Good day and welcome to the Private Equity Pro newsletter. Last year may have been a slow one for private-equity fundraising overall, but for firms in sectors that remained sought-after despite the pandemic—such as technology and health care—the market is still booming. Today, Preeti Singh and Laura Cooper have news of a major fundraising effort that’s just hitting the road: TA Associates’ efforts to launch its fourteenth flagship fund. Preeti Singh also brings us news of a freshly launched fundraising effort by another veteran Boston firm, Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Next, Laura Kreutzer reports on SK Capital Partners’ deal for Lacerta Group Inc., a family-owned maker of recyclable packaging, and Luis Garcia reports on Appian Capital Advisory’s successful effort to raise its sophomore mining fund. 

Now on to today's news...

TA Associates, one of the world's oldest and largest growth investment firms, is preparing to market its next flagship fund with an $11 billion goal, Preeti Singh and Laura Cooper report for WSJ Pro Private Equity, citing people familiar with the offering. Assuming the firm hits its goal, its new fund would well exceed the $8.5 billion that it raised for its thirteenth fund in 2019.

Private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners is pitching its ninth flagship fund to institutional investors after corralling $900 million for a fund focused on investing in automation, Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The midmarket growth firm is seeking $4.25 billion for its Thomas H. Lee Equity Fund IX LP, according to a presentation document prepared for the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana. The $22.8 billion pension system’s trustees met Thursday and approved a commitment of as much as $100 million to the buyout fund.

SK Capital Partners is buying a majority stake in Mansfield, Mass.-based Lacerta Group Inc., a family owned company that produces recyclable packaging that is widely used by food manufacturers, Laura Kreutzer writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The investment marks the first time that the company has partnered with an outside institutional investor.

NCR Corp. is in talks to buy Cardtronics PLC, according to people familiar with the matter, seeking to snatch it away from a pair of investment firms including private-equity giant Apollo Global Management Inc. that earlier agreed to buy the ATM operator, Miriam Gottfried and Cara Lombardo report for The Wall Street Journal.

Hellman & Friedman has joined Dragoneer Investment Group in backing PointClickCare Technologies, which increased its investment in the Mississauga, Ontario cloud-based health-care company. The business serves almost two-thirds of skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. among the more than 21,000 service providers it works with, according to a news release.

American Industrial Partners is buying the personal care business of Domtar Corp. for about $920 million, culminating a review of the company’s operations that began in August. The assets transferring through the transaction have a book value of about $1.06 billion, the Fort Mill, S.C. manufacturer said in a regulatory filing.

Medical alert system Medical Guardian has received a growth investment from Water Street Capital Partners. The Chicago-based firm has committed up to $100 million to acquire and grow the company, a person familiar with the matter told WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Laura Cooper. Medical Guardian provides products that allow seniors to stay connected while living independently through its personal emergency response service.

Blackstone Group Inc. gained an important ally in its pursuit of U.K. company Signature Aviation PLC as the family office of billionaire Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates swung behind its efforts to take the provider of executive jet service private for £3.81 (or about $5.17) per share, or about $4.29 billion. The Gates vehicle, Cascade Investment LLC, already owns about 19% of the company’s shares, a significant voting bloc. A regulatory filing on Friday showed that Cascade has committed to support any firm offer from Blackstone, which is in exclusive talks with Signature and has until Thursday to make a formal bid. Carlyle Group Inc. and Global Infrastructure Partners are also circling the company. Should Blackstone and Cascade win out, they would own 70% and 30% of the acquired aviation-support services provider, respectively.

Round Table Capital Partners has acquired professional service companies Duffield Associates LLC and HSW Consulting LLC and combined them with portfolio company Hull & Associates LLC to create a group that offers environmental, energy, water and civil infrastructure services. The firm acquired Hull in July 2020.

Carlyle Group Inc. is leading a $123 million investment round for cancer-focused biotechnology company Abbisko Therapeutics in China. The Shanghai-based company founded in 2016 has a number of drugs in development, including four in the clinical stage. The Series D financing is expected to help the company expand its research and drug-discovery efforts. Washington-based Carlyle is backing Abbisko through its CAP Growth I fund.

Growth Catalyst Partners said it has acquired The Equine Network, a unit of Active Interest Media Inc. that offers sports content, information and technology-enabled services for the U.S. equine industry.

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

A blank-check company led by co-founders of Trimaran Capital Partners Jay R. Bloom and Dean C. Kehler is acquiring Celularity Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Florham Park, N.J. The deal includes about $292 million held in the trust account of the special purpose acquisition company, GX Acquisition Corp., and about $80 million raised through a private investment in public securities,  Michael Dabaie reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Investors in the PIPE deal include Starr Insurance Cos., Dragasac Ltd. and Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. Messrs. Bloom and Kehler set up the SPAC in 2018 and took it public in 2019.

