Happy Valentine’s Day! For several years, I used to write a blog post on Valentine’s Day highlighting some of the quirky aspects of relationships across the private-equity industry. Topics ranged from famous LP-GP ties to private-equity firms’ enduring love for their favorite portfolio company executives and the industry’s most famous break-ups.

If I were to write a similar post this year, I might focus on the industry's reluctance to part with some of its favorite portfolio companies. As Laura Cooper wrote last year, more firms are finding ways to hold onto their best performers, often by recapitalizing them with money from newer funds.

After all, sometimes love means never having to say “I’ve fully exited."

Please note: There won't be a newsletter on Monday as the U.S. observes the Presidents Day holiday. We'll be back Tuesday. Have a nice long weekend!

Hamilton Lane backs Legend’s GP-led secondary deal. Chinese venture and growth investor Legend Capital has won more time to exit portfolio companies from a fund it raised in 2008. An affiliate of alternative-investments manager Hamilton Lane acted as lead investor in capitalizing a $200 million continuation fund set up for portfolio companies from Legend’s LC Fund IV, the firms announced Thursday.

RentPath can tap bankruptcy loan en route to sale. Rental website operator RentPath Inc., backed by TPG Capital and Providence Equity Partners, has developed a funding mechanism to stay afloat in the event federal antitrust regulators take a long time determining whether to approve its proposed $588 million sale to competitor CoStar Group Inc. The business, which is mainly a provider of online real-estate advertising, remains profitable, WSJ Pro’s Jonathan Randles reports.

Publisher files for chapter 11. McClatchy, the second-largest U.S. newspaper group by circulation, filed for bankruptcy protection, a move that comes as the nation's newspaper industry is struggling to cope with a sharp decline in print advertising and the challenges of building a robust digital business, Lukas I. Alpert reported for The Wall Street Journal. The move Thursday is expected to put an end to the McClatchy family's 163-yearlong control over the publisher, and turn hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, its biggest debtholder and the current owner of the National Enquirer, into its top shareholder.

Mom-and-pop millionaires drive Blackstone’s growth. The alternative-assets giant last year drew in a record $26 billion from individual investors, a category that includes everyone from people with millions to invest to those committing as little as $2,500. That was nearly 20% of the firm's total fundraising in a year when it closed record-breaking private-equity and real-estate pools―a departure for a company built on relationships with big institutions, the Journal's Miriam Gottfried writes. 

Bidders for the elevator unit of Thyssenkrupp could learn which way the giant German manufacturer will go within days, several news services have reported. The latest move to boost its offer reportedly came from Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group, teaming with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Reuters said the Blackstone-Carlyle group offered €16 billion ($17.35 billion) for the profitable group. Company officials indicated Thursday they were near a decision during an earnings call, a transcript shows. Johannes Dietsch, Thyssenkrupp’s chief financial officer, said business for the unit remains strong, with a €5.7 billion order backlog, including €2.2 billion booked in last year’s fourth quarter. The unit’s adjusted pretax earnings rose 12% in the quarter to €228 million. Other bidders include a group formed by CVC Capital Partners and Finland-based elevator maker Kone.

Marketing specialist Brand Velocity Partners has acquired grill and cookware maker Magma Products Inc. The New York private-equity firm focuses on bringing its brand marketing expertise to lower midmarket companies in the consumer products sector. Started last year, the firm made its first acquisition last month, buying Original Footwear Inc.

Coeli Private Equity has committed €6 million ($6.5 million) to a Cubera Private Equity fund of funds, extending a relationship with the Nordic secondary investment firm that goes back to 2006. Stockholm-based Coeli committed the new funding to Cubera IX. Oslo-based Cubera, acquired by Norway’s Storebrand Asset Management last year, received its first commitment to the fund in July 2019, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

L Catterton has backed European fresh pet food delivery service provider Dogmates Ltd., which does business as Butternut Box. The London-based company charges about $2 a day to deliver freshly made meals for dogs across the U.K. and plans to use the investment for expansion. L Catterton made the investment through its European fund.

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

Panoramic Growth Equity has sold portfolio company Pod Point Ltd. to a joint venture of Electricite de France SA and Legal & General Capital. The London-based company makes recharging infrastructure used by electric vehicles. Panoramic invested in Pod Point through its first and second funds in June 2018, according to the London firm’s website. The company operates 62,000 charging points in the U.K. and 6,600 in Norway, Mauro Orru reported for Dow Jones Newswires.

Serent Capital has agreed to sell portfolio company Docutech LLC to property title insurer First American Financial Corp. The Idaho Falls, Idaho-based company provides technology used in producing electronic documents that comply with regulatory rules for financial institutions, including mortgage lenders. First American said the company’s management would remain in charge of Docutech after the deal closes.

Brookside Equity Partners-backed insurance distributor SelectQuote Inc. has confidentially filed for an initial public offering of shares, Josh Beckerman reported for Dow Jones Newswires. Brookside, which primarily invests family capital on an evergreen basis, initially invested in the Overland Park, Kan., company in 2014 and lists it as one of its portfolio investments. The company provides a consumer service to find rate quotes for life, auto, home and Medicare insurance.

