Good morning! Today my editor Laura Kreutzer brings us news of a $1.1 billion fund that Sands Capital raised to back maturing technology companies looking to go public.

In another story, a top Apollo Global Management executive comments on the state of private markets, including valuations of software companies for which he said "all the marks are wrong,” AnnaMaria Andriotis reports for the Journal, citing audio recordings of a discussion with UBS wealth-management clients last month.

We have those stories and more news below.

Please, read on…

Sands Capital has raised $1.1 billion for a fund to back growth investments that help pave the way for initial public offerings by maturing technology companies, WSJ Pro's Laura Kreutzer writes. The final tally for Sands Capital Global Innovation III exceeded the firm’s $1 billion target and the $780 million that it raised for a predecessor fund, which closed in 2021. Investors that have backed the fund include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and funds managed by Hamilton Lane. Some of the roughly half-dozen companies that the firm’s Global Innovation team has backed from growth stage through IPO include food delivery service provider DoorDash and cloud-based data-management company Snowflake. The firm has invested from the new fund in defense technology company Anduril as well as artificial-intelligence giants OpenAI and Anthropic.

Apollo Global Management's John Zito delivered some straight talk to UBS wealth-management clients last month, AnnaMaria Andriotis reports, citing audio recordings of the comments reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The co-president of the firm’s asset-management arm called out “arrogance” in private markets and predicted that a private-credit lender backing a generic small or midsize “Joe Software Company” might recover 20 to 40 cents on the dollar. But he blamed the media for creating a frenzy around private credit. And he detailed why he believes Apollo's private-credit business is on solid footing.

A creditors group that includes Elliott Investment Management and Silver Point Capital has presented a £9.9 billion, or $13.09 billion, revised proposal to restructure the finances of the U.K.'s Thames Water Utilities, which serves some 16 million customers in the London area. The latest plan would deliver £3.35 billion of new equity and up to £6.55 billion in new debt financing. The latest proposal also calls for debt write-offs.

Private-equity firms including Advent International, Bain Capital, Brookfield Asset Management and TPG are in discussions with ChatGPT developer OpenAI about a $10 billion deal that would see the group led by TPG commit $4 billion to a joint venture with the artificial-intelligence company, Reuters reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The arrangement is meant to provide early access to OpenAI technology to the firms and their portfolio holdings. Rival Anthropic is holding similar talks with other PE firms, Reuters said.

LeapFrog Investments led a $95 million growth commitment to decarbonization company ReNew Energy Global in India. LeapFrog supplied $50 million of the fresh capital with co-investors Carlyle Group and Emerging Market Climate Action Fund contributing the rest. Carlyle is investing through its AlpInvest unit.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe's $3.9 billion management buyout of long-term acute-care and post-acute care provider Select Medical expects to rely on about $1 billion in added debt to support the deal that includes Robert Ortenzio, the chain's chairman and co-founder, according to S&P Global Ratings and Moody's Ratings. The credit evaluators both downgraded Select's debt, with S&P putting it at B+ and Moody's at B1. S&P gave it a negative outlook, saying the cost of the added leverage would weaken its free-cash flow prospects. Moody's gave the credit a stable outlook.

Black Bay Partners is backing Altara with a growth investment. The company's founder, Floyd Hammond, is also a member of Black Bay's strategic advisory board. Altara provides oil and water treatment services to producers.

StepStone Group joined other investors including Fidelity Management & Research in a $143 million growth investment backing computer cooling technology designer Frore Systems and led by MVP Ventures. The deal valued the Silicon Valley company at about $1.64 billion.

A blank check company led by Annex Capital Management founder Alexander Coleman is combining with digital asset wealth-management business Abra Financial Holdings in a deal that will give Abra a public listing at a $750 million premoney equity value. Current Abra investors include Adams Street Partners and Pantera Capital. Coleman is chief executive of New Providence Acquisition Corp. III, which raised about $300 million in May through an initial public offering. Adams Street and Pantera have both backed Abra since 2021, according to the firm's website.

Technology investor TA Associates in Boston and specialist firm GoldState Music are backing music technology and services company Too Lost with a strategic investment while Pinnacle Financial Partners is supplying credit to the business. Too Lost markets its distribution, management and monetization services to independent artists and recording labels, with over 450,000 clients.

Nordic Capital is acquiring a majority interest in trade surveillance technology provider TradingHub, while existing investor Summit Partners is retaining a minority stake along with TradingHub co-founder Neil Walker.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

General Atlantic-backed digital payments company PhonePe is putting off a planned initial public offering of shares in India, according to multiple local media reports citing a company statement Monday. The company is pausing the process because of global geopolitical tensions and market volatility. New York-based General Atlantic first invested in the business in early 2023 at a $12 billion valuation.

