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GEF Capital Raises $325 Million for Climate Fund | Regulators Put Wall Street Pay in the Crosshairs
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Happy Earth Day! In keeping with the unofficial holiday, our Luis Garcia reports sustainable investment specialist GEF Capital has wrapped up a new fund to make climate-focused investments.
Meanwhile, our Journal colleague Andrew Ackerman reports from Washington that federal regulators are gearing up to make another attempt at imposing new rules on Wall Street’s top earners. The last time this was tried, in 2016, the rule was to extend to private equity. But that attempt died on the vine.
We have these and many more deals, fundraisings and other news collected, summarized and linked for you below, so please jump in...
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Warehouse-size buildings packed with server racks like these make modern data centers huge consumers of power. Some companies backed by GEF Capital target ways to make them more efficient. PHOTO: JASON HENRY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Sustainability specialist GEF Capital Partners has raised $325 million to back midsize companies that help other businesses consume energy more efficiently, including property managers striving to reduce electricity costs and carbon emissions, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The Arlington, Va.-based firm recently wrapped up its North America-focused GEF US Climate Solutions Fund II to invest in sectors such as clean energy and energy efficiency as well as waste and water management. The amount collected exceeded the firm’s initial $250 million goal, GEF said. Founded in 2018 as a spinout of investment firm Global Environment Fund, GEF Capital now oversees assets
of about $1.5 billion.
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Regulators in Washington are planning to revive a proposal that would restrict Wall Street pay and require years-long compensation deferrals, reviving a dormant process to address unfinished business from a 2010 financial industry overhaul, Andrew Ackerman reports for the Journal. A similar effort in 2016 would have extended the measure’s provisions to include private-equity and other nonbank businesses, but it was never completed. Regulators currently are looking at requiring deferrals as well as bonus clawbacks The 2010
Dodd-Frank law called for the new rule.
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A Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles. PHOTO: MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES
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Reports that Apollo Global Management is back in the mix of anglers looking for a deal with entertainment group Paramount Global drove a 13% gain in the company’s shares Friday to close at $12.44 each in New York, Angela Palumbo reports for sister publication MarketWatch. Apollo is discussing teaming up with Japanese conglomerate Sony after exclusive discussions began between the company’s main owner, National Amusements, and RedBird Capital Partners-backed
Skydance Media, Jessica Toonkel reports for the Journal. Apollo earlier offered $26 billion, including debt, for Paramount, but the company turned to Skydance instead.
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Blackstone made a roughly $1.5 billion proposal to take private London-listed music rights investor Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which said Thursday that it had agreed to a $1.4 billion deal with U.S. peer Concord Chorus, backed by Apollo Global Management. The offer equivalent to $1.24 per share represents an 8.7% premium to the closing price Friday and is 6.9% higher than the Concord offer. Hipgnosis backed the Concord deal on Thursday. Blackstone noted in an emailed statement that under a 2018 agreement between Hipgnosis and Hipgnosis Song Management, an investment adviser to the company that Blackstone backs, the management group has an option to buy Hipgnosis Songs’ entire catalog if its advisory agreement is terminated.
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Arcline Investment Management said it has closed its acquisition of manufacturer Kaman through a take-private deal that valued the company at about $1.8 billion. The Nashville, Tenn.-based firm paid Kaman investors $46 a share in the all-cash deal. The Bloomfield, Conn.-based company makes aircraft parts and components for medical devices and other industrial uses.
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Macquarie Capital acted as the initial lender in a set of transactions that recapitalized EyeCare Partners through debt swaps and new financing that delivered $275 million to the St. Louis-based company, according to a news release. EyeCare said its ownership structure remains unchanged. The company operates from more than 300 locations across 18 states.
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Buyout firm KKR & Co. could get a ruling from European regulators by the end of next month on its proposed €22 billion acquisition of Telecom Italia’s landline telecommunications operations in Italy, Reuters reported, citing a European Commission filing Friday. New York-based KKR has sought an opinion from the commission’s antitrust agency.
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Deerfield Management led a $100 million growth investment in portfolio company Lumeris Healthcare Outcomes, joined by new investor Endeavor Health. Other existing backers such as Kleiner Perkins, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and John Doerr’s JDLinx also participated, according to an emailed statement. The value-based care company in St. Louis works with healthcare providers and also runs a Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan, Essence Healthcare. Deerfield first backed the company in April 2016.
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Entrée Capital and Target Global led a $74 million growth investment in industrial casting company Magnus Metal, joined by Discount Capital and several venture-capital firms. The Israel-based company develops digital casting processes used with metal alloys.
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Questa Capital led a $56.5 million growth investment in Avive Solutions, joined by other backers including Catalyst Health Ventures as well as new investors such as RC Capital and Eckuity Capital. The Brisbane, Calif.-based company makes external defibrillators for prompt treatment of heart failure.
