Good morning! For those who like soccer (like me), the World Cup is in full swing. Enjoy!

As for the news today, we start with a $780 million continuation fund that Abry Partners raised with the backing of two big firms to extend its hold of Centauri Health Solutions, as our Maria Armental reports.

Also, I offer an exclusive look at a lawsuit that a fund managed by Hallador Investment Advisors filed against private-equity firm LS Power. The lawsuit alleges that LS Power manipulated a return metric on the roughly $1.4 billion sale of a generating station to fatten its proceeds at the expense of other investors.

In other news, my colleague Isaac Taylor writes that a Moody’s report warns of increased risk of re-default for companies, particularly private equity-backed ones.

Now onto the news ...

Abry Partners has joined the growing ranks of private-equity firms raising capital for single-asset continuation vehicles with a $780 million pool to recapitalize Centauri Health Solutions, a healthcare information technology company that Boston-based Abry initially backed in 2020, Maria Armental writes for WSJ Pro. The secondary units of Apollo Global Management and Neuberger Berman served as lead investors for the continuation vehicle.

Family office Hallador Investment Advisors accused private-equity firm LS Power of manipulating a performance metric to shortchange minority investors and fatten its proceeds from a power station deal by more than $100 million, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro. A Hallador fund’s previously unreported lawsuit said a capital infusion by LS Power altered the multiple on invested capital, or MOIC, generated by the roughly $1.4 billion sale last year of Hummel Generation’s power station in Pennsylvania. The return gauge was used to set the distribution of proceeds.

Elevated interest rates, market volatility and refinancing challenges are increasing the risk of re-default for companies that have previously engaged in distressed debt exchanges and more complex liability-management exercises to avoid bankruptcy, according to a Moody’s analysis. Private equity-backed companies continue to drive distressed-debt restructurings, or exchanges known as DEs, which accounted for more than 70% of U.S. defaults since 2022, Moody’s said in a new report.

WSJ Sports: The Next Sports Economy will bring together investors, team owners, executives and advisers at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York July 15-16 for conversations on the forces transforming the business of sports. Join leaders from across finance, media, ownership and operations as they sit down with WSJ reporters to explore the future of investment, governance and value creation across the global sports landscape

Otro Capital in New York has finalized its ground-breaking deal with the University of Utah, forming Crimson Brand Partners with the school and its University Foundation to manage commercial operations across Utah Athletics and the broader university. The activities include events at university stadiums and arenas as well as licensing, digital media and sponsorships. Crimson will be led by Matt Webb as chief executive and will be overseen by the university's foundation. A group of RedBird Capital Partners executives formed Otro about three years ago to invest in sports, media and entertainment, raising $1.2 billion for its debut fund.

Paramount Skydance, whose backers include RedBird Capital Partners, won Justice Department approval for its $81 billion combination with Warner Bros. Discovery, the Journal reports. The clearance removed one of the remaining hurdles to closing the megadeal. European regulators still must pass judgment on it.

Sycamore Partners-backed Walgreens Boots Alliance is no longer engaging with potential acquirer Sigma Healthcare after the Australian company withdrew its interest in the Boots U.K. drugstore chain, saying it wouldn’t meet its strategic or capital-investment objectives, Stuart Condie reports for the Journal. Sydney-listed Sigma, which operates Australia’s Chemist Warehouse chain, on Monday said it had ended talks following preliminary discussions. New York-based Sycamore took control of Boots last year, when it acquired WBA.

HarbourView Equity Partners, a private investment firm focused on entertainment, media and sports, is backing a partnership with singer-songwriter Chaka Khan to pursue global licensing opportunities, catalog development and support new creative initiatives. The latest transaction follows a steady stream of music rights or intellectual property deals HarbourView has inked with award-winning artists, including 2025 transactions with Kelly Clarkson and T-Pain.

Wafra is acquiring the equipment finance business of New York-listed United Community Banks for $1.9 billion in cash. The units Wafra is buying include Navitas Credit and NLFC Reinsurance. United said the equipment finance business accounted for just 10% of its loan holdings but 50% of its net charge-off over the 12 months through March. United shares were little changed in New York Friday after the sale was disclosed.

Warburg Pincus in New York aims to take private Tokyo-listed student housing and services provider JSB Co. for ¥9,000 per share, making the deal worth ¥190 billion, or roughly $1.2 billion. The move marks Warburg's first take-private transaction in Japan and follows its return to the market with the opening of a Tokyo office last year. Holders of 58% of JSB shares have indicated they support the deal. JSB manages around 2,700 properties with some 100,000 student housing units associated with about 1,200 schools and institutions in Japan.

Five Arrows—the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co—is backing French payments software provider Nepting to accelerate its expansion. Nepting's payments system is used by merchants to process and route transactions, regardless of terminals used or payment methods. The company handled roughly €70 billion, or about $81 billion, in transaction volume from over 350,000 merchants last year, generating some €23 million in revenue for the business.

