Good morning and TGIF! A busy week nears its end with more earnings news from Carlyle, GCM Grosvenor and Ridgepost, and we have a full report on the former from our Maria Armental and Elias Schisgall. We've condensed the GCM and Ridgepost results for you in our Industry News section.

Also topping the news today, creditors of Fortress-backed Brightline have brought in restructuring advisers after signs of trouble at the railroad operator, as our WSJ Pro colleagues report.

But there's much more below, including more deals, exits, fundraisings and people news, so please read on...

Carlyle Group sees strong momentum to deploy a record $96 billion in capital available to invest, with market volatility and geopolitical tensions playing out in its favor, Maria Armental and Elias Schisgall report for WSJ Pro. While capital on hand to invest, or “dry powder,” rose 13% from a year earlier, Washington-based Carlyle invested less in this year’s first quarter—$10 billion—than the $11.1 billion it committed in the year-ago period. But the firm is in the process of closing an $8 billion carve-out from chemicals company BASF and a $3 billion acquisition of MAI Capital Management, Carlyle Chief Executive Harvey Schwartz said during the firm’s earnings call with securities analysts Thursday.

More creditors of Fortress Investment Group-backed Brightline have hired restructuring advisers after the private railroad operator issued a warning last week that raised questions about its ability to continue operations, WSJ Pro reports. Lenders holding Brightline’s uninsured senior bonds at the operating company have tapped Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to advise them on potential talks with the company, according to people familiar with the matter. A separate group of lenders holding parent company bonds has hired Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, one of the people said.

Existing investors Iconiq Capital and GIC are leading a $750 million growth investment in corporate-card and expense-management startup Ramp that values the business at over $40 billion, Kate Clark reports for The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. A $300 million investment round in November pegged the company's worth at $32 billion. Backers of the business also include Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management and Thrive Capital.

Blackstone is participating in family-owned Angelini Pharma's acquisition of Nasdaq-listed Catalyst Pharmaceuticals for $31.50 a share, or about $4.1 billion, Fabiana Negrin Ochoa reports for the Journal. The acquirer is part of the Italian Angelini family's Angelini Industries Group and the deal marks its entry into the U.S.

The infrastructure strategy of buyout firm EQT AB and logistics-focused Americold Realty Trust have formed a joint venture to operate cold storage warehouses across North America. New York-listed Americold is contributing 12 U.S. properties valued at around $1.3 billion to the venture, with EQT acquiring a 70% stake in the operation for about $1.1 billion while Americold will retain a 30% interest.

Blackstone is backing clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Anagram Therapeutics with a $250 million investment. The Natick, Mass.-based company is developing therapies for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency resulting from conditions such as cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer. Blackstone is investing through its life sciences strategy.

Bain Capital in Boston is providing a $225 million senior credit facility for infant and toddler products company Kids2, whose brands include Baby Einstein and SwaddleMe by Ingenuity. Bain Capital is backing the Atlanta-based company through its private credit strategy.

Allied Industrial Partners is backing equipment rental and specialty services provider Trinity Industrial with a majority investment, while founders and managers of the business are retaining significant stakes. The Broussard, La.-based company specializes in serving industrial, utility and energy infrastructure customers across the Gulf Coast.

Platinum Equity’s credit strategy is providing debt financing for poultry processing company Soulshine Farms in connection with a recent strategic investment in the business. Although Platinum didn't name the investor, in April, Kingswood Capital Management said it was backing Soulshine with a strategic investment.

Healthcare-focused firm Amulet Capital Partners is buying TFP Fertility Group from fellow private investment firm Benefit Street Partners, a unit of Franklin Templeton. TFP operates a network of 10 fertility clinics and 21 referral centers across the U.K. and Poland.

Midmarket-focused Brightstar Capital Partners is backing regional optometry, optical and ophthalmology services provider Simon Eye Holdings with a strategic investment. The Wilmington, Del.-based company operates across the mid-Atlantic region.

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

Insight Partners-backed satellite company HawkEye 360 saw its shares take off in their New York Stock Exchange debut Thursday, opening 30% above their $26 initial public offering price, the Journal reports. Herndon, Va.-based HawkEye, a defense contractor with more than 30 data-collection satellites in orbit, priced its offering at the high end of its targeted price range, raising $416 million and valuing the company at more than $2.4 billion. Insight held 18% of the company's shares before the IPO while NightDragon had a nearly 12% stake and Singapore's GIC had 8.5%, a securities filing shows.

