Good morning. Monday evening, a lone shooter killed four people at a Midtown office building, including an executive from financial firm Blackstone, before turning the gun on himself, our Wall Street Journal colleagues report. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the gunman was Shane Tamura, 27. 

We will continue to bring you more details on this unfolding story as they emerge.

Meanwhile, in today's newsletter, private-equity firms have a lot of work to do devising fee structures for their planned new funds for the 401(k) market, I report for WSJ Pro. The challenges could eventually lead to fee compression, something the buyout industry has long managed to resist.

Next, Marc Vartabedian of WSJ Pro Venture Capital reports that firms including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are backing law-enforcement startups and other companies that rely on government revenue.

Now onto the news...

Private equity’s push into the 401(k) market could bring changes to the industry’s highly profitable fee model, Chris Cumming reports for WSJ Pro. Despite recent announcements by firms including Blackstone and Blue Owl that they intend to launch products designed for 401(k) plans, the industry has yet to figure out how to adapt private-equity fees to the requirements of U.S. retirement plans. Industry sources say the development could eventually lead to fee compression.

Venture capitalists have made a flurry of bets on public-safety and law-enforcement technology startups this year, the latest sign of a shifting appetite toward companies that rely on government revenue, WSJ Pro Venture Capital’s Marc Vartabedian writes. Venture firms, including industry leaders Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, have invested in tech ranging from artificial-intelligence voice chatbots that handle nonemergency 911 calls to analytics software that helps detectives solve cold cases. The deals propelled the sector’s overall U.S. funding haul to $990 million this year through July 9, nearly double the amount raised for all of last year, according to data firm Crunchbase.

European private-equity firms Permira and Nordic Capital have agreed to acquire publicly traded Bavarian Nordic for 19 billion Danish kroner, or around $2.99 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the deal, accepting shareholders of the Danish vaccine maker will get 233 kroner in cash for each share held. The price is a 21% premium to Bavarian Nordic’s closing price of 192.50 kroner on July 23, the day before the company confirmed that it was in talks with the consortium over a possible takeover.

Just over a month ago, L.A.B. Golf was a niche company that sold bizarre-looking putters. Then millions of golf fans watched J.J. Spaun use one to sink a 64-footer and win the U.S. Open. And now private equity has scooped up L.A.B., the Journal writes. L Catterton, the private-equity firm backed by luxury-goods giant LVMH, has bought a majority stake in L.A.B. Golf at a valuation of over $200 million, people familiar with the matter said.

Bristol Myers Squibb and Bain Capital are forming a new biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for autoimmune diseases, Nicholas G. Miller writes for the Journal. The new company will be created with $300 million in financing led by Bain Capital, including funds from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Brookfield Asset Management and Canadian private-equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of First National Financial Corp., excluding rollover shares, for $48 each. The deal will give the investment firms a roughly 62% ownership interest in the Canadian commercial and residential mortgage underwriter.

Infrastructure and real-assets firm Stonepeak is launching a new company to invest in land for renewable-energy projects, called JouleTerra, which will acquire and lease land to energy operators. The new company will initially comprise Stonepeak investments Electric Land, which acquires power-grid-connected land in Europe, and Generia Land, which has thousands of hectares of land primarily in Spain and Italy, and which Stonepeak co-owns with Spanish renewables company Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente.

TA Associates in Boston invested in HealthMark Group, a company that makes software for healthcare providers to outsource clinical-data requests. Ridgemont Equity Partners and the company’s management will roll over significant equity commitments, with TA becoming the new lead investor.

Brightstar Capital Partners agreed to buy a 50% stake in Arden University, a U.K. university that caters to nontraditional adult students. Brightstar partner and co-chair Marcelo Claure will chair the university’s board when the deal closes.

Goldman Sachs Alternatives and life-sciences-focused venture firm Forbion led a $372.5 Series D financing round for MapLight Therapeutics, which develops treatments for schizophrenia and other conditions.

Oaktree Capital Management and Athyrium Capital Management are financing US WorldMeds’ $55 million acquisition of Telcera and other cell-therapy assets from Adaptimmune.

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

Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus sold Neogov to EQT and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The company, based in El Segundo, Calif., makes compliance and human-resources software for government agencies. Carlyle and Warburg backed a growth investment in the company in 2021, although Warburg has been an investor since 2016. EQT is backing the deal out of its EQT X fund, which closed last year with 22 billion euros. 

Private-equity-backed Firefly Aerospace unveiled terms of a planned initial public offering that could give the space and defense technology company a market capitalization topping $5.5 billion, Dow Jones Newswires’ Colin Kellaher writes. AE Industrial Partners, a defense- and aerospace-focused firm that initially invested in Firefly in 2022, will still own more than 41% of the company after the IPO.

Paris-based Ardian said it has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell its majority stake in Artefact to fellow private-equity firm Cinven in a deal valued at more than €1 billion, or $1.16 billion. Ardian initially acquired its stake in the Paris-based provider of data and AI consulting services back in 2021.

Warburg Pincus bought Kalamazoo, Mich.-based flavorings manufacturer FlavorSum from the Riverside Co. The Cleveland-based firm created FlavorSum in 2021 by combining several other flavorings businesses.

Peak Rock Capital is selling donut and coffee shop brand Shipley Do-Nuts to fellow private-equity investor Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Peak Rock initially acquired Shipley from the company’s family owners back in 2021.

Riata Capital Group sold Greenix Pest Control, a residential pest-control company, to Gridiron Capital in New Canaan, Conn. The Dallas-based Riata first backed Greenix in 2020.

50 South Capital Advisors, an alternative-investment unit of Northern Trust Asset Management, has raised more than $2 billion for two new funds. The funds include Private Equity Strategic Opportunities Fund V, which closed with $1.2 billion, and Private Equity Core Fund XI with $893 million. The Strategic Opportunities fund focuses on secondary deals, while the Core fund invests across primary fund commitments, secondary deals and co-investments. One investor that disclosed a commitment to the Core fund is the Miami Beach City Pension Fund for Firefighters and Police Officers.

Macquarie Asset Management has raised $711 million for its first infrastructure secondary fund and related parallel vehicles. Investors that disclosed commitments to Macquarie Alliance Partners Infrastructure Fund include Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association and U.K.-based Border to Coast Pensions Partnership.

Carlyle Group disclosed a shuffle to its leadership hierarchy, including a successor to its current chief financial officer, Dow Jones Newswires' Denny Jacob reports. The private-equity firm Monday said John Redett, CFO and head of corporate strategy; Mark Jenkins, head of global credit; and Jeff Nedelman, global head of client business, will become co-presidents of Carlyle effective Jan. 1.

Affiliated Managers Group, or AMG, has taken a minority stake in European midmarket private-equity firm Montefiore Investment. Montefiore has offices in Paris, Milan and Madrid and manages some €5 billion, or about $5.8 billion, in assets.

Publicly traded specialty-finance company Mill City Ventures III is selling $450 million in stock to a group led by London digital-assets hedge fund Karatage Opportunities and blockchain company the Sui Foundation, with participation from other venture firms and technology investors.

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

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