Happy Friday! As the week wraps up, Blackstone Inc. has been one of the first publicly-traded private markets firms to report fourth-quarter earnings and, as Miriam Gottfried writes, its net income fell, driven partly by declines in the value of its real estate holdings. Blackstone also failed to reach its goal of hitting $1 trillion in assets last year, though it came fairly close. The firm’s corporate private-equity portfolio rose by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, trailing the gains of the S&P 500 index, but perhaps better than some in the industry may have expected. Meanwhile, co-founders of financial technology startup Stripe Inc. told employees that within the next 12 months the company aims to file for a public offering or pursue a private transaction that will allow its employees to sell shares, perhaps a sign of optimism that markets will be more welcoming for such transactions before too long.

There is all this and so much more in today’s newsletter so dive in and have a great weekend!

Blackstone Inc.’s net income fell during the fourth quarter, and the investing giant’s assets under management came in shy of the $1 trillion target it expected to reach in 2022 as fundraising weakened in some of its strategies aimed at individual investors, Miriam Gottfried writes for The Wall Street Journal. The New York investment firm reported net income of $557.9 million, or 75 cents a share, compared with $1.4 billion, or $1.92 a share, for the same period a year earlier. Distributable earnings exceeded consensus forecasts at $1.3 billion, or $1.07 a share, compared with $2.3 billion, or $1.71 a share, a year earlier, as the firm sold off fewer assets. Blackstone’s assets under management rose to $974.7 billion from $880.9 billion a year earlier. The firm said it raised $43.1 billion in the just-ended quarter and $226 billion in all of last year. The firm’s shares rose about 5.6% to close Thursday at $93.81 each on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stripe Inc., a financial technology startup whose backers include private equity firm Silver Lake, Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency and venture firm Sequoia Capital, is moving closer to what could be one of the biggest public-market debuts in recent memory, Peter Rudegeair, Corrie Driebusch and Berber Jin write for The Wall Street Journal. Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison told employees Thursday that executives set a goal of either taking the company public or allowing employees to sell shares in a private-market transaction within the next 12 months, according to people familiar with the matter.

Join us on Feb. 15 for a virtual webinar to discuss how limited partners view the investment outlook. In one panel, Mina Pacheco Nazemi from Barings and Sara Bowdoin from Siguler Guff will consider allocations, while a second panel on finding diverse managers will feature Katie Moore from Hamilton Lane and Pamela Pavkov from TPG. You can register here.

AE Industrial Partners in Boca Raton, Fla., said it is backing technology company REDLattice Inc., investing in the business from its AE Industrial Partners Fund III LP. Management of the Chantilly, Va.-based company also participated in the investment. REDLattice develops technology used to detect computer and network vulnerabilities and engage in offensive operations, with customers in the U.S. national security, defense and commercial communities, according to an emailed news release.

San Francisco Equity Partners said it has acquired Smith & Vandiver Corp., which operates as SV Labs and produces beauty and personal care products. Abacus Finance Group LLC said it provided $50 million in senior secured credit facilities to back the recapitalization of the Watsonville, Calif.-based company.

Midmarket firm Copley Equity Partners LLC said it has invested in Triton Environmental Consultants Ltd., an environmental consulting firm focused on infrastructure projects across Canada, according to a press release. Existing shareholders will retain a stake in the company and continue to manage it.

Dallas-based Trive Capital has backed Kittyhawk Inc., a company that offers hot isostatic pressing services, a process that helps improve the strength and metallurgical properties of casted and manufactured parts, according to a press release.

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

Shares of Freightos Ltd. surged early in their first day of trading after the logistics technology company combined with a blank-check company led by executives of private investment firms in Israel, marking a rare success among special-purpose acquisition companies. Formed in early 2021, Gesher I Acquisition Corp. is led by Ezra Gardner as chief executive and Omir Cherni as chief operating officer. Mr. Gardner and Philip Broenniman, a Gesher director, in 2012 co-founded Varana Capital, an investment firm where Mr. Gardner is a partner. The combination with Freightos valued the business at about $435 million, according to data provider Boardroom Alpha. Freightos operates a digital international freight marketplace, connecting logistics services providers and importers/exporters for instant pricing, booking and shipment management, according to a news release. 

A blank-check company backed by family office Dominion Capital in New York now plans to close its combination with publicly traded HUB Cyber Security Ltd. in Israel next month, according to a news release. The deal originally struck last March will provide the business with a U.S. stock listing at a valuation of about $1.29 billion. HUB Cyber said on Thursday that it has received necessary approvals to list on the Nasdaq stock market and expects to close the combination with Mount Rainier Acquisition Corp. on Feb. 27 with Nasdaq trading to begin the following day. HUB Cyber was set up in 2017 by veterans of the intelligence units of the Israeli Defense Forces and trades on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Ltd. under the HUB symbol. The SPAC deal was expected to provide HUB Cyber with $226.9 million in fresh capital, including a $50 million private placement, according to a regulatory filing last year. Mount Rainier had raised about $172.5 million to finance a deal, but said investors had redeemed more than 99% of the SPAC’s shares by early this month, according to regulatory filings.

