Good morning! The holidays may be close, but we haven’t slowed our flow of stories.

Institutional investors fear that the rush of retail money into private-equity funds will limit their access to deals and compress returns in the asset class, my colleague Chris Cumming writes.

Also, the Journal’s Heather Gillers reports on the rising number of deals targeting providers of private-assets data, a trend that reflects the increased value of information in a market known for its opacity.

Now onto the news...

Private equity’s old money is not happy about the new. The private markets, long the preserve of institutional investors, are being reshaped by a surge of capital from wealthy individuals, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming reports. Evergreen funds designed for this huge pool of retail investors have raised around $450 billion, most of it in the past several years, according to PitchBook and Morningstar. While a lifesaver for some private-equity firms, which have struggled to raise money from institutional investors for nearly four years, those traditional fund backers say the influx of retail capital threatens to erode returns and is starting to crowd them out, costing them access to some deals.

Selling data on private equity and private credit is becoming big business on Wall Street. In a market where opacity is the whole point, it is also a tricky feat, Heather Gillers writes for the Journal. S&P Global last month became the latest Wall Street behemoth to shell out for a private-asset data provider through its plan to buy With Intelligence for $1.8 billion. BlackRock paid $3.2 billion for Preqin in March, MSCI acquired Burgiss for $900 million in 2023 and Morningstar nabbed PitchBook for $200 million in 2016. The drumbeat of acquisitions underscores both how precious private-market data has become, and how limited the information still is.

WSJ Pro is extending the deadline for nominations to our next annual Women to Watch list by one week to Nov. 26. The list, now in its tenth year, highlights the accomplishments of outstanding women in the private-equity and private-credit fields. We're accepting nominations for the next class of senior deal professionals, rising star deal professionals, as well as limited-partner or fundraising professionals through Nov. 26. Submit your nominations here.

Investment firm IDG Capital is in talks with China's Moonshot AI over a growth investment round that could boost its valuation to about $4 billion, the Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Beijing-based Moonshot could receive several hundred million dollars from the investment round, some of the people said. Moonshot and IDG didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The company is known for producing long-form text analysis.

Avista Healthcare Partners-backed Cosette Pharmaceuticals, which the firm and Hamilton Lane jointly control, had its attempt to acquire Mayne Pharma for $387.2 million blocked by Australian government authorities. David Winning reports for the Journal that the government cited a need to protect critical medical supply chains and that no conditions could be attached to the deal to allow it to proceed. Mayne Pharma's business is mainly in the U.S., but the company also owns a manufacturing site in Salisbury, South Australia, which employs more than 200 people. Cosette is based in Bridgewater, N.J.

European buyout firm ICG has closed on €2 billion, or about $2.31 billion, for a special-purpose vehicle to refinance Funecap Group, a provider of funeral services for people and pets. The London firm was joined by limited partners seeking to continue backing the company, which operates in Europe and North America and has been backed by ICG since 2015. Law firm Mayer Brown advised ICG on the senior secured bond financing for the Paris company.

European asset manager EQT AB's EQT Future, the Stockholm firm’s private-equity strategy that focuses on climate change mitigation as well as health and wellness, is buying a majority stake in Belgian filtration company Desotec from buyout firm Blackstone in New York. German family offices Athos and Merckle will co-invest alongside EQT in the company. Blackstone, which acquired Desotec in 2021, will retain a minority interest. Bloomberg News reported that the deal values Desotec at around €2 billion, or roughly $2.3 billion, citing people familiar with the transaction.

NewSpring Capital's growth strategy led a $42.5 million financing deal for life sciences industry services provider Sorcero. The Washington, D.C.-based company uses  artificial-intelligence technology to provide data and analytics to drugmakers and others.

Growth investment firm TA Associates in Boston has acquired a minority stake in Aeris, a software-as-a-service provider offering technology that helps businesses and organizations manage and secure connected devices, including more than 41 million vehicles.