Permira in London is making a significant investment in environmental reporting company CDP, which is dividing into two organizations, a charitable foundation and a commercial business that Permira is backing. The foundation will hold a minority interest in the commercial business

Springcoast Partners led an $80 million growth investment in consumer financials-focused tech company Current, joined by Tiger Global Management and Wellington Management, among others. The deal valued the business at $1.5 billion. The company's products are designed to help consumers  manage their cash and build savings.

Savano Capital in Baltimore and Mubadala joined a growth investment backing financial technology company Koho Financial totaling 130 million Canadian dollars, or about $93.1 million. Other participants included Drive Capital, BDC Capital and Eldridge Industries. The Canadian company offers financial management and payments products for consumers.

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

Swedish private-equity firm EQT AB is planning to sell its stake in Singapore-based healthcare provider HMI Medical for about $600 million, P.R. Venkat reports for the Journal, citing people familiar with the situation. They indicated that the buyout firm aims to capitalize on a flurry of deals being driven by rising demand for medical services across Asia. EQT declined to comment. The firm led a take-private acquisition of the company when it was listed in Singapore in 2019.

European buyout firm EQT AB is selling its stake in unlisted shares of refrigeration wholesaler Beijer Ref, which it has backed since 2020. Stockholm-listed Beijer Ref shares rose almost 4% Thursday following EQT's disclosure of its plans. The company distributes refrigeration, air conditioning and heating technology to clients in 45 countries through over 500 branch offices.

Avance Investment Management has raised at least $1.1 billion so far for Avance Investment Partners II, according to a regulatory filing. The amount raised so far puts the new fund at roughly the same size as its predecessor, which closed in 2022. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the new fund include Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, District of Columbia Retirement Board, Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions and New York State Common Retirement Fund, according to WSJ Pro’s LP Commitments database.

Newly-formed firm Virmos Capital is seeking $150 million for Virmos Catalyst Partners I, according to a regulatory filing. Virmos Managing Partner and founder Mario R. Masrieh previously spent six years at Trivest Partners, most recently as a managing director, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Growth Catalyst Investment in Saudi Arabia has collected $96 million so far for its latest fund to back companies within the Middle Eastern kingdom, and aims to more than double that amount before closing the pool, according to a Semafor report.

Bond investor Ken Leech, the former co-chief investment officer of Franklin Templeton’s Western Asset Management unit, pleaded guilty Friday to a single new charge of obstructing a regulatory proceeding, Joseph De Avila reports for the Journal. The plea in connection with a cherry-picking investment-fraud case came just days before he was set to go to trial. Western agreed to pay $100 million to settle a related Securities and Exchange Commission investigation earlier this month. Western manages around $179 billion.

Great Hill Partners in Boston has added Lauren Reddy as head of people. She was previously with professional services provider Accordion and later had her own consulting firm.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has tapped Matthew Trerotola, former chief executive of medical tech company Enovis, as an operating advisor to the private-equity firm's funds. He will work with the New York-based firm's healthcare and industrials teams.

Investors in BlackRock’s flagship private-credit fund asked to redeem a collective 13.3% of the fund’s shares in the second quarter, an increase from 9.3% in the previous period, Jack Pitcher reports for the Journal. The giant New York asset manager will limit repurchases to 5% of the shares, according to an investor letter Friday, sticking with the previously stated threshold and cashing out shareholders on a prorated basis. The higher requests are the latest evidence that the once-booming private-credit industry is still under investor pressure, following concerns about loan losses, fraud and exposure to software companies that are looking vulnerable to artificial intelligence.

Ares Management co-founders David Kaplan and Michael Arougheti, the chief executive of the credit-focused firm, lead a blank-check company that has registered for an initial public offering of shares to raise about $309.3 million. Ares Acquisition Corp. III has two years before it dissolves to find a business to combine with and provide it with a public listing, and has no particular company or industry in its sights, according to the registration filing.

More than 700 unique investors have stakes in one or more of three of the world’s most valuable private companies, SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, the Journal reports. They include venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Founders Fund. Meanwhile, the Journal's Jonathan D. Rockoff rounded up a representative list of big winners from the SpaceX initial public offering vary from trillionaire founder Elon Musk and early backer Antonio Gracias and his Valor Equity Partners to SpaceX line workers and university endowments.

Loans to finance private-equity buyouts are getting larger and fewer, according to McKinsey & Co. Leveraged buyout financings totaled $81 billion last year, up about 11% from 2024 and the highest amount on record, while the number of such loans declined roughly 14%, to 214, the consulting firm says. The average LBO loan rose 29% to about $380 million.

Swiss private-equity firm Partners Group, an early industry leader in opening private-markets investment funds to wealthy individuals, said Friday that it doesn't plan to freeze any of its evergreen funds or alter the liquidity mechanisms used to handle investor redemptions. The firm issued a statement on the matter following media reports and "unfounded market rumors" that it might take such steps. Partners said the portfolios of the two funds in the spotlight are healthy and have sufficient liquidity. Earlier this month, the firm held to its 5% withdrawal limit for its $8.6 billion Global Value Sicav fund after investors sought to pull out nearly twice that amount. Its main U.S. fund, Partners Group Private Equity, which manages around $17 billion, received withdrawal requests in May amounting to around 6% of the fund’s value.

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

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