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Investcorp Banks $1.2 Billion for Debut North American Fund | Corry Capital Closes Fourth Life Settlements Fund
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Hello, Pro readers! I’ve made it back from a week’s vacation in sunny Florida just in time for a snowstorm that is making its way across Massachusetts. I understand why so many of you set up offices down in the Sunshine State (although we’ll see how you’re feeling in July).
In this morning’s newsletter, our own Maria Armental has the scoop on Investcorp Holding’s first North America-focused fund, which closed with more than$1.2 billion in commitments. Meanwhile, Chris Cumming writes about the latest fund raised by Corry Capital Advisors, a firm that invests in life settlements, a strategy that typically gains popularity in more volatile markets.
Read on for more on these and other stories …
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Investcorp’s Dave Tayeh, seen at a 2019 event, aims to extend his firm’s reach in North America with its new $1.2 billion fund. PHOTO: LUCY NICHOLSON,REUTERS
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Alternative assets manager Investcorp Holdings has closed on more than $1.2 billion in commitments for its debut North America private-equity fund to make control investments in middle-market services businesses, Maria Armental reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. While Manama, Bahrain-based Investcorp has long backed North American midsize businesses, the new fund’s structure lets the firm broaden its investor base and take on larger deals in the region, said Dave Tayeh, head of private equity for North America. Backers of the vehicle, Investcorp North American Private Equity Fund I LP, include Canadian investment manager Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Carlyle
Group Inc.’s AlpInvest Partners, Mr. Tayeh said.
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Corry Capital Advisors, one of the oldest private investment firms focused exclusively on investments in life settlements, has raised some $484 million for its latest fund, Chris Cumming reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The firm has already invested around 65% of the new fund’s capital, according to its founder Bill Corry.
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$220 Billion
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Authorizations for share buybacks as of Feb. 17, a record for that point in the year, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis of S&P 500 and Russell 3000 companies.
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Clayton Dubilier & Rice has agreed to acquire Focus Financial Partners Inc. PHOTO: ANDRE M. CHANG/ZUMA PRESS
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Clayton Dubilier & Rice has agreed to acquire publicly traded wealth management firm Focus Financial Partners Inc. for $53 a share, according to a regulatory filing. Existing shareholder Stone Point Capital plans to retain a stake in the company and provide new equity financing as part of the proposed deal.
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Hamilton Lane Inc. led a $30 million investment in ESG-analysis systems provider Novata Inc., joined by new investor Microsoft Corp. through its climate innovation fund. Novata’s systems are used by more than 3,500 private companies and organizations to measure and evaluate a business’s environmental, social and corporate governance impacts, according to an emailed news release.
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Ares Management Corp. has acquired a controlling interest in fleet electrification company Current Trucking LLC and may invest as much as $250 million through the transaction, according to a news release. Ares is backing the Morristown, N.J.-based founder-led provider of systems used to develop, install and manage electric vehicle charging infrastructure through its infrastructure opportunities strategy. In December, the company set up an electric vehicle charging system for the Port of Virginia, including electric yard tractors.
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Triton Partners-backed manufacturer Renk GmbH in Augsburg, Germany said on Monday that it is exploring strategic alternatives which could involve an initial public offering of shares. The maker of power train components for defense, maritime and automotive companies said it has around 3,400 employees and expects to report fiscal 2022 revenue of about €850 million, the equivalent of $896.5 million. Triton first backed the business in October 2020, acquiring a roughly 90% stake from Volkswagen AG and minority investors, and obtained the rest of the shares through a squeeze by February 2021.
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Gamut Capital Management said it has joined Wellspring Capital Management in backing disposable tableware maker Hoffmaster Group Inc. Gamut invested in conjunction with the Oshkosh, Wis.-based company’s acquisition of foodservice paper producer Paterson Pacific Parchment Co.
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Credit-focused GoldenTree Asset Management said it has closed a €411 million collateralized loan obligation to be managed by its GoldenTree Loan Management II. The firm said the loan management arm has so far issued 22 CLOs totaling more than $12.5 billion since inception of the strategy in January 2017.
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CGI Inc., a publicly traded business and information technology consulting firm, said that it plans to enter an agreement to buy back 3,344,996 of its Class A shares held by Canadian pension manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, or CDPQ. Upon completion of the deal, CDPQ will still own 19.18 million Class A Shares, or around 8.16% of CGI's total outstanding shares, according to a press release.
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Turnspire Capital Partners in New York said it has acquired USG Water Solutions LLC from Veolia Environnement SA’s Veolia North America unit. USG Water Solutions, based in Atlanta and Perry, Ga., provides water asset management services to small and midsize utilities across 47 states and has more than 450 employees.
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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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A blank-check company backed by Mercato Management has agreed to combine with software holding company Nuvini Group in São Paulo in a deal that values the business at about $312 million. Mercato Partners Acquisition Corp., the special-purpose acquisition company backed by Mercato, raised around $230 million through an initial public offering of shares in November 2021, according to data provider Boardroom Alpha. But the SPAC said it expects to provide just $43 million to Nuvini, assuming no further shareholder redemptions before the deal closes. Founded in 2020, Nuvini buys and manages software-as-a-service companies in Latin America.
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NJOY is one of the few e-cigarette makers whose products have clearance from federal regulators.
PHOTO: ANGELA OWENS/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Altria Group Inc., maker of Marlboro brand cigarettes, is in advanced talks to buy e-cigarette startup NJOY Holdings Inc. for at least $2.75 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. NJOY’s backers include Mudrick Capital Management LP and Homewood Capital.
