Good day Pro PE readers! The private-equity fundraising machine continues to chug along as 2021 unfolds. This morning our own Preeti Singh reports on a new midmarket fund being pitched by New York-based Veritas Capital Management while I have news of a new investment by Alpine Investors in enterprise software company Innovative Solutions. Finally, our Wall Street Journal colleagues report that Sycamore Partners is backing another bid by Staples to acquire rival Office Depot.

Read on for more on these and other stories!

Veritas Capital Management is joining the growing ranks of private-equity firms launching new fund strategies focused on smaller deals than they would back through their flagship offerings, Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The New York-based firm is targeting $1.25 billion for its new midmarket fund, which is hitting the market less than a year after the firm wrapped up fundraising for a debut credit fund.

Retail investment firm Sycamore Partners is backing another bid by office supply retailer Staples Inc. to acquire rival Office Depot in a deal worth more than $2 billion, Matt Grossman and and Drew FitzGerald report in The Wall Street Journal. The move marks the third time that Staples has sought to unite the rival office-supply superstores whose previous marriage attempts have been thwarted by competition concerns, including a deal worth $6.3 billion five years ago. But the retail landscape has changed since then and the global coronavirus pandemic has hit sales as many offices remain virtually closed. Office Depot parent ODP Corp. said it was reviewing the proposal.

San Francisco-based private-equity firm Alpine Investors is betting on the growth of broadband internet across rural America with an investment in enterprise software provider Innovative Solutions LLC, Laura Kreutzer reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. Based in Mitchell, S.D., Innovative Solutions provides software that helps telecommunications providers manage different aspects of their operations.

Investment firm Sixth Street Partners is nearing a deal to buy a majority stake in sports-and-entertainment events company Legends Hospitality LLC from New Mountain Capital and other owners, Miriam Gottfried writes for the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal is expected to value Legends at $1.3 billion including debt, the people said. Legends owners include major league football and baseball clubs, the University of Notre Dame and Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

KKR & Co. has stepped further into the world of pop music, agreeing to acquire a majority stake of the music catalog of Grammy-winning songwriter and vocalist Ryan Tedder and his band, OneRepublic, including publishing and recorded music rights, investing alongside Patriot Management and artist development company mtheory. The properties include nearly 500 songs that have been streamed the equivalent of 63 billion times, KKR said in a news release.

Global Infrastructure Partners has escalated the bidding for aviation support services provider Signature Aviation PLC with a $5.50 per share cash cash offer that values the U.K. company at about $4.63 billion, Adria Calatayud reports in sister publication Private Equity News in London. Last week, Blackstone Group Inc. said it had teamed with Cascade Investment LLC, which already owns about 19% of the company’s shares, a significant voting bloc, in negotiating over a potential $5.17 per share bid. Carlyle Group Inc. is also in the mix. While Signature said it supports the latest GIP offer, Blackstone has until Thursday to make a formal bid. Signature provides ground support for business and general aviation aircraft at airports in the U.K., U.S., the Caribbean and parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America. The company’s shares jumped nearly 8% after GIP’s 405 pence per share bid was made public and closed Monday at 435.5 pence.

Oak Hill Capital Partners is backing Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc., investing $20 million in the company through its Oak Hill Capital Partners IV fund. Based in Tampa, Fla., Checkers has about 836 restaurants operating under the Checkers and Rally’s brands. It approved 40 new franchisees last year and has 72 new locations in development.

Stone Point Credit and Wilton Reassurance Co. are joining Golden Gate Capital in backing insurance and financial services company Nassau Financial Group, investing about $100 million in its non-cumulative perpetual preferred equity. The minority investment is expected to fuel internal growth as well as acquisitions by Hartford, Conn.-based Nassau, which was founded in 2015 with Golden Gate’s financing and has grown to combined assets of $26.9 billion.

Summit Partners is backing home services-management software company Octopusapp Inc., which does business as Jobber, leading a $60 million growth investment, with participation from Tech Pioneers Fund and existing investors Omers Ventures and Version One Ventures. The company’s software-as-a-service and app products are used by contractors to schedule crew, dispatch jobs, send invoices and accept electronic or in-person payments for residential services that include cleaning and landscaping as well as plumbing and heating maintenance and repair.

Insight Partners led an investment of more than $100 million in German enterprise software company Jedox Inc., acquiring a majority stake in the Freiburg, Germany-based company and investing alongside existing backers Iris Capital, eCapital and Wecken & Cie. The fresh investment is expected to finance growth for the provider of systems used by businesses for financial planning and analysis.

Bain Capital Credit and Oaktree Capital Management are among participants in the latest financing round for consumer online brands aggregator Thras.io Inc., providing a $500 million lending facility to the Walpole, Mass.-based company. Thrasio, as it is known, acquires ecommerce business run through Amazon.com Inc.’s website and now manages nearly 14,000 products. The company said it had more than $100 million in profit on revenue that topped $500 million last year.

