Good day readers! New deals and new funds are cropping up like spring crocuses as this week begins with news from Preeti Singh that Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners is pitching a continuation fund, while Genstar Capital and KKR & Co. brought in multibillion-dollar hauls. Meanwhile, on the deal-making front, our own Laura Cooper has news of a fresh investment by FFL Partners in workforce services company Velocity Global, while Preeti Singh also has news of a new partnership forged by Investcorp. Finally, I have news on the hiring front from right here in Boston, where Great Hill Partners is hiring its first chief people officer with the addition of Tracy Keogh.

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Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners is the latest private-equity firm pitching a continuation fund to investors, seeking $1 billion to back selected portfolio companies as its flagship funds exit, WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Preeti Singh writes, citing people familiar with the fundraising. The Boston-based firm is pitching its Encore fund to the largest investors in its flagship funds, describing it as its first-ever continuation vehicle, the people said.

San Francisco-based FFL Partners has invested $100 million in workforce services provider Velocity Global in a bet that the shift to remote work will last beyond the coronavirus pandemic, Laura Cooper writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. As part of the deal, Velocity Global also acquired competitor iWorkGlobal.

Investcorp Holdings is expanding its funnel for potential acquisitions of minority stakes in midmarket alternative asset managers through a new partnership with multi-strategy investment firm Xponance Inc, Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The partnership is at least the second one that Investcorp has backed in its quest to invest in midmarket private firms. 

Great Hill Partners has joined the steadily growing ranks of private-equity firms hiring dedicated professionals to manage talent across their portfolio companies and within their own firms. The Boston-based midmarket firm is hiring Tracy Keogh, formerly the chief human resources officer for HP Inc., as its new chief people officer starting May 3, as Laura Kreutzer reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity.

SoftBank Group Corp. plans to lead an investment of nearly $1.2 billion into genetic-testing provider Invitae Corp., as the Japanese technology giant ramps up an effort to put more money into public companies, Maureen Farrell writes for The Wall Street Journal. The investment, in the form of convertible debt, is designed to help Invitae gain broader use of its platform.

KKR & Co. has agreed to buy a 20% stake in Sempra Infrastructure Partners from publicly traded Sempra Energy for $3.37 billion, Dave Sebastian reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The transaction values the infrastructure unit at about $25.2 billion, including expected asset-related debt of $8.37 billion, according to the San Diego-based seller. The company’s new business unit plans to focus on North American liquefied natural gas infrastructure, including for exports, and renewable energy, Sempra said in December, when it outlined a strategy to simplify its assets. KKR also will acquire an indirect stake in a Mexican energy unit, IEnova, at $4.13 a share, Sempra said.

Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Century Park Capital Partners said it has recapitalized CJ Pony Parts LLC, a Harrisburg, Pa.-based online platform that sells auto parts and equipment, particularly those used to restore classic automobiles, including Ford Mustangs.

Azure Power Global Ltd., a solar power producer in India, said it has agreed to sell its noncore solar rooftop portfolio to a subsidiary of the Green Growth Equity Fund, an India-focused climate fund managed by EverSource Capital. The solar power company is selling the unit for about 5.36 billion Indian rupees (the equivalent of $73.5 million).

Platinum Equity has agreed to acquire cabinetry maker Cabinetworks Group from investors led by American Industrial Partners and Singapore sovereign wealth manager GIC. The manufacturer and distributor of kitchen and bath cabinets has some 8,000 employees in 17 assembly and production plants across the U.S. The company was formed early last year through the combination of ACProducts Inc. and Masco Cabinetry. AIP initially backed the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company in 2012.

Alpine Investors said it has formed AlpineX, a new platform focused on investments in lower midmarket business services companies and has backed its first deal out of the unit with an investment in Interskill Learning. The company offers online mainframe computer training and will serve as the foundation of a professional education platform within the AlpineX portfolio, according to a press release.

Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners is backing emergency notification software supplier Singlewire Software LLC. The Madison, Wis.-based company’s InformaCast product is used by more than 7,000 organizations to provide mass communications during crisis situations.

Consumer-focused Brynwood Partners said it has acquired frozen food brand De Wafelbakkers from the Oklahoma Publishing Co., a subsidiary of Anschutz Corp. Brynwood is backing the deal out of Brynwood Partners VIII LP, a $649 million fund raised in 2018. De Wafelbakkers is headquartered in North Little Rock, Ark. and manufactures branded and private label frozen pancakes, waffles and French toast, according to a press release.

Rotunda Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in hurricane screens and shutters provider Storm Smart Building Systems Inc. The Fort Myers, Fla.-based company makes, distributes and installs shutters, retractable panels and other products to protect property from hurricane damage.

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

One of the biggest SPAC creators is a staid insurance executive who wants nothing to do with speculators driving much of the frenzied activity surrounding blank-check companies, Amrith Ramkumar reports in The Wall Street Journal. Billionaire Bill Foley, owner of the Vegas Golden Knights pro hockey team, has bypassed unproven electric-car makers and space companies and instead focused on solid, sustainable businesses. “I’m a big fan of boring companies,” Mr. Foley said.