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Buyout shop CVC Capital Partners in London said it is investing in personnel management and recruitment business World of Talents to fuel the company’s growth. CVC said Belgian firm Baltisse is selling its majority interest but remaining as a minority investor in the business, which it first backed in 2019.
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Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.
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Investment firm TA Associates in Boston said its Fincare Small Finance Bank in India has combined with AU Small Finance Bank in an all-stock deal that was announced in November and called for the injection of about $83.8 million in the newly combined operation from Fincare’s “promoters.” Fincare had nearly 15,000 employees and 5.9 million customers, mainly in underbanked areas and sectors in India, including recipients of microfinance loans, according to a November investor presentation on the deal. TA,
which first backed Fincare in 2017, the year it was founded, said it remains a minority investor in the combined enterprise.
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Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners and RA Capital are among investors that aim to sell shares of clinical-stage biotechnology company Spyre Therapeutics from time to time in coming months, a securities filing shows. Venrock indicated it is offering more than 3.3 million Spyre shares while RA Capital listed more than 687,000 shares for sale. Waltham, Mass.-based Spyre’s shares fell 8.9% to $32.41 in New York Friday.
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Lee Equity Partners in New York said it has collected more than $1.7 billion for its Lee Equity Partners Fund IV as well as related pools, in a securities filing. The firm indicated that it received its first commitment to the fund in June 2022. Investors include the Alaska Permanent Fund, which committed $25 million in 2022, according to the WSJ Pro Private Equity LP Commitments database. In March, Lee reported managing almost $5.18 billion at the end of last year.
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OceanSound Partners in New York said it has collected more than $903.6 million so far for its OceanSound Partners Fund II, and indicated it has a $1 billion goal for the vehicle. Investors include the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which committed $100 million, and the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, which pledged as much as $25 million, with both commitments made last year, the WSJ Pro Private Equity LP Commitments database shows. In March, the firm reported managing $2.65 billion in regulatory assets at the end of last year.
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Technology specialist Strattam Capital in Austin, Texas, said it has collected $308 million for its Strattam Capital Investment Fund III, bringing the firm’s total assets to more than $1 billion. The new fund is about a third larger than its predecessor, Strattam said. The roughly 10-year-old firm targets founder-led business software and services companies with revenue of $5 million to $25 million and enterprise values of as much as $100 million, according to a March filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Strattam said it typically invests $20 million to $60 million per deal.
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The firm known as DTCP in Hamburg, Germany, has wrapped up its Digital Infrastructure Vehicle II fund and associated pools with commitments of about €1.6 billion, equivalent to almost $1.71 billion. Formerly known as Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, the firm is now called Digital Transformation Capital Partners, though Deutsche Telekom remains an investor in DTCP’s funds and the firm advises the phone company on its venture investments.
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Buyout firm Inverness Graham in Wayne, Pa., said it has added Tonya Zweier as a financial operating partner and Jeffrey Silverman as a growth operating partner to work with the lower midmarket firm’s companies. Zweier joined from Riverside Co. while Silverman previously worked in corporate roles at companies including Qualifacts.
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The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has reportedly reached into the senior ranks of Brookfield’s Brookfield Asset Management to hire Managing Partner Julian Thomas for the sovereign fund manager’s private-equity operation, Pensions & Investments and Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Permira in London said it has added Steve Goldberg as its first executive in residence to work with managers of the companies backed by the buyout firm out of its Menlo Park, Calif., office. Goldberg is a former senior executive with software company Salesloft.
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Private equity and alternatives firm GP Investments in Brazil is backing a blank check company that aims to raise $250 million through an initial public offering of shares in the U.S., Dean Seal reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The special purpose acquisition company called GP-Act II Acquisition Corp. registered to sell 25 million shares to raise capital to finance the combination with an operating business. The SPAC is also sponsored by IDS III, led by cannabis company executive Irwin Simon, chairman and chief executive of publicly traded Tilray, and Boxcar Partners, led by United Natural Foods CEO and Chairman Steven
Spinner. The SPAC aims to list on the Nasdaq stock market.
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Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ climate-focused Earth Fund will continue to back the Science Based Targets initiative, a nonprofit group that helps set environmental goals to combat climate change, regardless of its position on carbon offsets, Yusuf Khan reports for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business. Often referred to as SBTi, the group is known for its unbiased evaluations of corporate net-zero practices and has come under fire in the past week over its decision to add carbon credits as a way for companies to offset their environmental impact, reversing years of opposition to the credits. The group’s trustees made the decision, but backtracked
after facing criticism and said a determination of its stance on credits would come in July.
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Co-working space provider WeWork plans to exit bankruptcy without taking on more loans to fund the rest of its chapter 11 proceedings, Akiko Matsuda reports for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. WeWork has been in talks with creditors holding roughly 92% of its secured notes and potential new financiers about additional financing for the remainder of its bankruptcy case, but they have yet to reach satisfactory terms, according to an amended chapter 11 plan the company filed Friday.
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