A blank-check company whose energy industry leaders include a former Hudson Clean Energy Partners managing partner intends to raise $210 million through an initial public offering of shares. Former Hudson executive John Cavalier is a co-founder of Climate Real Impact Solutions II Acquisition Corp., the special purpose acquisition company, and serves as its chief financial officer. The company aims to acquire a business in the carbon avoidance and carbon removal sector, a regulatory filing shows.

A special purpose acquisition company formed by executives with private-equity manager Riverstone Holdings plans to raise $200 million through an initial public offering of shares. Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp. II is targeting  the purchase of a company involved in a business that fosters global decarbonization, according to a regulatory filing. The SPAC is led by Robert Tichio as chief executive and Peter Haskopoulos as chief financial officer. Mr. Tichio is a partner and managing director of Riverstone, focusing on private equity, while Mr. Haskopoulos is a managing director of the firm and its CFO.

A blank-check company co-founded by a former Permira partner, Martin Weckwerth, has filed to raise $300 million through an initial public offering of shares to invest in a company that is taking advantage of the global shift to digital systems in the German-speaking region of Europe, a regulatory filing shows. Mr. Weckwerth has been a managing director of family office MC Investments GmbH since 2013 and previously served as a Permira partner. He is a director of the company, Constellation Acquisition Corp I.

Home Point Capital, a mortgage originator and servicer backed by Stone Point Capital, filed for an initial public offering, Josh Beckerman writes for Dow Jones Newswires. The company's primary focus is the Wholesale channel, which uses independent mortgage brokerages to reach end-borrower customers. It also has Direct and Correspondent channels. Since 2018, funded volume rose from $10.6 billion to $46.3 billion for the twelve months ended Sept. 30. Home Point said in its filing that "over the course of the past year, we have initiated an asset management strategy to help us scale our servicing operation and support continued origination growth in a more capital-light manner." Home Point discussed trends including the rise of non-banks in the mortgage industry and how the company's technology helps improve processing speed and customer retention. The company applied for a listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "HMPT."

Bain Capital-backed Notre Dame Intermedica, a health-care company in Brazil, has received a buyout bid from strategic buyer Hapvida, Reuters reported, citing regulatory filings. Intermedica had a market cap of 44 billion reais (about $8.1 billion) as of Thursday’s close, Reuters said. Bain Capital initially invested in Intermedica in 2014, according to the firm’s website.

CVC Capital Partners has agreed to sell cybersecurity company Kount Inc. to Equifax Inc. for $640 million. Boise, Idaho-based Kount provides artificial intelligence driven fraud protection and digital identity services technology to retailers and other businesses. CVC backed the firm through its CVC Growth Partners arm and initially made an $80 million growth investment in the company about five years ago.

Appian Capital Advisory has raised $775 million for its second fund focused on the mining sector, as the private-equity manager looks to capitalize on rising demand for metals used in electric vehicles and clean-energy projects, Luis Garcia writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The firm has already deployed around 40% of the new fund.

Sixth Street, a former TPG credit unit, has closed its latest direct lending fund at €1billion ($1.22 billion) hard cap, surpassing its initial €800 million target, Elisângela Mendonça reports for sister publication Private Equity News.

Center Oak Partners has rounded up at least $474 million so far for Center Oak Equity Fund II LP, according to a regulatory filing. Dallas-based Center Oak targets equity investments ranging from $20 million to $100 million in companies with between $50 million and $250 million in enterprise value and $5 million to $35 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to the firm’s website.

Onex Corp. has named Conor Daly to lead its European collateralized loan obligations operations, hiring him from BlackRock Inc., where he was a portfolio manager with the firm’s European fundamental credit team. The CLO group is part of Onex Credit, which the Toronto-based firm set up in 2007.

Carlyle Group Inc. has reorganized to create three operational units: Private equity, which has $125.3 billion in assets under management; a $53 billion credit unit; and a third group called Investment Solutions, with $51.7 billion in AUM as of Sept. 30. The regrouping is expected to accelerate the Washington-based firm’s growth, according to Kewsong Lee, its chief executive. The private-equity group combines the firm’s previous corporate PE and real assets operations, according to an investor presentation.

Dominion Voting Systems on Friday sued pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation, seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages over what the voting-machine company said were “wild” and “demonstrably false” accusations, including her allegation that it had rigged November’s election in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor, Alexa Corse reported in The Wall Street Journal. The Denver-based company filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Dominion’s voting machines are widely used, serving more than 40% of U.S. voters, according to the company’s website.

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Ted Bunker; Laura Cooper; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Preeti Singh; Chitra Vemuri.

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