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Private-Markets Firms Back Paramount's Hostile Bid for Warner | Haven Energy Snags $40 Million
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Good morning, and welcome to the WSJ Pro Private Equity newsletter.
Lauren Thomas of the Journal has the details on Paramount's $78 billion offer for Warner Bros., including the private-markets firms and sovereign-wealth funds planning to backstop the takeover.
Luis Garcia of WSJ Pro reports that solar power and battery systems company Haven Energy has raised about $40 million in debt and equity.
Now onto the news ...
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Paramount is run by David Ellison. JEENAH MOON/REUTERS
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RedBird Capital and the Ellison family are backstopping Paramount’s roughly $77.9 billion hostile bid for Warner Brothers Discovery just days after the company agreed to a roughly $72 billion deal with Netflix, Lauren Thomas writes for The Wall Street Journal. Affinity Partners, the private-equity firm of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia,
Abu Dhabi and Qatar are also pledging equity commitments, while Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management are pledging $54 billion of debt for the deal.
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Haven Energy has raised a total of $40 million in equity and debt financing to install more solar panels in California homes with batteries that it leases, betting the strategy best addresses the hurdles facing the residential-solar sector, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro. London-based Giant Ventures is leading a $15 million equity investment in the company, while Turtle Hill Capital, a private credit firm focused on clean energy, is providing $25 million in debt.
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-5%
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The approximate decline in private-equity deal counts between January and October compared to the year-ago period, according to a report by investment bank DC Advisory.
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Rob McElhenney, known professionally as Rob Mac, and Ryan Reynolds, co-owners of Wrexham AFC. KYA BANASKO/GETTY IMAGES
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Apollo Global Management’s Apollo Sports Capital affiliate is taking a minority investment in professional Welsh soccer club Wrexham AFC, joining majority shareholders Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds. The investment will also support the redevelopment of Wrexham’s STōK Cae Ras stadium and follows a 2024 minority investment from the Allyn family office.
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PAI Partners has agreed to acquire Innovad Group from fellow European private-equity firm IK Partners, which had backed the company through its IK IX fund, which closed with €2.85 billion, or about $3.32 billion, in 2020. Antwerp, Belgium-based Innovad offers specialty additives for animal health and nutrition products, particularly ones focused on poultry, ruminant and swine species.
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Scandinavian private-equity firm Altor has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Finnish water and waste management company Evac Holding from European private equity firm Bridgepoint. Bloomberg News reported that the transaction values Evac at more than €600 million, or $698.3 million, citing people familiar with the deal.
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KKR is providing €300 million, or about $349 million, to finance Tristan Capital Partners’ acquisition of European budget hotel operator easyHotel. Tristan Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm with about €15 billion under management, bought easyHotel in June in a deal valued at more than €400 million.
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Berkshire Partners is investing in United Flow Technologies, which provides products and services to the municipal and industrial wastewater treatment markets. H.I.G. Capital, which established the company in 2021, will retain a minority stake.
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Real assets investment firm Stonepeak Capital has backed the launch of Peregrine Cold Logistics, a Singapore-based business that will back cold-supply chain assets across the Asia Pacific region. The new platform has also backed its initial deal with an investment in Pinnacle Cold Storage, a cold storage business in the Philippines.
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Pritzker Private Capital-backed packaging and materials company ProAmpac has agreed to acquire TC Transcontinental Packaging from publicly traded TC Transcontinental for around $1.51 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.
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Healthcare-focused firm WindRose Health Investors is backing Stellus Rx, a Plano, Texas-based technology-enabled pharmacy management business. The firm backed the deal out of its newest fund, which recently closed with $2.6 billion, WSJ Pro Private Equity reported.
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Axle Point Capital, a recently formed aerospace- and defense-focused private-equity firm based in Newport Beach, Calif., has closed its first deal with an investment in Odyssey Space Research, which provides flight software and engineering services supporting critical U.S. space and defense programs. Axle Point is backing the transaction in partnership with Colorado Springs, Colo.-based One Bow River’s One Bow River National Defense Fund, which provided equity for the deal.
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Midmarket software investment firm Level Equity made a growth investment in ECP, a software provider for assisted-living facilities, with the participation of some of ECP’s previous investors.
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Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.
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SPX Flow makes industrial pumps and valves like this one for processing materials. Photo: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
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Lone Star Funds has agreed to sell industrial-equipment maker SPX Flow to publicly traded ITT for nearly $4.8 billion in cash and stock, Dow Jones’ Colin Kellaher writes. ITT on Friday said SPX Flow, which generated $1.3 billion in revenue for the 12 months ended Sept. 27 and has about 3,800 employees, would join its industrial-process segment.
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Medical-supply giant Medline intends to sell 179 million shares at $26 to $30 apiece in a planned initial public offering that seeks to raise more than $5 billion at the midrange of the pricing range, according to a securities filing. Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman took the company private in 2021 in a roughly $34 billion deal, including debt. The three remain Medline’s largest shareholders. Other significant shareholders
are Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Cornerstone investors, including Baillie Gifford and GIC, have indicated interest in buying up to $2.35 billion worth of Class A stock.
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U.K.-based Inflexion has been pitching the sale of U.K. accounting and tax consultancy TC Group to bankers in recent months, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News. Inflexion initially acquired a majority stake in the company in 2023.
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Energy Capital Partners has agreed to sell natural gas supply, storage and asset management company Symmetry Energy Solutions to NextEra Energy Resources. Energy Capital Partners initially acquired CenterPoint Energy’s unregulated gas retail platform in June 2020 and later renamed it Symmetry Energy Solutions.
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Main Post Partners has completed the sale of KUIU to an investor group of families and businesses. Main Post initially invested in the Dixon, Calif.-based provider of direct-to-consumer, technical hunting apparel and gear back in 2017.
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Goldman Sachs has raised a total of around $1.8 billion so far for its latest global infrastructure fund, West Street Infrastructure Partners V, regulatory filings show. The amount indicated in the filing is nearly half the $4 billion that Goldman raised for the fund’s predecessor, which closed in 2023.
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North Sky Capital is seeking $250 million for secondary fund Clean Growth Fund VII, according to a regulatory filing. The fund’s $250 million goal is roughly equal to the size of the fund’s predecessor, which closed last year.
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Investment vehicles managed by sports specialist Arctos Partners and Todd Boehly's Eldridge Industries are receiving a significant percentage of initial asset allocations from a 40 Act fund being raised and managed by registered investment adviser CAIS Advisors to invest in sports, media and entertainment businesses. CAIS expects the vehicle to hold investments in major league sports teams in North America as well as music, video and live events properties. Accredited investors can participate in the vehicle, CAIS Sports, Media and Entertainment Fund,
for a minimum investment of $25,000.
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Neuberger Berman has hired Steven Meier in a newly created role of vice chair of institutional, where he will deliver investment insights and thought leadership to U.S. public pension funds and other global institutional investors. Meier previously served as chief investment officer of the New York City Bureau of Asset Management and New York City deputy comptroller.
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LGT Capital Partners and global asset management firm Invesco are joining forces to offer multi-alternative private markets investment products, with an initial focus on U.S. wealth and retirement markets. Invesco managed more than $1 trillion for wealthy U.S. clients as of Sept. 30.
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Lenders to EQT-backed Colisée are taking ownership of the European elder-care company, which has suffered from margin deterioration and other financial troubles since 2022. EQT bought a majority stake in Colisée in 2020, and, despite some growth, had to put in place a recapitalization plan to change the company’s debt structure. The lenders, however, are imposing their own plan, which will result in EQT losing its stake in the company.
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