Trump says Tehran handed US a mystery Hormuz ‘prize’

Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Iran war: “They’ve agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon,” US President Donald Trump told reporters from the Oval Office, going further to declare “this war has been won” and claiming Iranian negotiators had given the US a “very significant prize” related to the Strait of Hormuz. Trump described the gift as “worth a tremendous amount of money” but declined to provide further detail. He said Iran wanted to make a deal “so badly, you have no idea.“ His comments came a day after Iranian officials denied any contact with the US had taken place, calling claims of talks ‘fake news’. On the ground, a direct hit on a Tel Aviv residential street from a 100-kilogram warhead injured six people and damaged at least three buildings. An Iranian missile struck Bahrain’s Hamala base, killing a Moroccan contractor working for UAE armed forces and injuring over a dozen others, with four in critical condition, the BBC reported. Brent crude climbed back above USD100, with Wall Street volatile throughout the session. The S&P 500 was little changed in late New York trading, having earlier fallen almost 1% after reports emerged that the Pentagon prepared to deploy roughly 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division. Then came a recovery after Trump’s remarks at the Oval Office about negotiations. The Nasdaq was down 0.47%. Earlier, Iran named hardline former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr to replace security chief Ali Larijani, killed in an Israeli strike last week.(Bloomberg)(Reuters)(BBC)(WSJ)(NYT)

2.

Big dough for Doohly: Canva acquired Melbourne-based digital out-of-home advertising startup Doohly for $30 million as the Australian design software giant accelerates its push into the broader marketing technology stack. The deal, which has not yet been publicly announced, is the latest in a rapid sequence of acquisitions by the $66 billion design unicorn, which has been systematically buying its way across the creative and marketing workflow. The deal comes on the heels of Canva’s acquisition of UK-based professional motion and animation software company Cavalry and US-based AI creative content optimisation platform MangoAI. Doohly slots into that picture as the physical-world distribution layer and marks the first time Canva has moved into the out-of-home advertising space. A Canva spokesperson confirmed the acquisition when contacted by Capital Brief and said it formed part of its strategy to move beyond design to powering the “entire marketing and content lifecycle, from ideation and creation to deployment, measurement, and optimisation.” (Capital Brief)

3.

Credit blocked: Two of the biggest names in private credit blocked investors from getting even half the money they wanted out of their funds amid mounting strain in the USD1.8 trillion ($2.58 trillion) market. Bloomberg reported the USD10.7 billion Ares Strategic Income Fund limited withdrawals to 5% of shares after clients sought to redeem 11.6%, according to a letter to shareholders. That came after the USD15.1 billion Apollo Debt Solutions fund yesterday said it was capping redemptions at the same level after requests to pull 11.2%. Both firms said they would offer withdrawals of up to 5% again next quarter. Blackstone and BlackRock faced similar, although smaller, redemption requests earlier this month. The world’s largest alternative asset managers, which for years have fuelled the private credit boom, particularly among retail investors, are now grappling with investors growing skittish about the industry’s lending practices and exposure to businesses vulnerable to AI. The withdrawal news sent shares in Ares, Apollo, Blackstone and KKR all down more than 2% in intraday trading, wiping out USD10.2 billion in combined market capitalisation at one point. (Bloomberg)(Capital Brief)

4.

Collar capital: New Zealand agtech startup Halter completed a new funding doubling its valuation to USD2 billion ($2.9 billion), raising USD220 million in Series E financing led by billionaire Peter Thiel’s VC firm Founders Fund. The company said in the statement the round included Blackbird, DCVC, Bond, Bessemer, NewView, Ubiquity, Promus and Icehouse Ventures. The capital will be used to “support” farmers already using Halter and expand further in the US, New Zealand and Australia, with plans to enter Ireland and the UK later this year. Halter’s previous funding round last June raised USD100 million at a roughly USD1 billion valuation. The company said it serves more than 2000 farmers and ranchers across those markets and has sold one million solar-powered collars. “Agriculture is a multi-trillion-dollar industry that feeds the world, yet remains one of the least digitized sectors on earth,” said Founders Fund partner Amin Mirzadegan. “Halter is changing that by bringing software, sensors, and AI directly into livestock operations in a way that ranchers actually adopt.”(Capital Brief)(Media release)

5.

