Author: Lily Harper

One scoop to start: The Pentagon, US Treasury and state department have all concluded that Nippon Steel’s $15bn acquisition of US Steel poses no national security risks, even though President Joe Biden is expected to block the deal.And a rocketing valuation: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been valued at $350bn in a new deal to buy employees’ shares, making the rocket and satellite maker the world’s most valuable private start-up.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Property sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.UK tenant demand fell for the first time last month since the early pandemic period with estate agents forecasting the slowest pace of rent rises in almost four years, in a sign that pressures on squeezed households could be peaking. Demand for rental properties declined to minus 2 in November, down from 17 in October and the first negative reading since May 2020, according to a survey of estate agents by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The index, published by the…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Property sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Two star real estate brokers were charged in New York with sex trafficking on Wednesday in what federal authorities alleged were assaults against dozens of women over more than a decade.Brothers Tal and Oren Alexander who co-founded their own real estate company in 2022 after previously working at brokerage giant Douglas Elliman, were arrested in Miami earlier on Wednesday alongside their brother Alon, who works in private security. Allegations of sexual assault first surfaced in multiple civil lawsuits brought by a number…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.David Bonderman, the lawyer turned private equity pioneer, has died at age 82.In the early 1990s, Bonderman co-founded Texas Pacific Group and led the buyout of Continental Airlines. That deal cemented his status as a turnaround tycoon, putting put him to a class of financiers, such as Henry Kravis and Stephen Schwarzman, who were bold enough to acquire some of the biggest companies in the US.Bonderman came into the world of high-stakes private equity deals from an unconventional route after first making…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Large UK life insurers using complex financial instruments to manage business risks are to face more stringent liquidity reporting rules under proposals from the Bank of England.The BoE’s Prudential Regulation Authority, which supervises UK insurers, wants to see the biggest firms using derivatives contracts report their liquidity positions more frequently and consistently, according to proposals published on Wednesday.The move is a response to recent market stresses, such as the “dash for cash” during the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, and the so-called…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Fintech myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.UK fintech Stenn collapsed into administration after a reference to the company in a US criminal indictment about a Russian money laundering scheme prompted its lenders to begin probing potentially suspicious transactions, according to people familiar with the situation. Stenn, which specialised in invoice financing and once boasted a $900mn valuation and partnerships with international banks such as Citigroup and Barclays, had two of its UK units placed into administration last week after an application to London’s High Court from HSBC Innovation Bank, one…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The UK’s highest court is to hear an appeal brought by motor finance companies in a landmark mis-selling case that has put the country’s financial services industry on the hook for billions of pounds in compensation.A copy of the decision, seen by the Financial Times, shows the Supreme Court has granted lenders permission to challenge an earlier ruling from the Court of Appeal, which sided with consumers who complained about “secret” commissions on car loans.The case is to be heard by Lord…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nearly 90 per cent of all Japanese households have some form of life insurance, one of the highest rates in the world. A record $8.2bn overseas acquisition by Japanese insurer Nippon Life, announced on Wednesday, underscores the sector’s long-running struggle to find growth opportunities in its domestic market. Aggressive expansion outside Japan is starting to pay off.Nippon Life will acquire all of the shares it does not yet own in Bermuda-based Resolution Life Group Holdings for about $8.2bn in an all-cash deal…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Bain Capital is launching an unexpected $4.3bn counterbid for IT company Fuji Soft, reigniting Japan’s most fiercely contested takeover battle of the year with a renewed challenge to rival private equity group KKR.Senior M&A advisers in Tokyo said the move added yet another twist to a deal that has already tested the limits of what private equity is willing to do in Japan and clears the way for a proliferation of aggressive dealmaking.Bain plans to raise its offer price for Fuji Soft…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Klarna has been fined $50mn and given a reprimand by Sweden’s financial regulator for breaking anti-money laundering rules as the buy now, pay later pioneer gears up for a stock market listing.The Swedish regulator said on Wednesday that Klarna had “significant deficiencies” such as not having any assessments of how it could be used for money laundering or terrorist financing or due diligence processes for all customers in its investigation from 2021-22.“The anti-money laundering regulations must be followed. It is important to…