Welcome back. While in Boston this past weekend, I stopped by the Museum of Fine Arts to see my favorite painting, L'Éminence Grise by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The work depicts aristocrats and courtiers dressed in extravagant silks bowing to an unassuming monk descending a staircase. It gives a visual representation to the term gray eminence, which refers to a powerful, but unofficial decision maker, a shadowy puppet master.

As many things tend to do, the painting reminds me of private credit. The asset class, which once called the shots from behind the scenes, is now more akin to a leading private-markets star, albeit one that is getting more publicity than its leaders likely bargained for. At one time considered the financial world's shadow bankers, credit firms can no longer play the unassuming monk whispering into a king's ear. Now they're celebrities longing for obscurity.

In today's news, our Maria Armental reports that Finback, the firm chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has raised nearly $500 million to tap into an investment boom.

And from London, the Journal's Margot Patrick writes that the owner of collapsed mortgage lender MFS is fending off allegations involving $550 million and a half-dozen Ferraris. It makes an interesting read.

For more on these stories and many others, please read on...

Finback Investment Partners, co-founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has raised nearly $500 million to tap into an investment boom tied to artificial-intelligence technology, WSJ Pro's Maria Armental reports. But it isn’t just an AI story, Bush said. It extends to traditional things like power grids and metal-bending factories. The Coral Gables, Fla.-based firm attracted much of the capital for its latest fund from wealthy families and individuals, and makes a point of tapping its well-connected network of advisers to help the businesses it backs.

English mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions left Barclays, HSBC and Apollo Global Management facing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential losses when it collapsed in February. Now, bankruptcy administrators allege its owner, Paresh Raja, moved around $550 million of MFS-borrowed funds into personal bank accounts and then bought luxury cars including six Ferraris and three Rolls-Royces, The Wall Street Journal reports. A spokeswoman for Raja said that he denies the allegations and that there was no fraud or dishonesty.

Join us on May 14 at 11 a.m. for a discussion that will bring together Bureau Chiefs and Senior Editors of the CFO Journal, WSJ Pro Private Equity, Financial News and Private Equity News to unpack the biggest financial developments shaping corporate decision-making in a constantly changing economic landscape. Laura Kreutzer, Shruti Tripathi Chopra and Walden Siew will tackle issues ranging from policy shifts to emerging trends in private equity, credit and retail and what to expect in the second half of 2026. Register here for this free webinar.

Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital led a $2.1 billion growth investment in drug design and development company Isomorphic Labs, joined by others including Temasek and the UK Sovereign AI Fund. The U.K. company is developing a drug-designing system using artificial intelligence technology to accelerate discovery and expand its pipeline of promising therapeutics.

European buyout firm EQT AB plans to take private Japanese online classified ads and marketplace operator Kakaku.com through a tender offer for ¥3,000 per share, with the support of the company's directors. The deal values the operator of restaurant review and reservation site Tabelog and other properties at about $3.77 billion. EQT said it also has the support of holders with about 38% of the Tokyo-listed company's shares. However, Bain Capital and SoftBank Group affiliate LY Corp., which operates Yahoo.com's search service in Japan, have also offered to buy Kakaku, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. They didn't say how much the group is offering.

Investment firm Planet First Partners in the U.K. led an over $200 million growth investment in quantum computing company Photonic in a deal that valued the Canadian company at about $2 billion. Other participants included existing backer Mubadala. The company is developing distributed fault-tolerant quantum computing systems.

Shield Capital and Cerberus Capital Management's venture investing arm co-led a $65 million growth investment in space infrastructure developer Star Catcher Industries, in a deal led by B-Capital. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company is developing space-based energy infrastructure that can be used to send electric power to satellites using optical beams.

Benchmark Capital Management led a $50 million growth investment in sales software system developer Monaco. Legally named Irwin, the San Francisco company's systems use artificial-intelligence technology to let users automate functions and accelerate the sales process.

Media mogul Byron Allen's Allen Family Digital is acquiring a majority stake in Nasdaq-listed digital content creator BuzzFeed for $120 million, the Journal reports. Allen, whose company Allen Media Group owns the Weather Channel and more than 30 network affiliate broadcast channels, plans to acquire 40 million shares for $3 apiece, giving the family digital business a 52% interest.

