Welcome back. What's a good business to own in the age of AI? Plumbing, HVAC and electrical services, according to Alpine founder and CEO Graham Weaver.

Today we provide a look inside Apollo's $2 billion minority investment in the $10 billion home services giant Apex, which Alpine formed in 2019.

Next, our Luis Garcia reports on a $40 million cash injection led by Renown Capital to help Nvidia-backed power technology company Utilidata as it pivots to data centers from utilities.

Dive in for more…

Apollo Global Management is backing Alpine Investors’ Apex Service Partners in a deal that values the residential property services group at $10 billion, WSJ Pro's Maria Armental reports, citing a person familiar with the transaction. The $2 billion minority investment, which includes Apollo co-investors, gives the New York firm a more than 20% stake in Apex, the person said. The partial sale generated a return of 1.66-times invested capital for secondary investors and 23-times their investment for original investors.

Renown Capital Partners led a $40 million investment in Nvidia-backed Utilidata to help the developer of power-management technologies speed up a shift in its focus to data centers from utility businesses, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports. Keyframe Capital Partners also participated in the growth investment. The deal extended roughly $60 million in financing that the two New York firms backed last year alongside Nvidia and other investors, Utilidata said.

Blackstone is backing Apogee Therapeutics with $1.3 billion in financing, investing through the New York firm's life sciences strategy, Adriano Marchese reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The clinical-stage biotechnology company is developing a treatment for dermatitis, a chronic form of eczema. Blackstone will receive returns from tiered royalties for 15 years, based on worldwide annual sales of the treatment by the Nasdaq-listed company

Technology investor Hg is investing in rights- and royalties-management company Rightsline Software with a $500 million growth investment. Canadian investment firm Klass Capital, Rightsline’s majority owner since 2020; Salem Partners; and the company’s management team are investing alongside Hg.

Fortress Investment Group led the acquisition of intellectual-property licensing company IPValue Management Group with plans to supply more capital for its expansion. The company works with technology developers to monetize their properties through patent licenses and other means. Vector Capital acquired the business in 2014 and still lists it as an active investment on its website.

Bain Capital in Boston and 11North Partners in New York have purchased five grocery store-anchored shopping centers in California, Virginia, Florida and Texas for about $300 million, investing through a joint real-estate venture. The venture still has several billion ready to invest, according to the firms.

Sixth Street Partners and Riller Capital have acquired a Colorado mountain resort from New York-listed Braemar Hotels & Resorts for $176 million. The 193-key Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa's guest accommodations were renovated last year.

Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund led a $100 million growth investment in fusion power developer Thea Energy, a Princeton University spinout based in Kearny, N.J. Other participants in the deal included Linse Capital, Divergent Capital and Emerald Technology Ventures.

Advaya Capital has purchased the movie division of box office measurement company Comscore for $70 million. Once the deal closes, the group will revert to its original Rentrak name and continue to offer data on ticket sales from 34,000 cinemas across over 70 countries.

Ardian in Paris has acquired two solar power installations in Uruguay with capacity to generate as much as 76 megawatts, investing through the Ardian Clean Energy Evergreen Fund. The fund closed on €1 billion, or about $1.16 billion, in July 2023.

Growth equity investor Straylight Capital is backing consumer loyalty technology provider Patron Points with a strategic investment, joined by co-investors and Scaleworks. The Woodbury, Minn.-based company provides promotional, mobile and artificial intelligence-powered transaction data tailored to convenience store operators.

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

Buyout firm CVC Capital Partners sold its stake in Naturgy Energy Group, receiving about €3.07 billion, or roughly $3.57 billion, weeks after BlackRock exited its investment in the Spanish energy group, Adrià Calatayud reports for The Wall Street Journal. The stake sold by CVC amounted to about 11% of Naturgy's equity and was priced at €28.55 a share. Naturgy shares fell 4% Wednesday in Madrid.

Pension system AustralianSuper has named Shaun Manuell as its next chief investment officer, moving him up after he led its Australian equities team for 13 years. He joined the operation, which manages the equivalent of roughly $273 billion, in 2013. Manuell replaces Mark Delaney, who said in December he would step down at the end of June.

Energy-focused private-equity firm EIV Capital has promoted Jason Tracton to partner. He joined the Houston firm in 2022.

Adams Street Partners has added Jeff Colin as a director, succeeding Jeffrey Diermeier, who is retiring. Colin founded wealth-management firm Baker Street Advisors in 2004.

Infrastructure-focused DigitalBridge Group is acquiring power and electric infrastructure specialist ArcLight Capital Partners for up to $1.05 billion, including an initial $650 million and earn-outs based on ArcLight’s annual fee-related earnings into 2029. Boca Raton, Fla.-based DigitalBridge is itself being acquired by SoftBank Group, and the ArcLight deal is conditioned on the closing of that agreement but isn't expected to affect that transaction. Based in Boston, ArcLight managed about $13.54 billion at the end of December, according to a regulatory filing. Its leaders, Daniel Revers, Angelo Acconcia and Jake Erhard, are expected to remain with the combined firm, which will have assets of around $150 billion.

Blackstone-backed Western LNG is set to play a key role in Canada's bid to become an energy superpower through operating a proposed floating liquefied natural gas export terminal to be built off British Columbia's north coast, Paul Vieira reports for the Journal. State-owned German utility SEFE has agreed to purchase 1 million metric tons of LNG annually from Western. Shipments to Germany are expected to begin in the early 2030s under a deal signed Wednesday. New York-based Blackstone is a major investor in Western LNG through its energy transition strategy.

When Michael Bauer was trying to convince EQT AB’s investment committee to approve the firm’s largest ever deal, he needed to show that he had skin in the game—literally, Sebastian McCarthy writes for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The global co-head of healthcare was eager to buy Galderma, a dermatology company being sold off by Nestlé, in 2019. But senior figures inside EQT balked at the multibillion-dollar valuation, so Bauer began using Galderma products so colleagues could see the results for themselves.

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

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