Good day! As we kick off another week, there's pain and promise in the oil patch. Infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners is combining its Hess Infrastructure Partners assets to Hess Midstream Partners LP in a deal that gives the combined company an enterprise value of $7.25 billion. 

Meanwhile, EP Energy, an exploration and production company backed by Apollo Global Management, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest U.S. energy bankruptcy since 2016. Finally, Chris Cumming writes that pricing for certain secondary interests may be shifting in favor of buyers, provided they aren't purchasing large brand-name funds. 

Read on for more detail...

Hess Midstream Partners LP would acquire Global Infrastructure Partners-backed Hess Infrastructure Partners in a deal aimed at simplifying the structure of its oil production, gathering and distribution assets that mainly serve North Dakota’s Bakken shale region.The deal outlined Friday includes Hess Infrastructure’s water-services business, its 80% interest in Hess Midstream’s oil-and-gas assets and outstanding economic partner interest and incentive distribution rights in Hess Midstream. The companies valued the cash-and-stock transaction at $6.2 billion and said the resulting company would have an enterprise value of more than $7.25 billion.

EP Energy Corp. filed for Chapter 11 protection, hoping to survive a commodity slump by cutting $3.3 billion in debt under a proposed deal with Apollo Global Management LLC and Elliott Management Corp. EP joined 33 other oil-and-gas companies that have collapsed into bankruptcy this year, according to data from law firm Haynes & Boone LLP, as low energy prices and excessive debt loads take their toll.

Prices in the secondary market are shifting in favor of buyers—as long as they aren't shopping for a brand-name fund. Despite the growing competition and dry powder earmarked for such deals, prices in the secondary market have been slowly easing off a peak reached in 2017. The average price of stake sales dipped to 93% of net asset value during the first nine months of this year, down from 96% two years ago, according to placement agent Triago. Read more in Cumming's Take.

A bid from Austrian manufacturer AMS AG to take private German lighting maker Osram Licht AG for €41 ($45) a share failed to win over enough investors, AMS said Friday. But the company indicated that it will continue to press its bid after more than 51% of shareholders accepted it, short of the required 62.5%. Rival joint bidders Bain Capital and Advent International have vowed to offer a “meaningful premium” to the Austrian’s bid, which represents a 42% premium to Osram’s undisturbed share price of €28.92.

French glass bottle maker Verallia’s shares rose about 3% Friday in their first day of trading on Euronext Paris to close at €28.10 after the company priced its initial public offering at €27 a share. The world’s third-largest maker of glass bottles and jars raised about €888 million in the IPO. The deal gave the company an enterprise value of €3.2 billion. Apollo Global Management acquired Verallia in 2015 for €2.95 billion in a corporate carve out from Saint-Gobain, a French industrial conglomerate. The New York firm invested in Verallia through its eighth flagship fund and still lists it as a current holding, although Verallia said €838 million of the IPO shares were sold by an Apollo affiliate.

Advent International has acquired Enamor, a women’s innerwear brand in India, from firms including India Alternatives and Faering Capital for a combined equity value of approximately Rs 320 crore ($45.18 million). Started in 2001 with Barbara of France, the joint venture markets lingerie and sportswear, and its clothing is sold in more than 4,500 locations around the country, Advent said. The deal is the firm’s eighth investment in India in the past four years.

Australia’s Ticketek agency is being acquired by Silver Lake Partners from Affinity Equity Partners, the company said Friday. Ticketek’s parent, Sydney-based TEG Pty Ltd., said its senior management, led by Chief Executive Geoff Jones, will remain significant investors in the company. Silver Lake, based in Menlo Park, Calif., brings “deep technology expertise” to Ticketek as it seeks to expand beyond bookings for more than 135 venues across 13 countries, the company said. Ticketek delivers tickets to 30 million customers for more than 30,000 events annually.

LDC, the private-equity arm of London’s Lloyds Banking Group, has sold FC Business Intelligence to Thomson Reuters Corp. The producer of high-end conferences and exhibitions is being rebranded as Reuters Events and will be operated as part of the Toronto-based company’s Reuters News division. LDC bought FC Business in August 2018.

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

Growth investor Winslow Capital Management has set its sights on raising $400 million for its second growth investment vehicle, Winslow Growth Capital Fund II LP, a securities filing shows. The goal doubles the firm’s first growth fund target of $200 million, which was set in 2013. The strategy invests in late-stage startups as well as more seasoned businesses, and has no performance benchmark, Winslow said in an August regulatory filing. Winslow is owned by Nuveen LLC, the asset management arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. Nuveen had about $226 billion in alternative assets under management at the end of June, according to its website.

Venture-backed companies going public so far this year have raised more money than in any full year on record, including during the dot-com boom. These companies, some with international operations such as Uber Technologies Inc., raised $23.3 billion in initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges in the first three quarters of the year, according to VentureSource, a data provider owned by WSJ Pro publisher Dow Jones & Co. The previous record was in 2000, when companies raised $20.4 billion in the full year. Adjusted for inflation, the 2000 figure is equivalent to $30.3 billion in today’s dollars.

U.S. unemployment dropped to a half-century low in September and job growth continued at a modest pace, signs the economy is holding up despite a broader global slowdown. The jobless rate dropped to 3.5% in September from 3.7% in August, marking the lowest rate since December 1969 when it also logged in at 3.5%. Employers added 136,000 jobs in September, and payrolls for August and July were revised up, the Labor Department reported Friday. Job gains and historically low unemployment have helped buffer the U.S. economy against weakness in manufacturing at home and abroad that have stoked concerns of a deepening slowdown.

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