Good morning. I hope U.S. and Canada’s readers had a great holiday. We start the shorter week with a public-relations push by the private-equity industry to polish its image in the eyes of ordinary investors, our Chris Cumming reports.

Chris also brings news of a bill that California lawmakers passed on Friday forbidding private-equity firms from having any control over medical practices.

Also, our Rod James writes that investment bank Houlihan Lokey is bulking up its business of advising on continuation funds with the hiring of Sandro Galfetti, the former head of Swiss bank UBS’s secondary advisory business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Now onto the news...

The private-equity industry is trying to polish its public image as it prepares to market itself, for the first time ever, to the mass of ordinary American investors, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming writes. With an assist from President Trump, private-fund managers find themselves on the cusp of entering the defined-contribution retirement business, a $12 trillion pot of money that they have had their eyes on for years. Now, the industry is launching a public-relations push to make American savers—many of whom may not know what private equity is or may disapprove of its business practices—want it to help manage their nest eggs.

California lawmakers took another stab at restricting private-equity investors' control over medical practices, a year after Gov. Gavin Newsom shot down a similar proposal, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming reports. The state Assembly on Friday passed SB 351, a bill that would strengthen the state's existing bans on corporate medicine, on a 61-0 vote, according to a state legislative aide. The bill, introduced in February by Democratic Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, would prohibit a private-equity firm or hedge fund from exercising any control over a medical or dental practice it backs. The Senate must now pass it again by Sept. 12 if it is to make it to Newsom's desk this year.

Investment bank Houlihan Lokey has made a statement in the European private-equity market by hiring Sandro Galfetti, the former head of Swiss bank UBS’s secondary advisory business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, WSJ Pro's Rod James writes. The Los Angeles firm tapped Galfetti for a managing director’s role in its Equity Capital Solutions Group to advise private-fund sponsors in the EMEA region on secondary deals led by fund general partners. Such GP-led secondary transactions have ballooned in popularity in recent years, fueled by the growing liquidity needs of fund sponsors and their restive institutional investors. Houlihan has also moved Michael Pilson, a managing director, from New York to London where he leads the bank’s advisory business for European GP-led secondary deals.

Food company Kraft Heinz is closing in on a plan to break itself up, the Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Taking such a step would effectively undo much of the work done from the infamous merger of Kraft and Heinz in 2015, a deal orchestrated by Warren Buffett and Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital. A transaction could be announced as soon as early next week, the people said.

British buyout firm CVC Capital Partners is acquiring a utility-scale solar energy and battery storage project in Chile from Grenergy, a renewable energy company based in Spain. The PV-Bess project currently under construction  includes 272 megawatts of generating capacity and 1.1 gigawatt-hours of storage. The deal isn't expected to close until after the project's commercial operation date, anticipated to be reached before June 30. CVC is investing through its infrastructure strategy.

Bain Capital in Boston is buying commercial insurance distributor Jensten Group from midmarket-focused private equity firm Livingbridge in London, according to an emailed news release. Livingbridge first backed the multi-line broker in 2018 and it now has more than 100 branch offices across the U.K., according to the seller's website. Bain Capital is investing through its insurance strategy and expected to close the deal before year-end.

European buyout shop Mutares in Munich is acquiring the European business of aluminum window and façade systems supplier Kawneer, through a carve out of operations in the Netherlands, France and the U.K. The group Mutares is buying generates revenue of around €125 million and has more than 400 employees.

Credit-focused Cheyne Capital is providing £171 million, or roughly $230.9 million, in financing for Brookfield-controlled Oaktree Capital Management's 14-story Canary Wharf building, YY London, according to an emailed news release. Oaktree acquired the property alongside Quadrant in 2019 and completed a refurbishment in 2023.

Midmarket-focused One Equity Partners in New York is acquiring explosion protection and safety technology developer Bartec from investors led by Bridgepoint Group's credit arm and Franklin Templeton's Alcentra affiliate. The selling group has backed the Bad Mergentheim, Germany-based company since 2019. Bartec's products are used in industrial settings by energy companies, petrochemical and pharmaceuticals manufacturers.

DirecTV, a satellite television broadcaster backed by TPG, could renew merger discussions with rival Dish Network that failed last year in the wake of Dish owner EchoStar's $23 billion deal to sell wireless spectrum licenses to telecommunications giant AT&T, Reinhardt Krause writes for Investor's Business Daily, citing securities analysts. TPG acquired a stake in DirecTV from AT&T in 2021. DirecTV and Dish had agreed about a year ago to merge but called off the deal after holders of about $10.7 billion of Dish debt objected.

