Good morning. As we prepare to say goodbye to what many may regard as the weirdest summer ever, there seem to be few signs that fall or even winter will be closer to what was once regarded as normal. Weird in that places like New York’s Midtown remain relatively empty on weekdays and the city’s once-thriving nightlife scene’s moribund state has persisted since spring. Weird also in that pro basketball and hockey playoffs remain far from over, while the noisy crowds are absent at both and from baseball and football games. The silence must be deafening for the players. Even a recent visit to the vacation Mecca of Cape Cod in Massachusetts found little in the way of normal diversions off the beaches. One wonders how things will ever get back to the way they were.

But when it comes to the business at hand, the flow of news has scarcely changed other than to increase. Today we offer an exclusive from our Laura Cooper on a new technology investment group backed by nearly $1 billion from Warburg Pincus. And Luis Garcia has an unusual story from the oil patch about a company that’s growing despite the sector’s woes, while Preeti Singh has a look at how Calpers is trying to get its private-equity strategy back on track. All this and more awaits below, so please read on…

Private-equity firm Warburg Pincus is joining forces with three veteran technology executives to form a new platform company and arming them with nearly $1 billion in equity to hunt for deals in the sector, Laura Cooper reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The New York-based firm is partnering with Mason Slaine, Jay Nadler and Karl Jaeger to form an information services and software platform known as MLM II. 

Expedi Inc., a provider of e-commerce services to the energy industry under the GoExpedi brand, raised $25 million through an investment that values the growth-stage company at about $225 million, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. Existing backer Top Tier Capital Partners led the series C fundraising and now owns a roughly 20% stake in the business, said Garth Timoll, a managing director at the San Francisco firm who sits on the company's board. 

An inconsistent approach to private-equity investing took much of the blame for the asset class’s underperformance among investments held by the largest U.S. public pension fund through March, Preeti Singh writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The $25.5 billion private-equity portfolio held by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System also suffered from a lack of diversification and cost efficiency, Greg Ruiz, managing investment director for private equity at Calpers, told its board of administration at a public meeting late Monday.

Fall is approaching and we are seeking nominations for our annual Women to Watch list. Know a talented senior female deal maker or rising star deal maker that deserves recognition? Or perhaps a woman that is making strides in the fundraising or limited partner world? Let the industry know by nominating her here. We are accepting nominations until Sept. 25. 

Midmarket firm Peak Rock Capital in Austin, Texas has acquired Paragon Healthcare Inc. in a roughly $250 million deal, WSJ Pro Private Equity's Laura Cooper reports, citing a person familiar with the matter. Based in Dallas, Paragon Healthcare offers ambulatory and home infusion services as well as specialty pharmacy services.

Cerberus Capital Management joined with TCW Asset Management Co. and merchant bank Lantern Capital Partners to acquire educational products supplier School Specialty Inc. The Greenville, Wis.-based company saw a “sharp pullback” in its business at the end of the previous school year but has seen orders improve as the new school year begins, according to a news release.

Accel-KKR has carved out the Shipper TMS operation from Wabtec Corp.’s logistics software holdings and plans to combine it with recently acquired portfolio company PINC Solutions in Union City, Calif. The Shipper TMS business offers cloud-based shipping management software to companies in North America. PINC provides digital systems for managing shipping yards and other resources. Accel-KKR initially invested in PINC earlier this year.

Midmarket firm Silverfern Group has invested in American Medical Technologies alongside fellow private-equity investor One Equity Partners. Irvine, Calif.-based American Medical Technologies provides post-acute care programs, offering wound care services and other ancillary supplies to senior patients in long-term care settings, according to a press release.

Artemis Capital Partners, a Boston-based private-equity firm focused on industrial technology companies, has acquired Omega Optical LLC, a Brattleboro, Vt.-based manufacturer of precision optical filters and coatings used in a range of industries, including life sciences, aerospace and defense, instrumentation and semiconductors. Omega's existing management team, including Chief Executive Thomas Smith and founder Robert Johnson, now Omega's technical director, continue to lead the company and retain a significant ownership stake, according to a press release.