Falling opportunity: Japan’s second-largest lender, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, is working on plans to possibly take over Jefferies, the Financial Times reported. SMFG, which owns a 20% stake in the bank, has tasked a small team with ensuring it is ready to act if Jefferies’ falling share price presents an opportunity. Any move is not imminent, the sources said, and would need to overcome significant barriers including regulatory obstacles and a culture gap. The reports come as Jefferies shares have fallen about 40% since September amid questions about its exposure to collapsed auto-parts group First Brands and wider underwriting standards. Taking control of Jefferies is key to SMFG’s strategy to join the ranks of the world’s top investment banks, senior figures told the FT. The bank hopes to emulate rival MUFG’s partnership with Morgan Stanley, which gave the Japanese megabank a leading position in the Tokyo market and access to global fundraising and deal flow. Senior bankers, however, admitted the culture clash between the conservative Japanese institution and the hard-charging investment bank would be challenging. SMFG said Jefferies was an important partner and declined to comment on hypothetical assumptions or rumours. Jefferies declined to comment. (FT)

6.

Alternative agenda: Federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will tell the Business Council of Australia (BCA) today that Australia faces a “lost decade of productivity under Labor”, and will outline ambitions to mitigate ‘over-regulation’, curb inflation and bring energy prices down. Taylor will argue that since the Albanese government came to power in 2022 it has overseen “the worst collapse in living standards in the developed world” and that the 7.5% GDP growth in real terms since then has been undermined by a 7.5% increase in the population. “GDP per hour worked — otherwise known as productivity — has, in fact, fallen 4.7%,” he will say. When taking the productivity decline from 2022 out to 2032, this means Australians would face a loss in national income per capita of $35,000 collectively over that period. To address the prospect of declining living standards, Taylor will call for a tilt “in favour of a free-enterprise economy”, with income tax, company tax and payroll tax reforms, as well as “a speed limit on spending by restoring the tax-to-GDP cap”. (Capital Brief)

7.

Automation nation: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is developing AI agents to automate functions in its sales, business development and other divisions where it has recently cut jobs, according to sources cited by The Information. One such agent helps sales employees offer customers fast responses to technical questions, handling some of the workload of thousands of AWS technical specialists. Technical specialists were included in Amazon job cuts announced in January this year, a source said. An AWS spokesperson confirmed the company is developing an agent which “aggregates specialist knowledge from across AWS,” enabling those employees to “focus on the most complex, high-value customer challenges,” The Information reported. Former AWS employees told the masthead that recent efforts to automate appear to be targeting the handling of work by groups in the company hit by the recent layoffs. AWS spokespeople said the company isn’t trying to replace workers with AI but wants to relieve them of repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-level work. (The Information)(Capital Brief)

8.

Epic cuts: Epic Games is cutting more than 1,000 jobs following a drop in engagement for Fortnite, the latest layoffs in a video game industry where growth has stalled amid economic uncertainty. Chief executive Tim Sweeney said in a note to employees on Tuesday the company was “spending significantly more than we’re making" and had to make major cuts to keep the company funded. The layoffs are part of a plan that includes over USD500 million ($719.4 million) in identified cost savings including contracting, marketing and closing open roles. Sweeney said the cuts were unrelated to AI. It is Epic’s second major round of layoffs in three years, following the cut of about 830 jobs in September 2023. Sweeney said market conditions were “the most extreme” since the early days of the company, founded in 1991. Earlier this month, Epic raised the prices of Fortnite’s in-game currency, citing higher costs to run the game. Fortnite still topped US monthly active player charts on PlayStation and Xbox last month, but average playtime fell sharply, Circana senior director Mat Piscatella said. (Epic Games)