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Kroll, StepStone Launch Private-Credit Benchmarks | OEP Raises $3.25 Billion
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Welcome back! Dramatic growth in private-credit markets over the past decade has raised concern among some investors and their advisers about the potential risks associated with the lack of transparency in the industry and the challenges associated with measuring performance. In this morning’s newsletter, our own Isaac Taylor and Luis Garcia look at efforts to create private-credit performance benchmarks, including a newly launched set of benchmarks created by Kroll and StepStone Group.
Meanwhile, fundraising momentum appears to be picking up as we push further into the back half of the year. Rod James has the scoop on the latest fundraising effort from midmarket firm One Equity Partners.
Dive in for more details on these stories and so many more…
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Nonbank direct lending is far less visible to market participants than listed stocks and bonds, providing an opening for new benchmark creators Kroll and StepStone Group. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News
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Financial and risk advisory firm Kroll and private-markets investor StepStone Group have created a set of private-credit benchmarks that aim to provide greater transparency and risk mitigation for investors in the fast-growing direct-lending market, Isaac Taylor and Luis Garcia report for WSJ Pro. The Kroll StepStone Private Credit Benchmarks analyze data from more than 15,000 direct-lending deals across the U.S. and Europe dating back to 2012. The firms are pitching the benchmarks with a Kroll service that offers clients some freedom to build customized indexes using filters such as region, value and collateral type.
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Midmarket firm One Equity Partners has rounded up $3.25 billion for its latest and so far largest fundraising haul, Rod James reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The final tally for One Equity Partners IX came in ahead of both the target the firm set for the new fund and the capital raised for the fund’s predecessor, both of which were $2.75 billion. OEP President Greg Belinfanti says he sees particularly ripe investment opportunities ahead, particularly in corporate carveout deals.
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$565.5 Billion
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The global value of 6,080 private-equity M&A deals this year through Thursday, up 20% from the same period of last year, according to London Stock Exchange Group data
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Doctors attend a conference at a Luz Saude hospital in Lisbon during the Covid-19 pandemic. PHOTO: PEDRO NUNES / REUTERS
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Macquarie Group's asset-management arm is acquiring a 40% stake in Portuguese healthcare organization Luz Saude from insurer Fidelidade for about €310 million, or $361.2 million, with Fidelidade retaining a 60% interest. Luz Saude operates 14 hospitals and 15 clinics, as well as a nursing home. Macquarie Asset Management aims to work with the company to upgrade its technology and expand its operations.
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Bond Capital in San Francisco led a $150 million growth investment in software developer Baseten Labs in a transaction that valued the company at $2.15 billion. The San Francisco company offers programs for use with artificial-intelligence systems and large language models, among other things.
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Touring Capital led a $40 million growth investment in content-focused ProRataAI. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company is refining an artificial intelligence-driven system used by publishers in responding to online reader queries.
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A group of investors that include ARCH Venture Partners, Orbimed, KKR and T.Rowe Price, among others, have invested an additional $200 million in Treeline Biosciences, bringing the total capital the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company has raised to date to $1.1 billion.
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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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Buyout firm Copper Street Capital is exploring the sale of wealth manager One Four Nine, Justin Cash reports for sister publication Financial News in London, citing people familiar with the matter. Copper Street has pursued a roll-up strategy with the company, acquiring nine wealth advisers in the 12 months through March 2024, a fiscal year in which its operating loss rose 62% to £4.7 million, equivalent to about $6.3 million, from the previous 12-month period.
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European buyout firm PAI Partners is selling eyewear company Marcolin to strategic buyer VSP Vision. PAI has backed the business since acquiring a roughly 78% stake in the business through portfolio company Cristallo nearly 15 years ago for about €207 million, or $241.2 million.
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Healthcare specialist Deerfield Management has sold drug company Melinta Therapeutics to strategic buyer CorMedix. Deerfield acquired Melinta in 2020.
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Platinum Equity has closed on $2.28 billion for its Platinum Equity Small Cap Fund II, exceeding its $1.75 billion target for the vehicle, which the firm invests in lower midmarket companies. Recent acquisitions include home appliance supplier R&B Wholesale Distributors and Italian pesto maker Polli. Investors in the fund include the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, which pledged $85 million, and the New York City Employees'
Retirement System, which committed $77 million and also backed the fund's predecessor, which closed on $1.5 billion in 2018. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Platinum manages about $50 billion.
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Banking and financial services giant HSBC Holdings' asset-management arm has established an evergreen strategy called Horizon Private Equity tailored to wealthy individual investors and families in the U.K., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The open-ended structure aims to give participants access to investments in some 10,000 companies through co-investments and secondary transactions.
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China-focused Harmony Capital has agreed with game maker GCL Global Holdings to set up an investment fund of 100 million yuan to 150 million yuan, or $14 million to $21 million, to back Chinese game developers and publishers. The GCL Game and Cultural Industry Fund will have a four-year investment period and a three-year exit window.
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Credit-focused NorthWall Capital in London has tapped John Meuchner to join its staff in the firm's planned New York office as senior business development executive, North America, according to an emailed news release. He joins from Sandton Capital Partners. Opening next month, Northwall's New York office will be led by Garrett Holmes, a managing director, and will also include Rebecca Frisch, an associate relocating from London.
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Thousands of Citigroup’s richest clients will soon have their wealth managed by BlackRock, under the terms of a new partnership unveiled last week, David Wignall reports for sister publication Barron's. The move marks the end of Citi’s in-house proprietary asset-management business and puts roughly $80 billion of client assets in BlackRock's hands.
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Mergers and acquisitions across the U.S. infrastructure sector in this year's first half totaled $136.6 billion, surpassing the $125 billion recorded for all of last year, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports for Dow Jones Newswires, citing law firm White & Case. Two sectors alone—power and telecommunications—accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total so far this year, boosted by a boom in artificial intelligence-linked development.
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