Pacific Equity Partners has offered to take private Australian software and services provider Citadel Group Ltd. for 5.70 Australian dollars (equivalent to about $4.15) per share in cash, or about 43% more than the stock’s previous close at A$3.98 per share before the offer. The deal by the Australian private-equity firms gives Citadel an enterprise value of about A$503.1 million, according to a regulatory filing in Sydney. The company’s board of directors has recommended the offer to shareholders.

Technology focused private-equity firm Georgian Partners Growth led a $60 million investment round in Devo Technology, a cloud-based data analytics company which also named Marc van Zadelhoff, a LogMeIn co-founder and chief operating officer, as its new chief executive. Joining Toronto-based Georgian in the Series D round were existing investor Insight Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Mr. van Zadelhoff replaces Walter Scott, who was named chairman of the Cambridge, Mass. company.

GI Partners is acquiring a majority stake in plumbing, heating and ventilation company American Residential Services LLC, investing in the company alongside backers that include Charlesbank Capital Partners, which is also making a new investment. The Memphis, Tenn.-based company operates a network that includes about 70 local service centers across 23 states. Charlesbank initially invested in the company in 2014.

Canadian private-equity firm NovaCap Management has agreed to buy a majority stake in GroupAssur Inc., a Montreal-based insurance agency specializing in property and casualty insurance lines.

Lower midmarket specialist Osceola Capital has recapitalized maintenance business Industry Services Co., investing in the company as it is finalizing a strategic acquisition of Guy Nielson Co. in Pocatello, Idaho. Mobile, Ala.-based Industry Service provides industrial and refractory maintenance services.

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

A blank-check company led by KKR & Co. veteran health-care investor Jim Momtazee and backed by his newly formed private-equity firm Patient Square Capital aims to raise $400 million for the purchase of a private company that will then be taken public, a regulatory filing shows. Mr. Momtazee, who helped form KKR’s health-care investment group in 2001, serves as chairman, president and chief executive of Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. Patient Square co-founder Maria Walker serves as the special purpose acquisition company’s chief financial officer. The SPAC is looking for an acquisition in the health-care sector, according to the filing.

Opendoor Labs Inc. is going public by being acquired by special purpose acquisition company Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. II in a cash and stock transaction pegging Opendoor’s enterprise value at $4.8 billion, Dave Sebastian reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal is expected to provide up to $1 billion in cash proceeds to the San Francisco-based online residential real estate company, including a fully committed private investment in public equity of $600 million at $10 a share and up to $414 million in cash held in the trust account of the SPAC, Opendoor said.

The blank-check company backed by former KKR & Co. executives Adam Clammer and Jamie Greene has raised $600 million from an upsized initial public offering that priced at $10 a share. TWC Tech Holdings II Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, is sponsored by True Wind Capital, the San Francisco private-equity firm Messrs. Clammer and Greene set up after leaving KKR. The new SPAC aims to buy a private business in a transaction valued at $1 billion to $10 billion.

Leonard Green & Partners and Florida Growth Fund LLC are selling aviation aftermarket company AerSale Corp. to Monocle Acquisition Corp., a blank-check acquisition company led by former private-equity executive Eric Zahler, for a reduced price of as much as $317 million, regulatory filings show. Mr. Zahler founded Sagamore Capital in 2008 after leaving Loral Space & Communications Inc., where he was president and chief operating officer. Monocle raised about $150 million through an initial public offering of shares early last year with the intent to purchase a privately held company in the aviation sector and take it public. The special purpose acquisition company originally agreed to pay about $400 million for Coral Gables, Fla.-based AerSale in a deal announced last December. Sellers also include members of the company’s management.

