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Kushner’s Thrive Aims High | Invictus Seals Cyber Deal | EIG Progresses With Clean-Energy Fund
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Good morning and welcome to the WSJ Pro Private Equity daily newsletter. Today, we lead off with an exclusive from Yuliya Chernova and Preeti Singh on the fundraising process of Thrive, a venture-capital firm owned by Joshua Kushner, brother of ex-president Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The firm is raising about $2 billion for a pair of early-stage and growth funds, aiming to capitalize on recent public listings of Thrive-backed companies.
Next, we have a deal scoop from Preeti Singh in the red-hot cybersecurity space by growth-equity firm Invictus Growth Partners, and finally, Luis Garcia brings us fundraising news in another area expected to have strong demand in the coming years. EIG Global Energy Partners, a veteran Washington-based energy investor, is halfway toward the €750 million target of its first clean-energy fund.
Now on to today’s news...
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Thrive Capital’s Joshua Kushner and his wife, Karlie Kloss, at the 2019 Met Gala.
PHOTO: JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES
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Thrive Capital, a venture firm owned by Joshua Kushner, is wrapping up a major new fundraising on the heels of several public listings by its portfolio companies, Yuliya Chernova and Preeti Singh report for WSJ Pro. The firm is raising about $2 billion for a pair of early-stage and growth funds, according to people familiar with the situation. The firm made filings related to Thrive Capital Partners VII LP and Thrive Capital Partners VII Growth LP with the state of Delaware on Jan. 12. The amount Thrive seeks is double what it raised in 2018, and shows the firm’s fast growth over the past decade. It started out with a $10 million fund in 2009.
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EIG Global Energy Partners is midway through raising the €750 million (about $913 million) the private-equity firm is seeking for its first clean-energy fund, which it set up partly to invest in deals that are too small for its much larger main vehicle, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity, citing people familiar with the matter. The Washington firm launched its renewables-focused EIG Energy Transition Fund SCSP last year after some investors, particularly in Europe, expressed interest in backing a strategy exclusively dedicated to clean energy, according to the people.
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Invictus Growth Partners, a growth-equity investor focused on technology deals, is betting on rising demand for secure identification and authentication systems with an investment in Axiad Holdings Inc., Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The firm is acquiring a minority stake in the Santa Clara, Calif.-based cybersecurity company for $20 million, according to a person familiar with the situation. Founded in 2010, Axiad’s cloud-based technology to provide systems access without passwords is used by hundreds of organizations.
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6.76 million
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The number of existing home sales in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, a 0.7% increase from November, according to the National Association of Realtors.
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Ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group.
PHOTO: REUTERS/BRENDAN McDERMID/FILE PHOTO
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Blackstone Group Inc. has recapitalized industrial properties held by LBA Logistics, acquiring a roughly 60% interest in the two portfolios, which have a combined value of about $1.6 billion. Blackstone invested in the transaction through its externally managed Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. The deal covers 71 locations mainly on the West Coast from Los Angeles to Seattle totaling about 9.5 million square feet in properties that are about 95% occupied.
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Consumer-focused San Francisco Equity Partners has acquired Smith & Vandiver Corp., a manufacturer of natural beauty and personal care products. The business provides products for skin care and body care, including cannabidiol topicals and bath salts. Its services include concept creation, formula development and packaging design, among others.
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Blue Point Capital has acquired auto parts distributor Transtar Holding Co., investing alongside company management. The Cleveland-based company specializes in replacement transmissions and drive trains and plans to expand its e-commerce operations.
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Charger Investment Partners is backing B&B Coffeehouse LLC, a Sandy, Utah-based retailer that does business as Beans & Brews. The company has expanded from Salt Lake City to 58 locations in Western states, including Idaho and Nevada since its founding in 1993 and also operates a roasted coffee wholesaling business.
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Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.
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Latch Inc., a maker of smart locks and building-management software, plans to go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company backed by a real-estate giant, the latest startup looking to use a so-called blank-check vehicle to cash in on strong investor interest in tech-enabled businesses, Bowdeya Tweh and Konrad Putzier write.
