It’s Friday and the weather has finally warmed up here in Boston long enough for the giant piles of snow sitting on my lawn to melt down. In this morning’s newsletter, Chris Cumming looks at a hospital dispute in Oregon that might be one of the bigger tests of a recently passed state law that restricts private-equity influence over the state’s healthcare providers.

Meanwhile, our colleagues over at Barron’s look at the growing importance of payment-in-kind loans in the world of private credit and our Journal colleagues have news of yet another interval fund that received more redemption requests than it is willing to accommodate. Finally, we continue to spotlight the senior dealmaker honorees on this year’s Women to Watch list with a short profile of Stephanie Hui.

Dive in for more and have a great weekend…

Authorities in Oregon are weighing whether they can use a new anti-private-equity law to prevent an out-of-state physician group from taking over emergency services in the main hospital serving the city of Eugene, Chris Cumming writes for WSJ Pro. But there are a few hurdles: The physician group says it isn’t connected to private equity, and state authorities don’t know whether the new law applies.

As investors fall out of love with private credit investments, they are now focusing on an arcane metric called paid in kind interest—an IOU that borrowers give to lenders, in lieu of cash, Bill Alpert writes for sister publication Barron's. Stretched borrowers use PIK instead of cash to meet interest payments. When that happens to a business development company (BDC), it just increases the borrower’s debt. But BDCs still count these noncash PIK receipts as interest income, and count it toward their management fees. The rising number of private-credit loans that have fallen into the PIK category “is certainly a sign of stress,” according to Ron Kahn, who runs a unit at the Chicago investment bank Lincoln International that does valuations for about a third of all U.S. private credit loans.

Morgan Stanley's credit-focused North Haven Private Income Fund is among the latest retail-oriented private-markets vehicles to say it won’t give back all the money sought by investors who want out, Margot Patrick reports for the Journal, citing a letter from the bank to fund investors. Shareholders asked to redeem 10.9% of the fund’s $7.6 billion in assets, but the fund manager is sticking to its 5% redemption limit. Investors seeking to exit will get a pro-rated amount, representing about 46% of their requests, according to the letter.

HarbourView Equity Partners, a private investment firm focused on music, sports, media and entertainment, is acquiring certain music and non-music assets from the estate of legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones. The transaction includes Jones' recorded music and publishing assets, as well as other ancillary rights, including his participation in the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Apollo Global Management has become the majority owner of professional soccer club Atlético de Madrid, closing a previously announced deal through the firm's Apollo Sports Capital arm. The New York firm's deal included Quantum Pacific Group retaining its stake as the second-largest owner and Ares Management remaining as an investor.

Brighton Park Capital and Goldman Sachs Alternatives led a $100 million investment in Oro Labs, a provider of AI-driven technology that helps businesses manage procurement. Existing backers that also participated include Norwest Venture Partners, B Capital, XYZ Capital and Felicis.

Brookfield Asset Management has acquired the 280-room Rydges Wellington and the 84-room Sofitel Queenstown, both in New Zealand, for the equivalent of about $147.8 million. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund was among the sellers, according to local news reports.

ArcLight Capital Partners is buying a 50% stake in Invenergy AMPCI Thermal Power from InfraBridge, a unit of DigitalBridge Group. Invenergy AMPCI Thermal Power is a joint venture launched in 2018 between Invenergy Clean Power and InfraBridge. The joint venture has a diversified portfolio of 11 power infrastructure assets located across North America. Invenergy will retain its stake in the joint venture and its operational role.

BlackFin Capital Partners in Paris and fund manager Sentinel Global in San Francisco led a $45 million growth investment in software developer Cryptio, joined by existing backer BlueYard Capital in Berlin as well as several others. The London company's applications are used in back-office services involving digital currencies as well as enterprise management.

Midmarket investor Radial Equity Partners in New York is backing food-processing industry supplier Thomas Precision Machining. The Rice Lake, Wis.-based company services equipment and supplies replacement parts.

Backcast Partners is making a debt investment in Sisu Energy & Environmental, a Tulsa, Okla.-based provider of design, engineering, installation, and maintenance services for exhaust system casings for gas turbines.

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

Inflexion co-founder Simon Turner is taking on a new role as non-executive chairman of private credit-focused AshGrove Capital, where he has been a senior adviser and limited partner, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The firm has also named co-founders Phil Fretwell and Jonathon Ferguson as managing partners after they bought out certain investors and fellow co-founder Ilkka Rantanen, who remains an investor.

Asset manager GCM Grosvenor in Chicago has added Steven Novick as a managing director focusing on business development and based in London. He was previously with Valeas Capital.

Great Range Capital, a Kansas City, Kan.-based private equity firm, said it has tapped Ryan Moody to lead the firm’s search for a platform investment in the industrial compliance services sector. Moody previously served as president and chief executive for ABS Group.

The private-equity arm of investment manager PPM America, PPM America Capital Partners, has elevated Tiffany Luna to partner. She joined in 2011.

Deutsche Bank plans to increase its private-credit offerings through its asset-management unit, DWS, while acknowledging "potential interconnected risks" in the asset class, Nora Redmond reports for MarketWatch. The German investment bank's annual report, released Thursday, shows a 5.7% increase in its private credit holdings to €25.9 billion, or about $29.96 billion, last year from 2024. Midmarket U.S. and European corporate loans comprise almost three-quarters of the total. Deutsche Bank also noted rising concerns regarding technology sector valuations and the sustainability of trends in artificial intelligence.

Charlesbank Capital Partners in Boston is backing secondaries-focused Overbay Capital Partners in Toronto with an investment that values the Canadian firm at about $147 million, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources and a statement as well as an Overbay executive. Overbay, which didn't comment on the valuation, remains independent of Charlesbank following the growth investment.

Private credit defaults stand "a good chance" of doubling over the next five years from a 10-year average of 2.6% annually, Partners Group Chairman Steffen Meister told the Financial Times in an interview. The Swiss firm's assets of $185 billion include debt. He cited artificial intelligence-driven economic changes and noted the potential downside of credit investing versus capped upsides.

Direct lending to support leveraged buyouts rose about 22% through the first two months of this year compared with the year-earlier period, but showed signs of slowing in February, according to the KBRA DLD unit of KBRA Analytics. The researchers cited artificial intelligence sector repricing and redemption pressure at business development companies as well as escalating geopolitical tensions as factors in the February slowdown.

Antin Infrastructure Partners ended last year with assets of €33.8 billion, or $39.1 billion, up around 1.2% from a year earlier, and is set to begin raising its second mid-cap fund later this year after its first vehicle in the strategy made its final investment in February. The Paris-listed firm's 2025 net income fell 19% to €106.9 million.

Asset manager Franklin Templeton is introducing private credit and real estate assets to certain target-date funds designed for inclusion in 401(k) savings plans, citing the need to meet the varying needs of participants "where they are." The $1.7 trillion asset manager is adding the asset classes to its Retirement Advantage Plus Funds. Allocations to both real estate and private credit would be "modest," the firm said.

Andrea Bertolini, head of financial services at U.K.-based private-equity firm Inflexion warned that many U.K. wealth managers are falling short in their ability to gather basic data metrics due to a lack of investment in their information systems, sister publication Financial News reports.

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