British investment firm Permira has approached London-listed professional services business JTC over a potential takeover but was rebuffed, Dow Jones Newswires reports. Shares of the provider of private fund and client services rose as much as 17% Friday following disclosure of the approach. Permira has until Sept. 26 to clarify its intentions toward the company.

Brazil investment firm 3G Capital has cleared the final regulatory hurdles to its roughly $9.4 billion take-private deal for shoemaker Skechers and expects to close the transaction by Sept. 12. 3G agreed to acquire the California-based company in May for $63 a share in cash

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority plans to invest $1.5 billion in Singapore-based GLP, which finances data center construction in China and operates the facilities as well as logistics properties, while also raising investment funds in China. The firm's asset management arm, GLP Capital Partners, manages about $80 billion. ADIA, as the sovereign investor is also known, has already provided $500 million to GLP, according to credit analysts with Fitch Ratings, and expects to invest the rest later.

European private-equity firm Apheon has acquired Dallas-based bakery ingredients supplier Cain Foods and combined with Millbio, a portfolio company in Italy that also supplies ingredients to bakeries.

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

Bain Capital and Cinven are selling a majority stake in European pharmaceutical company Stada Arzneimittel to CapVest Partners. The sellers are retaining a minority interest in the business, which generated revenue of over €4 billion, or about $4.67 billion, last year. Canson Capital Partners advised CapVest on the deal. Jefferies Financial Group, which advised Stada, said by email that the deal is one of the largest European leveraged buyouts this year so far. Bain Capital and Cinven acquired Stada through a take-private deal in 2017 that valued the business at about €4.11 billion.

Investors including Macquarie Group's asset-management arm have sold marine transportation company Centerline Logistics to finance specialist Maritime Partners. The Seattle-based coastal tugboat and barge operator has been backed by Macquarie Capital since 2008, according to research provider PitchBook Data.

Apollo Global Management-backed University of Phoenix aims to become a publicly traded company, Katherine Hamilton reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The school's holding company, operating as Phoenix Education Partners, filed for an initial public offering on Friday without saying how many shares it plans to sell or at what price range. Apollo and other investors acquired the for-profit school in Arizona in 2017 as part of a $1.1 billion deal, taking it private.

European buyout firm EQT AB has sold 20 million class B shares of Beijer Ref, a Swedish provider of cooling and heating systems, for roughly 3.1 billion Swedish krona, equivalent to about $137.4 million. EQT agreed to become the company's largest shareholder in December 2020 by acquiring over 35.6 million B shares and almost 2.2 million Class A shares as a growth investment.

A TJC-backed company, Arclin, is acquiring the Aramids business of chemical company DuPont for about $1.8 billion. The polymer manufacturing unit includes synthetic-fiber brands Kevlar and Nomex.

EagleTree Capital and co-investors are selling media services provider Northstar Travel Group to strategic buyer JTB Corp., in Japan. EagleTree has backed the Rutherford, N.J.-based business since 2016.

Partners Group in Switzerland has appointed Tarak Mehta as a partner and co-head of Private Equity Goods & Products alongside Manas Tandon. Mehta was most recently president and chief executive of U.S. manufacturer Timken Co.

Tikehau Capital in Paris has appointed Alexandre Baladès as head of compliance for Tikehau Investment Management, succeeding Anne Maillé, and named Andrew Craven as chief compliance officer for the Americas. Baladès moves up from a similar role with Tikehau subsidiary Groupe Sofidy. Craven joins the private-equity firm from Man Group. Maillé decided to leave the firm.

Universities, pensions and foundations have piled into private equity for decades, hoping to match the blockbuster returns of Yale’s legendary endowment chief, David Swensen. But Swensen’s approach is becoming harder and harder to copy, even at Yale, Heather Gillers writes for the Journal.

A study by Commonfund and the Council on Foundations found that private foundations posted an average one-year return of 10.3% last year, down from 12.6% in 2023, while community foundations reported an 11.0% gain compared with 14.1% in the previous year. The 154 participating private foundations in the study tended to be much more heavily invested in alternatives than the 101 community foundations, which tended to invest in stocks and bonds, according to the study. The 255 foundations in the study control about $104.9 billion and both groups saw 10-year returns increase last year, with the private funds reporting 7.3% and the community pools at 7.0%.

Mexican private-equity and real-estate organizations see broad investment opportunities as the country navigates an economic slowdown and lingering uncertainty over trade relations with the U.S., Anthony Harrup reports for the Journal. Private-equity dealmaking is rising in the country, with more than 130 deals in this year's first half, according to Pablo Coballasi, president of Mexican private-equity association Amexcap. In all of 2024, there were 230 transactions for $5.7 billion, more than twice as much as in 2023.

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Rod James; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.

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