribution firm Allfunds.