Private-equity investor Pelican Energy Partners in Houston has acquired industrial manufacturer Hanna Cylinders as part of a roll-up strategy focused on specialty equipment suppliers to the energy industry, including nuclear power plant developers and operators. Pleasant Prairie, Wis.-based Hanna makes parts for hydraulic and pneumatic systems.

Guardian Capital Partners is backing engineered components supplier Raptor Power Systems through a majority recapitalization, joined by EA Advisors and the company's founding family. The Champaign, Ill., company has two production sites supplying panels, switches and other electrical gear.

Winterford Capital, an investment firm in Houston that backs smaller companies, is investing in family owned and operated Florida Powertrain & Hydraulics, according to a release posted on LinkedIn and an announcement from Heritage Capital Group, which advised the company. Winterford typically invests $5 million to $100 million in businesses that generate revenue of $5 million to $100 million.

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

RedBird IMI is in the process of trying to sell Britain's Daily Telegraph with the family-owned group that publishes the Daily Mail in a transaction worth £500 million, or about $655 million, Ben Dummett reports for the Journal. Controlled by Britain’s Rothermere family, Daily Mail and General Trust said it  would preserve the paper’s editorial independence and doesn't expect the deal to encounter regulatory problems. RedBird Capital Partners and U.A.E. investment group IMI earlier formed a partnership to acquire the Telegraph but the U.K. government blocked the deal.

Partners Group-backed Esentia Energy Development, which operates natural gas pipelines in Mexico, priced its initial public offering at 45 pesos, or $2.45, a share in Mexico City. The company offered 224 million shares. Switzerland-based Partners continues to hold about 70% of the company after the IPO.

Buyout firm CVC Capital Partners is selling financial administration software company Vitech Systems Group to Thoma Bravo-backed Majesco, a life insurance industry software provider. CVC first invested in Vitech in 2019 and is retaining a minority interest in the transaction.

Financial services specialist investor J.C. Flowers & Co. is selling Island Finance, a consumer-focused company in Puerto Rico, to VRM Penzini Capital. The consumer finance business has 500 employees and 47 branch offices in Puerto Rico. J.C. Flowers acquired the business from Santander Financial Services in 2017.

African alternative asset manager Enko Capital aims to raise as much as $200 million for a new private-credit impact fund and has received a $30 million commitment from Public Investment Corp. in South Africa. Enko, with about $1.4 billion in assets under management, is diversifying into private credit to offer financing to midmarket businesses in the region. It held a first close for the credit vehicle last month with $100 million in commitments.

Kester Capital in London has closed on £425 million, or about $555.6 million, for its fourth flagship vehicle, Kester Capital Fund IV, reaching the fund's hard cap in just four months. The new pool is more than twice as big as its predecessor, which the firm closed last year with £200 million.

Spanish soccer team Real Madrid may soon offer a 5% stake in the club to an external investor, Bloomberg News reported, citing Florentino Pérez, the team chairman. Speaking during Real Madrid's annual general assembly, Pérez said the team would set up a structure to hold the interest, subject to a vote of the nonprofit organization's member-owners consisting of team fans. He described the move as a way to assess Real Madrid's market value.

Midmarket private-equity firm Cap10 Partners in London bought out anchor investor Carmignac, a French asset manager, in June and has been mostly managing its own balance sheet since then, Lars Mucklejohn reports for sister publication Financial News in London, citing a person familiar with the matter. The firm may seek to raise outside capital on a deal-by-deal basis in the future as well, the person said. Both Cap10 and Carmignac declined to comment.

Midmarket companies whose private-credit loans are bundled into collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, may face stronger headwinds but so far they remain healthy on average, according to an emailed report from S&P Global Ratings. The credit evaluator figures many credit metrics for the group have been improving recently, with gains of over 60% for both revenue and earnings compared with a year earlier. But tighter credit spreads, reflecting the cost of borrowing, are beginning to have some effects, with more borrowers turning back to broadly syndicated loans, S&P said.

Send us your tips, suggestions and feedback. Write to:

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

Follow us on Twitter:@wsjpe, @LHVGarcia, @LauraKreutzer