A blank-check company backed by Black Dragon Capital plans to raise $250 million through an initial public offering of shares, a regulatory filing shows. Black Dragon Acquisition Corp. I is led by former private-equity and technology industry executive Gary Greenfield as chairman and Black Dragon Chief Executive Louis Hernandez Jr. as CEO.The special-purpose acquisition company aims to combine with a technology company in the e-commerce, sports and media or financial sector.

SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to pay $2.8 billion for a 40% stake in Norwegian warehouse-automation company AutoStore, marking another big bet by the Japanese conglomerate on robot-enabled technology, Cara Lombardo and Maureen Farrell write for the Journal. AutoStore is controlled by Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, while another private-equity firm, Sweden’s EQT AB, holds a minority stake. The deal values the company at $7.7 billion including debt, the companies said Monday.

Private-equity-backed Endeavor Group Holdings Inc has renewed its quest for an initial public offering after withdrawing a previous effort back in 2019. The company’s investors include private-equity firms Silver Lake, KKR & Co., pension manager Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and others.

Genstar Capital has raised $10.2 billion for its 10th flagship fund and separately collected $1.5 billion for a co-investment vehicle to be invested alongside the main fund in its larger transactions. Evercore Partners served as placement agent. The new flagship fund, Genstar Capital Partners X, was raised in less than five months after marketing officially kicked off in December and is nearly 46% larger than its predecessor, which closed in 2019 with about $7 billion.

The overage, or co-investment, fund, is called Genstar X Opportunities Fund I LP. The San Francisco-based firm makes growth investments in middle-market companies with enterprise values of $250 million to $1.5 billion in the financial-services, healthcare, industrial and software sectors. Genstar reported $21.47 billion of assets under management at the end of last year, in a regulatory filing.

KKR & Co. said late Monday that it has rounded up $15 billion for KKR Asia Fund IV LP, its latest private-equity fund focused on the Asia-Pacific region. The firm itself is investing $1.3 billion alongside fund investors through commitments from the firm and its employees, according to a press release. The fund is the third Asia focused fund that KKR has announced this year. In January, the firm said it raised $3.9 billion for a debut Asia infrastructure fund and $1.7 billion for a debut Asia real estate fund. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the newest Asia fund include pension systems New York State Common Retirement Fund and Virginia Retirement Systems as well as the New Mexico State Investment Council, according to the WSJ Pro LP Commitments database.

MidOcean Partners has added two new members to the firm’s investor relations team. Tim Percarpio, who has joined as a managing director, previously served as head of marketing at distressed credit and real estate investor Contrarian Capital.  Leslie Tanca, who has joined as a vice president, had been a consultant to MidOcean since 2020 and was previously a senior vice president at placement firm Pinnacle Trust Partners.

Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and now Paul Simon. Older, established artists have sold their song catalogs for huge sums of money over the past year. A challenge for music investors is how to value newer acts, Carol Ryan writes for The Wall Street Journal. Demand for music publishing assets—the rights to the underlying composition of a song—is growing among traditional record labels, buyout firms and hedge funds. In 2020, $4.67 billion of music catalogs changed hands globally, a 14% increase on 2019’s tally based on data from analytics firm MIDiA. Private-equity giant KKR & Co. is the latest investor to pile in and is teaming up with Bertelsmann Music Group to buy music assets.

The Collected Group filed for bankruptcy protection Monday to cement a rescue plan backed by the private-equity firm that controls it, KKR & Co., Peg Brickley writes for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The Chino, Calif.-based company is the design, distribution and retail force behind the Joie, Current/Elliott and Equipment fashion labels. KKR is Collected’s largest owner and secured lender, and is backing a turnaround plan that would leave landlords and other unsecured creditors that are owed an estimated $35.5 million unpaid, according to bankruptcy court papers.

General Atlantic-backed banking software maker Alkami Technology Inc. plans to sell 6 million shares in an initial public offering, a regulatory filing shows. General Atlantic’s equity stake in the Plano, Texas-based company will decline to about 22.5% from 24.1% currently following the IPO. Other backers of the cloud-based systems provider include D1 Ca[pital Partners with 5.6% and Argonaut Private Equity II, with a 16.2% stake. The company would have almost 77.7 million shares outstanding after the offering, which would have a maximum price of $25 per share, according to the filing.

Hedge fund Alden Global Capital has some last-minute competition for newspaper chain Tribune Publishing Co. as a Maryland hotel magnate and a Swiss billionaire made a counteroffer to a $635 million deal with Alden that the publisher's directors have already accepted. The offer late last week from Choice Hotels International Inc. Chairman Stewart Bainum and Hansjörg Wyss includes more than $600 million in personal commitments from the two men, Cara Lombardo and Lukas I. Alpert report in The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Tribune's directors indicated they would favor the new deal over the Alden bid. 

Publicly traded Ares Management Corp. plans to sell 9.5 million shares of common stock and said Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. has agreed to purchase $250 million worth of Ares shares at a price equivalent to the offering price in a concurrent private placement, a regulatory filing shows. Ares shares closed Monday up 2.5% at $59.13 each, indicating the value of the offering is roughly $443.5 million. 

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