Accel and Tiger Global Management are reportedly planning to sell their stakes in ecommerce logistics company Flipkart in Bengaluru, India, to majority owner Walmart Inc. for a combined $1.5 billion, according to a report in India’s Economic Times newspaper. Both firms were among early backers of the company, with Accel still holding a roughly 1% stake and Tiger Global with 4%, according to the Inc42 technology news site in New Delhi. An exit at the reported price would value the company at around $30 billion. Accel first backed the business with an $800,000 seed investment in 2008, the year after it was started, and then led a growth investment in 2009, according to Accel’s website. Walmart agreed to pay $16 billion for a 77% interest in the company in 2018, Accel said. Reuters reported last year that the company planned to go public this year at a valuation of as much as $70 billion.

Chicago-based midmarket firm Frontenac has sold portfolio company software provider Excellerate to Encora, an engineering services company backed by Warburg Pincus and Advent International, according to a news release. Frontenac’s investment in Excellerate dates back to 2019, when the firm recapitalized Prime Technology Group and merged it with software product developer Synerzip in 2020 before rebranding the combined company as Excellarate in 2021.

HCAP Partners, a La Jolla, Calif.-based firm that provides debt and equity to lower midmarket companies, said it has exited its stake in Veyo LLC, a company that provides non-emergency medical transportation.

Integrum Holdings, a New York-based firm focused on technology-enabled services, has raised at least $979.75 million for Integrum Capital Partners LP, a regulatory filing shows. Integrum was co-founded in 2021 by Ursula Burns, Richard Kunzer and Tagar Olson. Ms. Burns previously served as chairwoman of global telecommunications company VEON Ltd, while Mr. Kunzer was a partner at BC Partners and Mr. Olson led the financial services vertical for KKR & Co., according to Integrum’s website.

Credit investment firm Oak Hill Advisors has rounded up at least $1.9 billion so far for OHA Strategic Credit Fund III LP and related parallel funds, according to a regulatory filing. The amount raised so far puts the distressed debt fund more than halfway toward a $3 billion offering amount indicated in the filing. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the fund include the New York State Common Retirement Fund, San Francisco City and County Employees’ Retirement System and the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana.

Global asset manager GCM Grosvenor has raised $972 million for GCM Grosvenor Secondary Opportunities Fund III LP, according to a news release. The fund’s final tally came in above its predecessor, which closed with $700 million in 2018.

Specialist property investor Prime Group Holdings said it has collected  $2.5 billion for its third fund focused on acquiring self-storage businesses.The Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based asset manager said it had a $1.5 billion target for the new fund, which at $2.5 billion is more than three times the size of its 2017 predecessor vehicle. Prime says on its website that that vehicle closed on $706 million.

Dunes Point Capital, a Rye, N.Y.-based private investment firm founded by ex-Blackstone executive Timothy White, has raised at least $639 million so far for Dunes Point Capital Fund III LP and related parallel funds, according to a regulatory filing. One investor that disclosed a commitment to the fund is the Texas Municipal Retirement System, according to pension disclosures.

Boston-based growth equity firm Volition Capital said in a blog post that it has raised over $675 million for Volition Capital Fund V LP, the firm’s largest fund raised to date. Volition’s previous main growth fund closed in 2019 with $400 million.

Venture debt firm Runway Growth Capital announced several promotions, including Edward Chen, who joined the firm in 2017 and has become a managing director. The firm also elevated Yifan Lai, who joined in 2020, and Avisha Khubani, who joined in 2018, to principal roles.

RLH Equity Partners said it has added Sherrick Murdoff as a strategic advisor and promoted Mark Gartner to managing director. Mr. Murdoff is a former executive with Salesforce Ventures, according to a news release. Mr. Gartner joined the firm in 2021.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. said it doesn’t have the funds to repay its banks after they determined the retailer has defaulted on its credit lines, Soma Biswas and Suzanne Kapner write for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The home-goods chain said on Thursday it received a notice of default from JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday. The banks are calling for an immediate repayment of all outstanding loans under the credit agreement. The company has $550 million in loans outstanding from the banks led by JPMorgan, as well as $375 million from a facility provided by Sixth Street Partners, according to a securities filing. It had $154 million in unrestricted cash and equivalents in late November.

Blackstone Inc.’s Blackstone Property Partners, or BPP strategy, is facing redemption requests equivalent to about 7% of the group’s $72.97 billion of assets, or roughly $5.1 billion, according to Jon Gray, the firm’s president and chief operating officer. Speaking with securities analyst about the firm’s earnings and outlook on Thursday, Mr. Gray responded to a question about elevated redemption requests from investors who back the strategy and acknowledged that “right now, there are some near-term headwinds in that space,” according to transcripts. But he differentiated the strategy and its mainly institutional investors from the firm’s Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc., a $68.52 billion vehicle which has been under pressure from retail investors seeking to withdraw funds. Blackstone began limiting BREIT redemptions last year in accordance with the fund’s investment rules.

Juniper Square Inc. in San Francisco said fund sponsors using its digital subscription system for raising investment capital collected about $17.5 billion last year, or about 61% more than in 2021. The more than 650 fund sponsors that sought funds through the system raised $27 million on average last year, according to a news release.

Eurazeo SE in Paris said it raised €3.1 billion, the equivalent of $3.38 billion, last year across multiple strategies, including €1.6 billion for private equity investing and €1 billion for private debt. The total, equivalent to about $3.38 billion, also includes more than €800 million collected through products dedicated to retail investors across its strategies, and  €210 million for a new real assets fund focused on energy transition infrastructure, according to a news release.

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