OrbiMed-backed Perfuse Therapeutics is being acquired by strategic buyer Bayer for as much as $2.45 billion, Adrià Calatayud reports for the Journal. OrbiMed acquired a minority stake in the clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on eye treatments in 2019, joined by others including Catalio Capital Management, according to research provider PitchBook.

Paine Schwartz Partners-backed organic juice maker Suja Life's shares dropped in their Nasdaq debut Thursday after pricing at $21 each in the Oceanside, Calif.-based company's initial public offering. The shares traded around $17.91 late Thursday, down almost 15%. Paine Schwartz, which acquired the maker of cold-pressured juices and related beverages from the asset-management arm of Goldman Sachs in 2021, had planned to sell more than 200,700 shares in the offering, a regulatory filing indicated.

Clinical trials-focused PathAI, whose backers include growth investor Biospring Partners and OrbiMed, is being acquired by strategic buyer Roche for as much as $1.05 billion, Adrià Calatayud reports for the Journal. Biospring and OrbiMed have backed the Boston-based company since at least 2021, according to research provider PitchBook. Other investors have included General Atlantic and Tiger Global Management , according to PitchBook

Ardian has sold a majority stake in French food retailer Prosol Group to Apollo Global Management. Prosol operates around 450 outlets in France and generated revenue of over €4.2 billion, or $4.93 billion, in 2024. Paris-based Ardian acquired the business in 2017.

Snow Peak Capital has sold a majority stake in specialty fabrics manufacturer Dalco-GFT Nonwovens to a subsidiary of strategic buyer Arvind. Snow Peak initially invested in the Conover, N.C.-based company in 2022 and will retain a minority stake in it as a result of the transaction.

Los Angeles-based private investment firm Atar Capital has sold Keypoint Intelligence to an operating unit of Constellation Software after roughly seven years of ownership.

Apis Partners Group has raised a total of $1.23 billion for Apis Global Growth Fund III and Apis Growth Markets Fund III to back minority stakes in growing, profitable financial infrastructure and services businesses in Europe and other parts of the world. Around half of the total capital raised came from investors that had backed the firm’s previous funds. The capital raised for Fund III excludes co-investment capital and is more than double the $563 million that the firm raised for the fund’s predecessor.

Pantheon in London has closed on $1 billion for its first private-equity collateralized fund obligation, surpassing a $750 million target with investors including insurers seeking "rate exposure" to the segment. The CFO is backed mainly by midmarket private-equity secondaries investments from Pantheon's flagship strategies as well as other assets.

Construction lender S3 Capital has closed on $850 million for its S3 LB RE Credit Fund III plus $465 million of co-investment commitments, bringing investable capital to around $1.3 billion from the fundraise and giving the New York firm about $4.3 billion in loan capacity. The firm had targeted $650 million for the closed-end fund with a six-year duration to back multifamily residential developments.

Alternative-assets liquidity provider Beneficient founder Brad Heppner was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy in connection with a financial blowup that caused more than $1 billion of investor losses, Alexander Gladstone reports for WSJ Pro. A lawyer for Heppner declined to comment. Beneficient offers to help high-net-worth individuals obtain cash for their fund holdings.

London-listed buyout firm ICG has added to its Americas team, hiring Brant Gresham as a managing director and head of US West, based in California, and Felipe Sotomayor as a managing director, Latin America, based in Chile. Gresham joins from Blue Owl Capital while Sotomayor was chief executive of Credicorp Capital Asset Management Chile.

MiddleGround Capital has promoted Alexander van der Have to partner at the midmarket firm. He joined MiddleGround in 2023 and has played a key role in expanding the firm’s European presence as head of its European office in Amsterdam.

Kainos Capital in Dallas has elevated Cate Mason to director of investor relations from senior associate. She joined the firm in 2023.

Soundcore Capital Partners has promoted Michael Khutorsky to partner at the New York-based private-equity firm. Khutorsky joined the firm as a senior managing director in 2025.