HGGC is backing investment adviser Merit Financial Group LLC, investing alongside Wealth Partners Capital Group LLC and others making growth investments in the firm, according to a news release. Alpharetta, Ga.-based Merit provides wealth and investment management services from 19 offices nationwide and managed more than $4.84 billion in client assets, including $2.97 billion under advisory services and $1.87 billion in brokerage accounts at the end of last year, according to the release.

Multi-strategy firm Fengate Asset Management is backing York Group of Companies, providing growth capital supplied by the LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada. York is an environmental and infrastructure services company in Ontario and has provided remediation, contaminated soil treatment and transfer, and waste collection. It also does excavation and demolition work.

Blue Sage Capital is backing flooring and countertop company Impact Floors of Texas LP. The Dallas-based company with operations in five locations across the Lone Star state specializes in quickly replacing floors and countertops in multi-family buildings.

Mountaingate Capital is backing disposable medical products maker BioDerm Inc., investing in the Largo, Fla.-based company to fuel growth.

Consumer-focused private-equity firm Aria Growth Partners has invested in skincare brand Hero Cosmetics Inc., taking a minority stake in the New York-based company.

TA Associates said it has bought a significant stake in OmniActive Health Technologies, which offers natural nutraceutical ingredients for dietary supplements and nutritional fortification. The company’s Founder and Executive Chairman Sanjaya Mariwala is increasing his personal holding in the company as part of the transaction, the company said in a press release.

Bow Wave Capital Management has invested in the operator of GCash, the Philippines wallet app from Globe Fintech Innovations Inc., a unit of Globe Telecom Inc. in Manila. The unit, called Mynt, raised $175 million from a Bow Wave affiliate as well as existing investors, giving the business a valuation of nearly $1 billion, according to a Globe Telecom news release.

Private-equity and venture investment firm 424 Capital has acquired a majority interest in renewable-energy asset management software provider Radian Generation LLC, investing alongside a Plus Renewable Technologies subsidiary.

Hanover Partners and Centerfield Capital Partners have acquired packaging machinery maker Ska Fabricating Inc. The Durango, Colo.-based company mainly supplies equipment to canning and bottling companies in the beverage and food industries, with its machines installed in more than 1,000 customer sites. The firms invested alongside company managers.

Lower middle market-focused TriSpan has invested in personnel services company Prestige PEO Holdings LLC. The Melville, N.Y.-based company manages payroll and benefits for employees of professional partnerships, financial services and technology companies. The investment is expected to aid the company’s expansion.

In a brief item in Monday’s newsletter concerning an investment in Medical Guardian, Water Street Healthcare Partners was incorrectly identified as Water Street Capital Partners.

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

A blank-check company backed by investment firm Victory Park Capital has agreed to acquire Bakkt Holdings LLC, a cryptocurrency banking and trading firm owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., and take it public, Alexander Osipovich reports for The Wall Street Journal. The combination with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings is expected to give Bakkt a valuation of $2.1 billion. The Atlanta-based parent of the New York Stock Exchange expects to retain a nearly two-thirds economic interest in Bakkt following the deal.

Former Citigroup Inc. executive Michael Klein is launching two more blank-check companies, partly with the help of Oak Hill Advisors Chief Executive Glenn August, whose firm is listed as a strategic partner of both the new special-purpose acquisition companies, Churchill Capital Corp VI and Churchill Capital Corp VII, in regulatory filings. Mr. August is a director of both and has been a director of at least two of Mr. Klein’s earlier SPACs. Mr. Klein, a former CEO of global banking at Citigroup who started strategic advisory firm M. Klein and Co. in 2012, has formed and led at least five previous SPACs and has set up a group within his advisory firm called Archimedes Advisors LLC to both invest in the new blank-check companies and to work with strategic and operating partners in finding investment opportunities for the SPACs, the filings show. A private credit and distressed investing specialist, Oak Hill has about $37 billion of capital under management, the latest filing said. Strategic partners of the blank-check companies are allowed to invest in “founder shares” of the SPACs through their sponsoring entities. The seventh Churchill SPAC aims to raise $300 million while the sixth is targeting $400 million, both through initial public offerings of shares.

A blank-check company whose leaders include the founder of recently formed biomedical technology venture fund Catalio Capital Management is planning to raise $150 million through an initial public offering to purchase a private company in the health-care sector. George Petrocheilos is president of the special-purpose acquisition company, HealthCor Catalio Acquisition Corp., and is a co-managing partner of Catalio, which was spun out of Camden Partners. The SPAC is also led by executives of HealthCor Management, a hedge fund with $2.7 billion in assets.

Navigation Capital Partners, a private-equity firm in Atlanta, has expanded its blank-check company operations by backing two of the special-purpose acquisition companies, including D and Z Media Acquisition Corp. and KINS Technology Group, and by investing in American Virtual Cloud Technologies Inc. through a private investment in public equities. The PIPE deal helped finance the Atlanta-based company’s acquisition last month of cloud-based communications services provider Kandy Communications LLC in Westford, Mass. for about $45 million. A SPAC launched by the firm in 2017 raised $310 million and acquired AVC Technologies in April 2020.