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Dallas-based private investment firm MPK Equity Partners has exited its investment in Unleashed Brands LLC, which the firm has sold to fellow private investment firm Seidler Equity Partners, according to a press release. MPK Equity initially partnered with AHR Growth Partners, Mantucket Capital and Michael Browning in 2018 to build a platform with trampoline park franchise chain Urban Air before creating Unleashed Brands in 2021 to develop and acquire other youth entertainment and enrichment brands. The company’s other brands now include Snapology, The Little Gym, XP League, Premier Martial Arts and Class 101, the release
stated.
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Lower midmarket firm Lincoln Road Global Management said it has realized its investment in paving company Brothers National LLC, which is also backed by Trivest Partners and is based in Manassas, Va. The company is being combined with Shoreline Equity Partners-backed Pavement Partners Holding LLC in Ashland, Va. Shoreline and Trivest maintain dual control of the combined business, which has been renamed Pave America LLC, while Lincoln is retaining a minority interest, according to a news release.
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Post Oak Energy Capital-backed RSI Holdings LLC has sold its equity stake in Refinery Specialties Inc. to Imperative Chemical Partners LLC, according to a press release. Hempstead, Texas-based RSI offers specialty chemicals and services to oil and gas companies, and Post Oak led a consortium of investors to acquire a controlling stake in the company back in 2012, the release stated.
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Growth-equity investor PSG has rounded up around $2.57 billion so far for PSG Europe II LP and related parallel funds, a regulatory filing indicates. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the fund include California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Texas Municipal Retirement System, Washington State Investment Board, State of Wisconsin Investment Board. The fund is denominated in euros and the amount raised indicated in the regulatory filing was converted from euros, according to a note in the filing.
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Consumer-focused private-equity Brynwood Partners has raised at least $500 million so far for Brynwood Partners IX LP, according to a regulatory filing. The filing does not specify an offering amount for the fund. Brynwood, which has built a reputation for its expertise in acquiring orphan brands of consumer product companies, raised $649 million for its previous private-equity fund back in 2018, according to a press release issued at the time.
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Darby International Capital has rounded up at least $250 million so far for DIC Latin American Fund IV LP, putting the fund more than halfway toward a $400 million offering amount indicated in a regulatory filing. The offering amount indicated in the recent filing is lower than the $600 million indicated for the fund in a separate regulatory filing dated in early 2022. One investor that has disclosed a commitment to the fund is IDB Invest, which said on its website that the fund is earmarked for credit investments in midmarket companies across Latin America and the Caribbean with a particular emphasis on climate investments.
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Peter Clare, Carlyle Group Inc.’s chief investment officer of corporate private equity and chairman of the Americas, plans to retire, effective April 30. Mr. Clare, who joined Carlyle in 1992 and was a founding member of the Asia Buyout team, is stepping down from Carlyle’s board of directors, effective immediately. In other announcements, Sandra Horbach and Brian Bernasek, co-heads of Carlyle’s U.S. buyout and growth platform, will oversee the firm’s private-equity business across the region in addition to their previous responsibilities.
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Warburg Pincus said it has appointed Martin Laguerre as a senior adviser to the firm, where he will be working with its capital solutions, financial services and business services units. Mr. Laguerre was previously executive vice president and global head of private equity as well as managing director, capital solutions at Canadian pension manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, according to a press release.
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Investcorp Holdings is opening an office in Tokyo and named former government minister Heizo Takenaka as chairman of Investcorp Japan, according to a news release. The Bahrain-based firm said the moves would allow it to expand in Japan. Mr. Takenaka served as minister for internal affairs and communications from 2005 to 2006. He currently teaches at Tokyo University and has been a member of Investcorp’s international advisory board since 2020.
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General Atlantic said it has named Samir Assaf as chairman of the Middle East and North Africa for the New York firm, which is extending its focus on the region. Currently a senior adviser to the firm, Mr. Assaf will focus on identifying potential investments in the region, where he continues to advise HSBC Holdings PLC in the area following more than two decades with the bank before he joined General Atlantic in 2021. He advises the bank’s group chairman and chief executive and serves as non-executive chairman of HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd. and HSBC Middle East Holdings BV, according to a news release.
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Growth investment firm Knox Lane in San Francisco said it has hired Ryan Buntain as head of investor relations, according to an emailed news release. He joins from Carlyle Group Inc., where he was a managing director and senior relationship manager.
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Advisory firm Cambridge Associates said it has expanded its executive leadership team, naming Harinder Soin as the firm’s chief data officer and Adam Lester as head of corporate strategy. Both men are the first to hold these positions, according to a press release. Mr. Soin joined Cambridge in 2016 while Mr. Lester joined the firm in 2022, the release stated.
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H.I.G. Capital said it has added Colin Hannaway as a managing director in the firm’s capital formation group, according to a news release. Mr. Hannaway previously served as a managing director in the private funds group at Houlihan Lokey, the release stated.
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Global miners are spending billions of dollars on deals and raising budgets for new projects in a bet on the energy transition, changing course from a decadelong focus on shareholder payouts, Rhiannon Hoyle reports for The Wall Street Journal. Miners are also holding more cash on their balance sheet for projects, marking a shift from previous years when they sought to bump up their dividends or buy back stock.
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Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s private-equity portfolio generated a 13.7% return for the year ending Dec. 31, 2022, making it one of the Canadian pension manager’s highest performing asset classes for the second year in a row, according to its latest annual report.
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Financial services company Apex Group Ltd. said it is offering a new data service that private markets investors can use to gauge environmental, social and corporate governance impacts of portfolio companies and potential acquisitions. The data include carbon footprint details, socially impactful products and services, cybersecurity breach risk and diversity information, according to an emailed news release.
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