Sports-business investor Bruin Capital is backing event promotion and rights company Matchroom Holdings with a minority investment that leaves the Hearn family in control of the operation. Matchroom focuses on events around billiards, darts and boxing, among other sports and pursuits. The company plans to expand in the U.S., in particular, with the fresh capital.

European private-equity manager EQT AB sweetened its takeover bid for U.K. testing specialist Intertek Group by about 5.3% to £9.40 billion, or $12.79 billion, including dividends, saying Tuesday that this was its final offer, Adria Calatayud reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The latest deal would pay £60 a share plus a 107.7 pence dividend. London-listed Intertek turned down EQT's earlier proposal for £58 a share, saying it undervalued the company. Intertek said Tuesday that the latest proposal was under review.

Technology investor JMI Equity led a $40 million minority growth investment in telecommunications services software developer Gaiia, joined by Inovia Capital. The company's operating software is used by broadband carriers and wireless operations.

Technology-focused TA Associates in Boston is backing software developer Govineer Solutions with a growth investment that will provide Peterson Partners with a full exit. Management and other company employees are retaining a significant stake in the business as it adds artificial intelligence to its applications designed for use by local governments and agencies to manage core functions.

Financial infrastructure- and services-focused firm Apis Partners and pan-European private-equity firm Aspirity Partners co-led a $175 million investment in Paymentology, a global payments issuer processing company.

Apollo Global Management has acquired a majority stake in waste-management company Noble Environmental, which has waste disposal operations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland. The Canonsburg, Pa.-based company also has renewable natural gas facilities at some of its landfills.

Lone Star Funds has carved out the Engineered Materials unit of Domo Group in Moscow and plans to combine it with specialty chemicals and polymers business RadiciGroup.

The private-equity arm of Goldman Sachs Alternatives has acquired financial services company FGI Worldwide, which specializes in asset-based lending and risk mitigation and is based in New York.

Graycliff Partners has acquired industrial company Tramont Manufacturing and aims to expand the business through adding production capacity and acquisitions of complementary companies. Milwaukee-based Tramont makes fuel tanks and enclosures for generators used as backup power sources.

Gallant Capital Partners is backing manufacturer National Checking Co., which goes by the initials NCCO, and makes labels and other consumables used in food services operations. Gallant's strategic investment in the family-run business is expected to help the St. Paul, Minn.-based company expand.

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

GenNx360 Capital Partners is selling aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services provider Precision Aviation Group to strategic buyer VSE Corp. for nearly $2.03 billion in cash and equity. GenNx360 acquired Atlanta-based PAG in 2018 and extended its ownership in 2023 through a $400 million single-asset continuation fund that attracted investments from Neuberger Berman and Blackstone, joined by Dextra Partners and Churchill Asset Management. The sale to VSE will deliver $1.75 billion in cash upfront and about $275 million in equity for GenNx360, as well as up to $125 million in later earnouts. PAG operates from 29 locations in North America, Brazil, Europe and Australia.

American Securities has sold process equipment supplier CPM Holdings to Rosebank Industries through a transaction valued at approximately $2.1 billion. American Securities first invested in the Blaine, Minn.-based company in 2018.

Benchmark Capital Management-backed chip maker Cerebras Systems is the next hot company set to test the strength of the U.S. IPO market, Ben Dummett reports for the Journal. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of dinner-plate-size microcircuits on Monday reported a 22% to 30% increase in the price it expects for its initial public offering of shares to $150 to $160 each. The IPO is expected to begin trading in New York Thursday. Benchmark holds about 9.4% of the company's equity, while Foundation Capital holds around 8.2% and a joint venture of Lunate Capital and Alpha Wave Holdings has about 6.4%, a regulatory filing shows.

Blackstone is acquiring a majority interest in Greek e-commerce company Skroutz from CVC Capital Partners, investing through its private-equity strategy. CVC first backed the operator of an online marketplace about six years ago. Skroutz's site offers over 26 million products from about 9,000 merchants, while the company also provides logistics and financial services.

Mayfair Equity Partners is selling U.K. retail energy supplier OVO to strategic buyer E.ON, a German energy company. Mayfair, which has backed OVO since 2015, remains an investor in related grid technology operator Energy Transition Holdings.