London-based private-equity firm Horizon Capital has sold ESG exposure analytics provider Style Metrics to Investment Metrics, a private-equity backed data and analytics company serving the institutional investor market. Investment Metrics is backed by software-focused private-equity firm Resurgens Technology Partners and alternative asset manager HarbourVest Partners.

CVC Capital Partners’ sale of cybersecurity company Kount Inc. to publicly traded Equifax Inc. stands to generate a gross return of 4.7 times the money the firm invested in the company, a person familiar with the transaction told WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Laura Kreutzer. That will translate into a roughly 34% gross internal rate of return on the deal, the person added. CVC originally invested about $80 million in Kount five years ago, and earlier this week said it would sell the company to Equifax for $640 million.

Permira-backed footwear brand Dr. Martens is considering an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, Ian Walker reports in sister publication Private Equity News. An IPO would consist of shares held by the buyout firm as well as some other investors, the company said. It expects to have a free float of 25% upon admission if the IPO goes ahead.

Sverica Capital Management said it is selling 7Summits LLC, a Salesforce digital technology consultant to International Business Machines Corp. Sverica initially invested in 7Summits back in 2013.

KKR & Co. has closed its KKR Asia Pacific Infrastructure Investors SCSp fund with $3.9 billion in commitments, the hard cap for the vehicle. The firm is providing $300 million of that capital. The fund will focus on infrastructure-related investments across the Asia-Pacific region and is the first of its type raised by the New York firm. KKR has made six investments totaling $1.8 billion through the strategy since its inception in 2019.

Real estate-focused Patron Capital Partners has collected €844 million (equivalent to about $1.04 billion), including approximately €128 million of co-investment capital for its Patron Capital LP VI fund. The London-based firm said most of the money came from investors in its predecessor funds. The firm plans to target distressed and undervalued assets related to property across Western Europe with the vehicle, which has already completed several transactions and has more in the pipeline.

Blackstone Group Inc. has hired Joe Dowling, the former chief executive of Brown University’s endowment, as co-head of its $78 billion hedge-fund business, Juliet Chung writes for The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Dowling will join John McCormick in leading the business. Mr. Dowling will focus on investing and Mr. McCormick on the unit’s business and investor functions. For Blackstone, the hire signals a new focus on hedge funds as big generators of return, with Mr. Dowling expected to focus on thematic investing including in growth and technology-focused hedge funds.

H.I.G. Capital has made several promotions, moving Keval Patel to head of its U.S. middle-market leveraged buyout funds and replacing Rick Rosen, who was recently named co-president of the Miami firm. Also, Adam Schimel was named to co-head of H.I.G.’s Bayside Capital special situations and distressed debt strategy in the U.S., working alongside Jackson Craig. Ricky Stokes was named head of the U.S. lower middle-market funds, replacing Doug Berman, who recently became head of U.S. private equity. Finally, the firm named Jeff Zanarini as head of business development for all U.S. private equity funds, a newly established role.

Multi-strategy alternative asset manager Sagard Holdings Inc. has set up a Canadian private-equity operation in Montreal focused on investing in middle-market companies under the leadership of Marie-Claude Boisvert, who is joined by Patrick Daignault as a partner in the unit. Ms. Boisvert was previously a partner with Clearspring Capital Partners and a managing partner at Kilmer Capital Partners. Mr. Daignault joins from PSP Investments, where he was a senior director, direct private equity in Montreal. The new unit expects to begin fundraising later this year.

Health-care investment firm Vivo Capital has hired Hongbo Lu as a managing partner and made several promotions, moving up Jack Bech Nielsen and Michael Chang to managing partner and Chief Operating Officer Cinthia Sheu and General Counsel Zhanping Wu to partner. Ms. Lu was previously a managing partner with Lilly Asia Ventures.

Hunter Point Capital, which invests in middle market-focused private-equity and credit firms, has hired Jackie Roberts to lead its environmental, social and governance advisory services. She was most recently a managing director at Carlyle Group Inc., where she served as chief sustainability officer. New York-based Hunter Point has also brought on Mariska Richards as general counsel. She joined from Kirkland & Ellis, where she was a partner in the private-equity practice.

Hedge fund Eminence Capital raised objections Monday to a $3.5 billion deal by Vista Equity Partners to acquire cloud-based online software-education company Pluralsight Inc. for $20.26 a share, calling the premium offered to the publicly-traded company’s shareholders “de minimis” and saying the sale process was “rushed.” Eminence owns more than 4.9% of Draper, Utah-based Pluralsight’s shares and said it would vote against the deal unless Vista substantially increases the price.

Bankrupt auto-parts maker Garrett Motion Inc. said it would hand itself over to shareholders led by Centerbridge Partners LP and Oaktree Capital Management LP while resolving a long-running legal dispute with former parent company Honeywell International Inc, Soma Biswas writes for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy.

The American Investment Council’s Political Action Committee has halted all political giving in the wake of the riot that engulfed the nation’s Capitol last week. The private-equity industry lobbying group cited the “enormous health, economic and social challenges” confronting the country, which it said take precedence over politics. The group spent about $329,900 in the 2020 election cycle, including about $154,000 that went to Republicans and $83,000 to Democrats, according to data through Nov. 23 from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

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