Good day and welcome to the Private Equity Pro newsletter. As we start a week with no shortage of tense news stories to watch—from the wildfires out West to stock-market swings and pre-election jitters—the news from private equity feels refreshingly normal this Monday, as the industry continues slowly getting back to its traditional rhythm. Bankers report that deal flow, in particular, is picking back up, and today our Laura Kreutzer has news of Ardian’s latest infrastructure wager: a joint venture with Enel X to fund battery-storage projects in Canada. The firm is betting that the need for energy storage will grow as businesses shift to using energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Meanwhile, Clayton Dubilier & Rice has notched the largest-ever fund in its more than 40-year history, as Isaac Taylor reports. The firm has raised about $12 billion so far, based on a regulatory filing, which doesn't show whether it has held a final close. Either way, it continues a gradual growth in the buyout shop’s fund sizes over the past few years, exceeding the $10 billion tenth fund raised in 2017.

Now on to today's news...

Ardian Infrastructure is betting on growing demand for efficient energy storage with its first infrastructure investment in Canada, Laura Kreutzer writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The infrastructure unit of Paris-based investor Ardian is forming a joint venture with Enel X, the advanced energy services unit of energy company Enel Group, to acquire and fund battery-storage projects across the Canadian province of Ontario.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice is well on its way to raising its largest buyout fund to date, Isaac Taylor reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The buyout firm in a regulatory filing indicated it had raised around $12 billion as of Sept. 1 for Clayton Dubilier & Rice Fund XI LP, which ranks the new fund as the firm’s largest to date.

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.

HIG Europe, the European affiliate of HIG Capital, said it has acquired a controlling stake in Italian information technology company DGS S.p.A. The Rome-based company helps companies design, maintain and integrate complex IT systems, particularly in digital transformation and cybersecurity services, according to a press release. Vincenzo Fiengo and Salvatore Frosina, founders and co-chief executives of the company, will reinvest in it alongside HIG and will continue to lead it, the release said.

UBX, a Minneapolis-based private-equity fund focused on investments in U.S.-designated opportunity zones, said it has backed ASDAL Inc., a Minneapolis-based e-commerce software company.

Imaweb/ IDF Group, a customer relationship management software company backed by Providence Strategic Growth, said it has acquired TMS-Soft, a French company that provides digital car registration workflow software. Providence helped form Imaweb/ IDF Group in September 2019.

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

Europe has missed out on the wave of initial public offerings of so-called blank-check companies, one of the drivers of equity-markets activity in the U.S. this year. To help address this dearth, the London Stock Exchange is reviewing ways to ignite its market for such offerings, WSJ's Ben Dummett reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.

TWC Tech Holdings II, a special purpose acquisition company formed by executives of San Francisco-based private-equity firm True Wind Capital Management, has raised $525 million in an initial public offering. The company has also entered into agreements to sell another $100 million of shares to several institutional accredited investors upon the SPAC’s initial business combination.

Broadstone Acquisition Corp., a blank check company focused on sound but stressed businesses in the U.K. or Europe, has priced a $300 million initial public offering.

BV Investment Partners stands to generate a 2.6-times return on the sale of compliance software and services provider Franco Signor, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The midmarket firm has sold the company to publicly traded data analytics company Verisk for around $160 million, according to a Verisk press release. BV initially invested in Franco Signor, which offers software that helps insurers and other organizations manage medicare payments, in 2019.

Publicly traded Bruker Corporation said it is acquiring private-equity backed Canopy Biosciences, LLC, a company that provides research tools for molecular biology and personalized medicine. Canopy is backed by Ampersand Capital Partners, a health-care focused growth investor.

Santander has spun out its fintech venture capital arm and doubled its allocated funds to $400 million, James Booth writes for sister publication Private Equity News. The Spanish bank said the business would be managed autonomously and lead funding rounds with initial investments of up to $15 million. The new brand—Mouro Capital—will succeed the bank's existing fintech investment business Santander Innoventures, the bank said in a statement.

Data infrastructure investment firm Digital Colony said it has appointed Matty Yohannan as chief of staff to Chief Executive Marc Ganzi. Mr. Yohannan has more than 20 years of investing and fundraising experience and joins Digital Colony from Deacon Arch Partners, a family office and investment advisory firm that he founded.

HGGC said it is adding nine professionals across its investment and operations staff and promoting four others. Among the nine new professionals are six new associates on its investment team and three new members of its operations team.

Banking, long dominated by men, now outpaces other industries in promoting women, a point underscored this week when Citigroup Inc. named Jane Fraser as its next chief executive, Chip Cutter and Vanessa Fuhrmans report for The Wall Street Journal. The industry has made strides in recent years in elevating women, giving them jobs that place them on the executive track—and potentially in the corner office. When Ms. Fraser at Citi succeeds Michael Corbat upon his retirement in February, she will become the first woman to run a major Wall Street bank.

Corporate deal makers are reviewing previously agreed-upon merger-and-acquisition agreements, as the coronavirus pandemic roils businesses and complicates the due-diligence process, Nina Trentmann writes for CFO Journal. U.S. companies canceled 82 deals totaling $111.2 billion this year through last Wednesday, up from 58 transactions totaling $50.4 billion that were withdrawn during the same period last year, according to Dealogic, a data provider.

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Ted Bunker; Laura Cooper; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; William Louch; Preeti Singh; Chitra Vemuri.

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