Three major deals to have on your radar, post July 4th

Good morning, Term Sheet readers. I hope that those of you stateside have had a relaxing long weekend—though news that has come out in recent hours suggest many of you have been in full throttle.

Here are three deals to start your day off with:

Uber buys food-delivery peer Postmates for $2.65 billion in stock: Uber’s deal to create the largest food-delivery company in the U.S. By acquiring rival Grubhub had disintegrated. Now, roughly a month later, Uber is acquiring a smaller peer as companies fight to consolidate the space: Postmates. “In our opinion, Uber finds itself with its back against the wall on the consolidation theme as the Grubhub deal fell apart,” writes Dan Ives over at Wedbush in an analyst note. By his estimate, the deal would give the combined duo about a third of the market share—but still below that of leader DoorDash. The deal represents a 10% uptick to Postmates’ last private round of funding, which valued it at $2.4 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway finds its first (pandemic) crisis-era deal: While other investors jumped in as markets dove early in the pandemic, the Oracle of Omaha, who has made many of his best bets in the middle of crises, stayed away. “We haven’t seen anything that is attractive,” said Warren Buffett in early May. Then markets rebounded and his skeptics wondered if the storied dealmaker would be able to find his next bet. It seems like Buffett has found his next investment in the struggling natural gas sector: Berkshire has agreed to acquire the natural gas pipeline and storage assets of Dominion Energy for about $9.7 billion ($5.7 billion of that being through the assumption of debt).

The United Arab Emirates is buying cows: The pandemic has reinvigorated conversations around reshoring global supply chains. One fascinating example: In a bid to boost food security, the United Arab Emirates is importing 4,500 dairy cows from Uruguay. With climates that make farming difficult, the UAE and its neighbor are heavily dependent on imports for food supplies. 

Now its government has made several moves to ensure “uninterrupted  access to supplies” as the coronavirus plays putty with global trade, per Bloomberg. Read more.

Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: [email protected]

VENTURES DEALS

- KK Guan, a Chinese online-to-offline new retail business, raised 1 billion yuan ($142 million) in Series E funding, valuing it at over $1 billion. CMC Capital Group led the round. Read more.

- Instacart, the grocery delivery company, raised an additional $100 million in funding. T. Rowe Price led the round. Read more.

- FineEx, a Chinese warehousing and distribution services platform, raised 500 million yuan ($71 million) in Series D funding. Baidu Capital led the round. Read more.

- Social Bella, an Indonesian beauty startup, raised $58 million in Series E funding from existing investors Temasek, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures. 

- Payfazz, an Indonesia-based provider of financial and payment services, raised $53 million in Series B funding. B Capital Group and Insignia Ventures Partners led the round and were joined by investors including Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator, ACE & Company, Quiet Capital, and BRI Ventures. Read more.

- Carbon Clean Solutions Limited, a U.K.-based a carbon dioxide capture and separation tech maker, raised $22 million in Series B funding. Equinor Ventures and ICOS Capital led the round.

- Mission Therapeutics, a U.K.-based drug discovery and development company, raised $15 million (£12 million). Pfizer Ventures led the round.

- FraudScope, an Atlanta, Ga.-based platform for health plans to address fraud, waste, and abuse, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Investors include QED Investors, Brewer Lane Ventures, and the GRA Venture Fund as well as existing investors Spider Capital, Mosley Ventures, and TechSquare Labs. Read more.

-  Vendia, a San Francisco, Calif.-based multicloud serverless platform, raised $5.1 million in seed funding. Neotribe’s Swaroop ‘Kittu’ Kolluri led the round and was joined by investors including Correlation Ventures, WestWave Capital, HWVP, Firebolt Ventures, Floodgate, and FuturePerfect Ventures. Read more.

- e-peas, a Belgian energy harvesting solutions, raised $9 million (€8 million) in funding. Partech and Airbus Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including KBC Focus Fund, W.IN.G, Noshaq Ventures, LeanSquare, Nivelinvest, and Vives.

- Transcelestial, a Singapore-based startup seeking to developer of wireless laser communications for telecoms and enterprises, raised $9.8 million in Series A funding. Investors include Partech.