Bonus pools for private credit are shrinking while secondaries are expanding and midmarket private equity is expected to be flat this year compared with 2025, according to compensation researcher Johnson Associates. Pools at large private-equity firms and infrastructure investors are seen as rising as much as 5%, while secondaries managers are expected to enjoy 5% to 10% increases, Johnson said. Incentive pools for private-credit managers are contracting by 2.5% to 7.5%. Venture capital is expected to be flat.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is expected to provide investors with a clearer sense of how it expects to allocate spending in filings related to an expected initial public offering, Micah Maidenberg reports for the Journal. The IPO is poised to generate billions of dollars in new capital for the company. Private-equity investor Ezinne Uzo-Okoro, Calthorpe Group's general partner, said he believes in Musk's "ability to sell his vision."

In recent months, President Trump has extended his hand into American business in unorthodox and, to some corporate leaders, alarming ways—from progressive-style demands to cap credit-card rates to assertive deals grabbing government shares in private companies, the Journal reports. Some executives are so worried Trump will ask for a stake in their company that they have prepared for Oval Office meetings by rehearsing what they would say to fend off the president’s advances, lobbyists involved in the preparations said. Others welcome the president’s attention.

Two of Blue Owl Capital's business development companies are tightening the reins on software bets amid turmoil over the effects of artificial-intelligence technology, Reuters reports. Blue Owl Capital Corp. reduced its software assets to 16% of its holdings from 19% in the first quarter as borrowers paid off loans made by the BDC, while Blue Owl Technology Finance Corp. has become "increasingly selective" about extending credit, according to President Erik Bissonnette, Reuters said.

The Federal Trade Commission has finalized an order resolving antitrust concerns that stemmed from Valvoline’s acquisition of Breeze Autocare from transportation-focused Greenbriar Equity Group’s Greenbriar Equity Fund V. The order requires the divestiture of 45 quick-lube oil-change shops to address antitrust concerns surrounding Valvoline’s acquisition of approximately 200 quick-lube oil-change outlets from Greenbriar, according to the FTC order. Main Street Auto will acquire the divested ships and operate them under the name Oil Changers.

StepStone Group is providing investors with access to its evergreen funds through the London Stock Exchange Group's Workspace site and its digital markets infrastructure system, which uses blockchain technology. The New York firm's private-equity, private-debt and infrastructure funds are available through the tie-up.

Lincoln International’s Lincoln Private Market Index, which tracks changes in enterprise value of U.S. privately held companies, declined by 2.2% in the first quarter, driven largely by a 7.8% drop for technology companies. However, Lincoln noted that the majority of companies in the index performed well in the first quarter with 69.8% growing revenue and 62.6% growing earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

Kanawha Scales Systems, an industrial weighing and automated control systems company backed by Investcorp, is offering an employee ownership plan to all workers who are not already equity holders in the company and who have completed one year of service with the company. Kanawha Scales is the second company in Investcorp’s North American private-equity portfolio to offer such a plan.

Nasdaq-listed GCM Grosvenor's assets under management rose 12% to $91.5 billion at the end of March from a year earlier, while fee-paying assets increased 11% to $73.5 billion. The Chicago-based firm's first-quarter fee-related earnings were little changed at about $46.7 million, while adjusted net income edged about 2.1% higher to $36 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with almost $35.3 million, or 18 cents a share, in the year-ago period. On a GAAP basis, the firm's net income jumped to about $5.5 million, or six cents a share, from $463,000 in the year-ago period, or a two cents a share loss, while revenue slipped slightly to about $124.8 million.

Ridgepost Capital, whose operating units include Bonaccord Capital Partners in private equity and credit provider Stellus Capital Management, posted a 7% gain in fee-related earnings to $32.9 million for this year's first quarter while fee-paying assets rose 18% to about $31 billion at the end of March compared with a year earlier. Adjusted net income climbed 9% to $25.5 million, or 22 cents a share. GAAP net income doubled to $9.7 million, or eight cents a share, while revenue rose 11% to $31 million in the just-ended quarter. The firm's total assets under management rose to over $45 billion at the end of March.

Northleaf Capital Partners in Toronto and technology-focused Inovia Capital in Montreal have formed a startup investment strategy called Discovery by Inovia x Northleaf, to back both emerging venture firms as well as entrepreneurs in Canada.

Send us your tips, suggestions and feedback. Write to:

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