Good day and welcome to the Pro Private Equity newsletter. The traditional last weekend of summer is approaching and much of the private-equity industry is likely preparing for a little time off. The dispute around the Neiman Marcus bankruptcy entered a dramatic new phase Thursday, with the arrest on fraud charges of Dan Kamensky, founder of Marble Ridge Capital LP. For those who haven't been keeping up-to-date on the story, Mr. Kamensky has a long history of bad blood with the bankrupt retailer’s private-equity backers, Ares Management Corp. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who he claims looted Neiman. Mr. Kamensky even won a settlement, but that victory may turn out to be his undoing, as WSJ Pro Bankruptcy’s Andrew Scurria and Soma Biswas report. New York prosecutors now claim he rigged the sale of the e-commerce division of the bankrupt retailer.

Elsewhere, WSJ Pro's Preeti Singh interviews Gabrielle Zadra of the consultancy Cliffwater LLC, who looks at previous down cycles to offers insights on how to manage the investment challenges presented by the coronavirus. Please read on...

Note: WSJ Pro Private Equity won't publish a newsletter Monday, in observance of Labor Day in the U.S.. We will return on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Hedge-fund manager Dan Kamensky faces fraud charges for trying to suppress bidding for a prized piece of bankrupt retailer Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. The founder of Marble Ridge Capital LP was arrested Thursday and charged by New York prosecutors with securities fraud, wire fraud, extortion and obstruction of justice in connection with his efforts to acquire shares in Neiman’s MyTheresa e-commerce business, which was controlled by Ares Management Corp. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Mr. Kamensky previously admitted to Justice Department bankruptcy watchdogs that he had tried to suppress a competing offer for the MyTheresa shares by using his pull with investment bank Jefferies LLC, where he was a client, so he could buy them himself for less.

Gabrielle Zadra, a senior managing director at investment consultant Cliffwater LLC, has seen her share of economic cycles over the course of her career. In a conversation with WSJ Pro Private Equity, she shares her insights on how fund managers and their investors are moving forward as the private-equity industry wrestles with the economic challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Prudential Private Capital has provided a $140 million first mortgage bond to AES Corp.’s Dayton Power & Light Co., a public utility in Ohio. 

Midmarket-focused Trinity Hunt Partners is acquiring Rural Urgent Care LLC, which does business as MainStreet Family Urgent Care. The Birmingham, Ala.-based company operates medical clinics in Alabama and plans to expand into Georgia with the new capital from Trinity Hunt.

Align Capital Partners-backed Alliance Holdings LLC has purchased the U.S. emissions monitoring business of French company Bureau Veritas to add to its environmental services group. Decatur, Ala.-based Alliance has changed its name to Alliance Emissions Monitoring LLC.

TA Associates-backed residential interior design software supplier Compusoft Group has agreed to acquire Soft Tech, a provider of window and door design software. TA initially backed Sarpsborg, Norway-based Compusoft in 2018.

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

CVC Capital Partners-backed diaper maker Softex Indonesia is being acquired by Kimberly-Clark Corp. for about $1.2 billion in cash. The company had revenue of about $420 million last year. CVC Capital initially backed the company in 2016 through its CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific IV fund.

Brazilian private-equity firm Patria Investimentos plans to sell shares in logistics company Hidrovias do Brasil SA when the company holds an initial public offering to raise as much as 4.7 billion reais ($876.05 million), Reuters reports, citing a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The sellers, including Patria, Brazilian development bank BNDES and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., may sell more than 533.5 million shares in the company.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.-backed Optimizely Inc. has been acquired by digital marketing company Episerver, which Insight Partners bought from Accel-KKR in 2018 in a deal that valued the business at $1.16 billion. Goldman Sachs led the most recent financing round for Optimizely, which raised $50 million last year from investors that included the New York investment bank’s private capital arm and Accenture Ventures. The Series D financing gave the company a value of about $600 million, according to PitchBook Data Inc.

CVC Capital Partners, which said in April that its fifth Asia-focused fund had raised $4.5 billion, said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that its CVC Capital Partners Asia V Associates LP vehicle has collected almost $102.1 million from 38 investors. The firm didn’t say whether or how this latest fund relates to the fifth Asia fund, which it said was called CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific V LP. 

Buyout and growth-equity investment firm NewRoad Capital Partners has raised more than $173.6 million so far for its third flagship fund, NewRoad Fund III LP, a regulatory filing shows. The Arkansas firm’s website shows that it has already made three investments through the fund, which it began raising in 2018. The portfolio includes freight logistics company Emerge, physical and occupational therapy provider Bardavon Health Innovations and telematics systems company Platform Science.

SwanCap Partners has closed its latest private-equity co-investment fund with more than €300 million ($355.6 million) in commitments. The Munich-based firm manages about €3 billion across strategies that include private-equity funds and separately managed accounts. It has already begun investing from the new vehicle, Private Equity Co-Investment Opportunities Fund IV.

Muzinich & Co. has reportedly raised at least €210 million ($248.71 million) so far for its latest European investment vehicle, Muzinich Pan-European II Private Debt Fund. The New York firm is said to have held a first close on the fund. A predecessor fund collected more than €706 million in 2018.

Private-debt firm Alcentra has named Jonathan DeSimone as its chief executive, succeeding David Forbes-Nixon, who has decided to step down from the job at the London-based unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp.’s $2 trillion investment-management group. Mr. DeSimone joins the firm from Bain Capital Credit, where he has worked for the past 17 years, most recently as portfolio manager for the firm’s liquid credit strategy. Mr. Forbes-Nixon remains as interim CEO until U.K. regulatory agency the Financial Conduct Authority approves the appointment of Mr. DeSimone to the top job. London-based Alcentra has roughly $40.9 billion in assets under management.

Amundi SA’s head of real and alternative assets, Pedro Antonio Arias, has left the French asset-management giant for an entrepreneurial project, Elisângela Mendonça reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The group’s deputy chief executive, Dominique Carrel-Billiard, will take on the role, which includes overseeing €55 billion ($65.2 billion) in real estate, private-debt, private-equity and infrastructure investments. Ms. Carrel-Billiard, who also leads Amundi’s activities in the Americas, joined the firm in 2016 from La Financière de l'Echiquier, another French asset manager. A management reorganization also includes the appointment of Jean-Jacques Barbéris as head of institutional and corporate client services, in charge of environmental, social and governance efforts.

Denham Capital Management-backed Colorado energy producer Ursa Piceance Holdings LLC sought bankruptcy protection Wednesday, struggling with nearly $283 million in debt amid natural gas price volatility stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, Peg Brickley reports for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The cash-short company has been asked to come up with an exit plan from chapter 11 reorganization by creditors, who want to see the plan within weeks.

Poland’s Allegro Group faces new accusations from the government Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, this time over fees the popular online retail site charges consumers, Reuters reports. Private-equity firms Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa acquired Allegro for $3.25 billion in 2016. Allegro’s shopping site is by far the most popular in Poland, attracting 79% of Polish online shoppers looking to buy new products, according to the government agency. In December, the OCCP said it was investigating how Allegro treated competing retailers that use its site to reach consumers.

Investment-banking and trading revenues hit an eight-year high in the first half of 2020, a counterintuitive boom that shows the heavy hand of the Federal Reserve and a growing gulf between financial markets and the real economy, Liz Hoffman writes for The Wall Street Journal. 

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