- Basemark, a Helsinki-based software company specialising in graphics and autonomous driving vehicle software, raised €7 million in funding. ETF Partners led the round.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- CORE Industrial Partners invested in Arizona Natural Resources, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based provider of formulation and contract manufacturing solutions for personal care products with an expertise in haircare and skincare. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

- Foam Fabricators, a portfolio company of Compass Diversified (NYSE: CODI), acquired Polyfoam Corporation, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of protective and cold chain packaging solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

- Unifrax, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, acquired Rex Materials Group, a Howell, Mich.-based manufacturer of engineered thermal components. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

- MiMedx Group, Inc. (OTC PINK: MDXG), a Marietta, Ga.-based provider  wound care and an emerging therapeutic biologics, raised $150 million private equity and debt financing. The equity financing (pursuant to a Securities Purchase Agreement) came from EW Healthcare Partners and Hayfin Capital Management.  

- EQT again offered to acquire Metlifecare, a New Zealand-based retirement village operator, for NZ$1.28 billion ($837 billion), a lower price compared to before it expressed plans to terminate the deal. Read more.

- KKR agreed to acquire a controlling stake in J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (NSE: JBCHEPHARM), an Indian pharmaceutical company specializing in branded formulations for roughly $500 million for a 54% stake. KKR also plans to make an open offer for another 26% of the company. 

- The Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in Memsource, a Prague-based AI-powered software maker automating translations. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

- Affiliates of Paceline Equity Partners acquired R.E.L.A.M., Inc., a Cleveland, Oh.-based lessor of railroad maintenance equipment. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

OTHERS

- Pine Labs, the Indian payments company backed by Sequoia Capital and Mastercard, weighing an acquisition of Wirecard AG’s businesses in Southeast Asia and India, per Bloomberg. Read more.

- Sony Corp. Is weighing a bid for Leyou Technologies Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed gaming firm. Leyou has also received interest from Zhejiang Century Huatong Group Co. Read more.

- Jio Platforms, the Indian telecom giant, raised $255 million from Intel Corp’s investment arm. The 0.39% stake gives Jio Platforms a valuation of about $69 billion.

- Britain and India’s Bharti Global agreed to acquire OneWeb, the bankrupt satellite operator backed by SoftBank, for $1 billion. Read more.

BREAKUPS, HANGUPS, AND BANKRUPTCIES

- Casual Dining Group, the U.K.-based dining group behind the Café Rouge and Bella Italia chains, has gone into administration. KKR backs the group. Read more.

IPOs

- Royole Corp., a Chinese flexible display maker, is reportedly putting its potential $1 billion U.S. Listing on hold and is weighing a listing in China instead. Read more.

- Smoore International, a Chinese e-cigarette and vape manufacturer, raised $918 million in a Hong Kong IPO. Read more.

- Hangzhou Wahaha Group, a Chinese beverage maker, is weighing an initial public offering that could raise more than $1 billion. Read more.

- Thrive Causemetics, the vegan beauty startup, is reportedly working with an adviser to explore options including a sale or public listing, per Bloomberg citing sources. Read more.

- Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, a Philippine provider of fixed broadband services, plans to raise as much as $725 million in what could be the largest IPO in the country. Read more.

- Nahdi Medical Co, Saudi Arabia’s largest pharmacy retail chain, is weighing an IPO. Read more.

EXITS

- BillDesk, an Indian domestic payments startup, is seeking to sell itself for $2.5 billion. General Atlantic is its largest shareholder. Read more.

- Paytm agreed to acquire Raheja QBE, an insurance provider, for $76 million. Prism Johnson and QBE Australia backed Raheja the firm.

- EQT is weighing a sale of Synagro Technologies, a Baltimore, Md.-based waste management provider, for about $500 million, per Bloomberg. Read more.

- Investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Montagu acquired Galileo Global Education, a Paris-based higher education services provider, from Providence Equity Partners. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

PEOPLE

- Torsten Slok is joining Apollo Global Management. Slok was previously chief economist at Deutsche Bank AG.