A health-care business backed by Warburg Pincus, D1 Capital Partners and funds overseen by Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price, among other investors, raised more than $242 million through an upsized initial public offering of shares at $27 each, $3 higher than the top of its previous expected price range, regulatory filings show. San Jose, Calif.-based Outset Medical Inc. supplies medical technology for use in hemodialysis treatments both in clinical and home settings. As its largest investor, Warburg Pincus controlled a 28% voting interest in the company going into the IPO.

Blackstone Group Inc. has named Reginald Brown, a partner with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, as a director. Mr. Brown, based in Washington, leads his law firm’s financial institutions group and its congressional investigations practice as vice chairman of its crisis management and strategic response group. He joined the Washington-based firm in 1997 and served in the George W. Bush White House from 2003 to 2005 as an associate counsel and special assistant to the president,

Apollo Global Management Inc. has named Marc Becker and Joanna Reiss as co-heads of Apollo Impact, a newly created investment group that focuses on economic opportunity, education, health, safety and wellness, as well as industrial modernization and resource sustainability, Matt Grossman reports for Dow Jones Newswires. In addition, the New York firm named Lisa Hall as chairman of Apollo Impact and Justin Stevens as its chief operating officer. Mr. Becker, a senior partner with the firm and a member of its investment committee, previously led private-equity investing in business services, transportation and logistics, financial services and other sectors. Ms. Reiss is joining the firm as a partner from Cornell Capital, where she was a founding partner. Ms. Hall joins the firm from Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, where she was a fellow and led its Fair Finance research. Mr. Stevens is a senior partner who helped form the firm’s previously publicly traded real estate investment trust and its technology transformation group, which works with portfolio companies.

Middle market firm Riordan Lewis & Haden Equity Partners has promoted Mike Orend to managing director and Stefan Jensen to principal. The Los Angeles firm also elevated Will Pacheco to senior associate.

High Street Capital has promoted Derek Gollnitz to vice president. Based in Chicago, he joined the firm last year and has worked for several firms, including Hamilton Lane Inc. and Aramar Capital Group.

Airport ground services and air-cargo handler Swissport International AG has reached a deal on a balance-sheet restructuring that will preserve its business under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, Peg Brickley reports for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The debt-for-equity swap will lighten the debt side of Swissport’s balance sheet as it contends with the impact of reduced air travel on its revenue. The company, whose owner HNA Group Co. will cede control to lenders, plans to try to find a buyer. But if there are no takers, it could wind up as the property of SVP Global, Apollo Global Management Inc., TowerBrook Capital Partners, Ares Management Corp., Barclays Bank PLC, Cross Ocean Partners and King Street Capital Management.

Ernst & Young, under fire for missing a suspected fraud that blew up German fintech company Wirecard AG, said auditors should play a bigger role in detecting such wrongdoing, challenging the accounting industry’s longstanding assertion that its job isn’t to seek out malpractice, Patricia Kowsmann and Jean Eaglesham write for the Journal.

The $413.05 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System's $25.5 billion private equity portfolio lost almost 5.1% of its value in this year's first quarter, Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. But the pension system expects the portfolio's value to have rebounded in the second quarter, based on June 30 numbers received so far from fund general partners, Dan Bienvenue, Calpers' interim chief investment officer, said at a public meeting of the system's board of administration on Monday. Calpers committed almost $9 billion to private equity investments in the year's first half. Meanwhile, the system's overseers plan to discuss limiting personal investments by the fund’s investment chief and potentially other officials following revelations that former investment chief Ben Meng held shares in one of its private-equity managers, Heather Gillers writes for The Wall Street Journal.

Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who previously invested in Slack and Box, is now wagering on home-flipping platform Opendoor Labs Inc., calling it his next big “10x idea.” On Tuesday, his special purpose acquisition company, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. II said it would combine with Opendoor in a transaction that gives the online real-estate platform an enterprise value of $4.8 billion, Laura Forman writes for Heard on the Street. 

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