ArcLight Capital Partners, a Boston-based energy and infrastructure-focused firm, has closed on $3.37 billion for its latest flagship fund, WSJ Pro's Isaac Taylor reported, citing a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The fund, Arclight Energy Partners Fund VII LP, raised capital from 74 investors since June 2018, including the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System. The firm’s previous fund, ArcLight Energy Partners Fund VI LP, closed in 2015 with more than $5.57 billion in commitments, according to a news release.

Odyssey Investment Partners has closed its sixth flagship private-equity fund with $3.25 billion in capital commitments to make buyouts and control investments in midmarket companies, according to a news release. Odyssey Investment Partners Fund VI LP closed at its hard cap and is roughly 62% bigger than its predecessor vehicle, which raised $2 billion in 2014. 

AlbaCore Capital Group has closed its second credit investment fund, AlbaCore Partners II ICAV, with €1.5 billion in assets. The London-based firm focuses on providing custom credit resources to larger European companies and expects to have about 60% of the new fund’s resources deployed by the end of this month.

Manulife Investment Management has collected at least $100 million so far for a new co-investment pool, Manulife Co-Investment Partners II LP, a regulatory filing shows. The filing indicates the Boston-based firm’s first and only commitment to the fund until the Tuesday filing date was received on Jan. 31.

Owl Rock Capital Partners, a credit investment firm launched by a former executive from Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners unit, rapidly grew its asset base by undercutting the competition with low fees. But as Matt Wirz writes for The Wall Street Journal, the firm faces a key test as it prepares to raise the fees it charges on its largest investment vehicle.

Ares Management Corp. co-founder John Kissick has stepped down from the firm’s board. Mr. Kissick, who also helped start Apollo Global Management Inc. and had a key role at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. early in his career, is being replaced by Kipp deVeer, an Ares partner who is head of its credit group and chief executive of Ares Capital Corp.

Matthew Levine is parting ways with EQT Partners, Luisa Beltran reports for sister publication Barron’s. He has been the firm’s midmarket point man in New York since September 2014, having previously worked for American Securities Group. An EQT representative confirmed he is leaving at the end of next month without saying where he might be headed. Mr. Levine couldn’t be reached for comment, Barron’s said.

Thoma Bravo’s $2 billion buyout of Instructure Inc. ran into a snag Thursday after the Salt Lake City company’s directors rejected a slightly sweetened bid and postponed a shareholder vote on the deal until Friday, Colin Kellaher reported for Dow Jones Newswires. Instructure’s directors had backed a $47.60 offer made by the Chicago-based private-equity firm in December, but some large shareholders have objected. Thoma Bravo raised its offer about 2% to $48.50 a share but the board said the change would introduce uncertainty about closing the deal, pushing a vote on the original proposal back a day to give investors time to digest the developments.

Publicly traded Ares Management Corp.’s shares touched a new 52-week intraday high Thursday after the Los Angeles firm said its assets under management climbed 14% to $148.9 billion, with most of the growth in its credit group, and forecast a robust fundraising year in 2020. Chief Executive Michael Arougheti said this year Ares could surpass the record $36 billion it raised in 2018. Ares said its fee-paying assets rose 18% to $96.9 billion last year, a bigger increase than the nearly 13% rise in 2018. Ares also said its hoard of assets not yet earning fees and available for future use inched up 1.6% to $25.2 billion last year as the additional capital flooded in. In particular, Mr. Arougheti said Ares expects to complete fundraising soon for its inaugural special opportunities fund, which has collected $1.6 billion against a $2 billion target, during a conference call with investors and analysts.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has formed a separate committee to oversee the $403.79 billion pension system’s investments, WSJ Pro's Preeti Singh reports. For years, the entire Calpers board of administration passed judgment on the biggest U.S. public pension’s investment moves. By naming just nine members out of the current 13 to the new investment committee, the fund’s administrators aim to streamline the process. Left off the new panel were state Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose office gives her a board seat, and outspoken private-equity critic Margaret Brown. Ms. Brown has also faulted the board for reducing the frequency of investment committee meetings to quarterly from nine per year.

Tikehau Capital’s assets under management climbed 17% last year to €25.8 billion ($28 billion) at the end of December, or just over its €25 billion target, the Paris firm said in an annual report.

What does every professional athlete need when preparing to retire (or perhaps even before)? A private-equity adviser, of course! A growing number of private-equity and venture capital firms seek to connect professional and former professional athletes with prospective investment opportunities, as Benjamin Mulllin writes for the Journal.

BlackRock made a well-timed bet on distressed loans during the financial crisis. Now the firm has moved its windfall to its charitable arm, Dawn Lim writes for The Wall Street Journal. In a move disclosed Thursday, the giant asset manager said it has donated all of its nearly $600 million worth of shares in the mortgage company PennyMac Financial Services Inc. to fund nonprofits. Half of that went into a new corporate foundation the firm is launching called the BlackRock Foundation.

Barclays said U.K. regulators are investigating the professional relationship between Chief Executive Jes Staley and Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail last year, according to the Journal. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority is examining how Mr. Staley characterized his relationship with Mr. Epstein to Barclays and how the U.K. lender described it to the regulator, the bank said Thursday.

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