Lower midmarket firm Argosy Private Equity is exiting its investment in InTech Aerospace, a Houston-based provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul services for commercial and military aircraft. Argosy previously backed the company in 2015 alongside Azalea Capital, according to a press release issued at the time.

Lower midmarket buyout firm Inverness Graham has closed Inverness Graham Investments V with $400 million, according to an emailed statement. Rede Partners placed the fund. The firm targets investments in founder-owned or founder-led companies across sectors that include healthcare, advanced manufacturing and tech-enabled services and software. So far the firm has already backed two deals out of the new fund, including Cognito Forms, which offers workflow automation technologies, and Axcel Learning, an online education, certification and test preparation company. Inverness Graham raised around $415 million for the fund’s predecessor back in 2019.

Specialist investor Snowhawk has raised $1.3 billion for its first digital infrastructure fund, Snowhawk Capital Digital Opportunities Fund I, and related deal-level co-investments. The fund targets control investments in lower midmarket digital infrastructure companies across North America.

Recently formed midmarket investor Fathom Point has hired Matt Moran as a partner and head of origination, according to a LinkedIn post. He was most recently in a similar role with Inverness Graham. San Francisco-based Fathom Point was set up last year by Alex Iannaccone, a former Arcline Investment Management partner. Fathom Point focuses on the aerospace and defense sector, as well as critical infrastructure and industrial automation.

Buyout firm CVC Capital Partners has appointed John Hourican as chief financial officer and a director of the Amsterdam-listed firm, effective Sept. 1. He replaces Fred Watt, who is retiring. Hourican joined the firm following his leadership of U.K. consumer lender NewDay as chief executive from 2019 until April of this year.

Blue Owl Capital in New York has appointed Deva Mishra to lead a unit set up in 2024 to offer investments tailored to the insurance industry. He will start in the role on July 6, reporting to co-Chief Executives Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz. Mishra was most recently the CEO of Prosperity Asset Management, a part of insurer Prosperity Life Group.

Bridge Growth Partners in New York has added Ragunath (Raghu) Ramanathan as an executive partner and Zane Rowe as a senior adviser to its network of external advisers. Ramanathan joins from Thomson Reuters while Rowe is chief financial officer of software supplier Workday.

Shore Capital Partners in Chicago has brought on Aurelio Banda as an executive operating partner leading a strategy to build an industrial automation distribution company, including evaluating prospective acquisitions. He was most recently president and chief executive of Turck USA, a components distributor.

Pantheon has added Leif Lindbäck as a partner with its private-equity secondaries group, based in London. He joins from CVC Capital Partners.

Asset manager La Financière de l’Échiquier has appointed Samira Sadik as country head Switzerland, based in Geneva, and Florian Friske as country head Germany and Austria, based in Frankfurt. Sadik joined the firm from Lombard Odier Investment Managers while Friske came aboard from banking firm Berenberg.

Lower midmarket investor Mosaic Capital Partners has hired Bridget Meller as a vice president of business development. She was most recently in a similar role with Capitala Group.

Investec has scrapped a private-equity advisory unit dedicated to secondary deals less than three years after setting it up, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The Anglo-South African bank shuttered the unit, which advised firms on general partner-led transactions mainly involving European midmarket investments, after leader Stefano Manna left the firm last month, according to people familiar with the matter. Investec declined to comment.

Blackstone has set up a lending business designed for home builders with the expectation that it will finance the construction of more than 50,000 new homes annually. The New York firm is investing in the business, which will operate through portfolio company Brio Homebuilder Solutions as well as other partnerships, through its real-estate debt strategies, led by Tim Johnson. The unit is focused on lending to U.S. contractors and developers building homes for sale rather than for rent.

Stafford Capital Partners has refinanced its STAR I solar portfolio with  €89.4 million, or about $105.4 million, supplied by Italian banking firm BPER Banca's corporate and investment banking arm, according to an emailed news release. The refinanced holdings include 30 solar-power plants in Italy, with capacity expected to increase to 84 megawatts from 75 megawatts through a repowering supported by the fresh capital.

Partners Capital Investment Group in Boston is opening an office in Abu Dhabi, the $75 billion asset manager's second location in the United Arab Emirates.

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

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