A Lion Capital-backed blank-check company has registered to raise $200 million through an initial public offering of shares and aims to capitalize on its leaders’ experience investing in the consumer sector, a regulatory filing shows. Leo Holdings III Corp, the special-purpose acquisition company, is led by Lion Capital co-founders Lyndon Lea and Robert Darwent as chief executive and chief financial officer, respectively, while the firm’s chairman, Ed Forst, is also the chairman of the SPAC, the filing shows.
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Victory Park Capital, a Chicago-based alternative investment firm, is backing VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings II, which seeks to raise $225 million through an initial public offering of shares, a regulatory filing shows. The special-purpose acquisition company is led by Victory Park executives Brendan Carroll and Gordon Watson as co-chief executives. Mr. Carroll is a senior partner with the investment firm while Mr. Watson is a partner. The SPAC aims to invest in a financial technology business that mainly operates outside the U.S.
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Stone Point Capital-backed mortgage company Home Point Capital Inc. registered plans to sell about 12.5 million shares priced at between $19 and $21 apiece through an initial public offering, with nearly all of the stock being sold by Stone Point, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The Ann Arbor, Mich., home loan originator and servicer said it isn't selling any shares in the IPO, but Greenwich, Conn.-based Stone Point is offering about 12 million shares. The deal would give the company a market value of about $2.78 billion at the price-range midpoint of $20.
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Minneapolis-based Northstar Capital said it is armed with nearly $500 million in fresh capital across two new mezzanine funds focused on the lower midmarket, including the firm’s first fund structured as a Small Business Investment Company. Northstar said it has already invested in nine platforms out of the pool.
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Felicitas Global Partners is seeking $300 million for Felicitas Secondary Fund II LP and so far has rounded up at least $90.4 million for the offering, according to a regulatory filing. Pasadena, Calif.-based Felicitas typically targets opportunistic secondary deals, including funds and direct stakes under $10 million in transaction size, as well as credit and hedge fund secondaries, according to the firm’s website.
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Gauge Capital has wrapped up marketing for its third private-equity fund, Gauge Capital III LP, with $800 million, including more than $200 million from members of the firm, according to a news release. The Southlake, Texas, firm’s second fund, Gauge Capital II LP, had a gross asset value of about $468.7 million, while a parallel vehicle listed about $182 million as of last October, according to a regulatory filing.
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Wall Street is launching a third exchange-traded fund that invests in special-purpose acquisition companies, accelerating a rush to cash in on investors’ enthusiasm for so-called blank-check firms, Amrith Ramkumar writes in The Wall Street Journal. The hedge fund Morgan Creek Capital Management and the financial-technology company Exos Financial plan to launch their SPAC ETF on Tuesday, the companies said. The new Morgan Creek-Exos SPAC Originated ETF will trade under the ticker SPXZ and consist of a mix of firms that recently went public by merging with a SPAC plus shell companies that are still seeking startups to take public.
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Blackstone Group Inc.-backed Patria Investments Ltd. on Friday said an upsized initial public offering of about 30.1 million shares priced at $17 apiece, above the expected range of $14 to $16, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The private-equity firm run from São Paulo is selling 16.65 million shares in the offering, as expected, while Blackstone is offering about 13.45 million shares, up from a planned sale of 10 million. Patria shares are slated to begin trading Friday on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbol PAX.
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Shiseido Co. confirmed that it is in talks to sell a stake in its personal care business to CVC Capital Partners during the first half of this year. The Tokyo-listed company said the business mainly operates in Asian markets and that formal negotiations had started with CVC Asia Pacific Ltd., the potential investor. Shiseido shares were among the most-active issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, closing with a 4.4% gain, according to FactSet.
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CDC Group, a development finance and impact investor, has committed to investing more than $1 billion in Africa this year, the same amount targeted in 2020, Elisângela Mendonça reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The group will put money into financial institutions, infrastructure and climate-related investments, as well as services, manufacturing, agriculture, real estate and technology businesses. Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria are considered “key markets” for CDC, which said it is also interested in investing in more remote frontier locations.
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