Partners Group's final exit from Swiss skincare company Galderma put the finishing touches on realizations totaling 1.6 billion francs, or about $2.02 billion, from the firm's initial investment of over 400 million francs in 2019 alongside fellow buyout firm EQT AB in Stockholm, according to an emailed news release. The Swiss firm made an additional investment in 2023 and Galderma went public in 2024, when Partners began exiting.

Commodity-focused Moorstone so far has raised more than $625 million for its first fund as an independent investment firm, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports, citing a person familiar with the matter. New York-based Moorstone, which backs businesses across commodity supply chains, spun out of credit investor Anchorage Capital Advisors early this year. Moorstone manages more than $3 billion in assets and expects to wrap up the new fund within the next few months at its $1 billion hard cap, the person said.

Multistrategy private-markets investor Schroders Capital has collected $147.2 million so far for its Schroders Capital Private Equity Global Innovation XII fund, after recording its first commitment in February, a U.S. securities filing shows. The filing indicates that the firm has an $800 million target for the pool. The fund's predecessor met its $600 million goal last year, according to industry researcher PitchBook.

Triton Partners has closed on €5.5 billion, or $6.28 billion, for its sixth midmarket flagship fund and its largest overall pool ever collected. The European firm focuses on investing in the industrial technology, business services and healthcare sectors through the fund and so far has committed €900 million to three major deals.

Fortress Investment Group has appointed Elizabeth Burton as chief strategist, a newly created role. Based in New York, she reports to Drew McKnight and Jack Neumark, the multistrategy firm's co-chief executives. She joins from the asset-management arm of Goldman Sachs.

The chapter 11 bankruptcy trial for Clayton, Dubilier & Rice-backed label maker Multi-Color will remain in Trenton, N.J., Alicia McElhaney reports for WSJ Pro, citing a judge's ruling Monday. The decision favored Multi-Color's position over objections from a group of lenders to the company.

Recent events have brought home the opacity of private markets to many investors unaccustomed to the ways of fund managers and their business development company arms, as the Journal's Jonathan Weill discovers. Looking into the $42 billion Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund, a BDC that recently stuck with shareholder withdrawal limits, Weil delved into the credit provider's recent public financial statements to find layer after layer of impenetrable details. The filings show how difficult it can be for even sophisticated investors to understand what they own.

Susquehanna Private Equity Investments-backed BlockFills, a Chicago-based crypto lending and trading business for institutional investors, entered chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday under the name Reliz, listing over $110 million in unsecured claims, court records show. The company said the voluntary court filing in Delaware offered the best way to preserve the value of the company while maximizing recoveries for stakeholders. The reorganization came about a month after the company suspended client deposits and withdrawals, citing recent market and financial conditions and the need to protect clients and the business. Vicky Ge Huang reported for the Journal at the time that the suspension came on the heels of plunging cryptocurrency values.

German private-equity manager Mutares in Munich scored a more than sixfold jump in consolidated adjusted pre-tax earnings to €733.5 million for the past fiscal year as revenue rose by a far more modest 23% to €6.5 billion, or $7.48 billion. The firm cited the gain from a bargain purchase as well as exit deals.

Hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management sees the U.S. private-equity industry as "in the early innings of a capital structure reset," citing elevated borrowing, aging holdings and delayed restructurings that will contribute to a dislocation of buyout shops. The $38 billion firm, which takes positions that stand to benefit from such events, cited prolonged holding periods and underperformance of many fund assets.

Two business development companies affiliated with Monroe Capital LLC in Chicago have received shareholder votes approving their planned combination. Monroe Capital Corp. and Horizon Technology Finance Corp. are combining, but only after Monroe Capital Corp. sells nearly all of its assets to a third Monroe affiliated BDC, Monroe Capital Income Plus Corp. The merger follows a tough year for both merger participants. Monroe Capital Corp. reported a roughly 27% drop to about $334.9 million in the fair value of its investments at the end of last year from a year earlier, while net assets declined about 13% to $166.5 million, or $7.68 a share. Horizon net assets declined about 5.3% last year to $318.5 million, or $6.98 a share at the end of December. The fair value of its investments fell 7.3% to about $647.2 million. By comparison, Monroe Capital Income Plus reported a 43% rise in the fair value of its investments last year to about $5.51 billion, while net assets rose 37% to $2.83 billion, or $9.87 a share.

Judge Margaret Ryan has resigned as the Securities and Exchange Commission's top enforcer of fraud and securities law violations, handing the job temporarily to Sam Waldon, the SEC's principal deputy director of the division of enforcement. Ryan, who took on the job last year, was replaced effective Monday. A permanent replacement is being sought, according to the agency.

Hellman & Friedman-backed registered investment adviser Edelman Financial Engines is adopting an employee ownership plan with the distribution of $175 million in equity to its financial planners and the later offer of a co-investment opportunity. The move aims to align the interests of the planners with their employer so that both benefit from the value they create. Hellman & Friedman has been an investor in the business since 2015.

Send us your tips, suggestions and feedback. Write to:

Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.