Welcome back. Carried interest is increasingly being offered outside the private-markets sphere, with top Goldman Sachs executives unconnected to alternative investments receiving more than $9 million in carry this year, Ted Bunker reports. BlackRock has also laid out plans to pay CEO Larry Fink partly with carry.

We have a double dose of dealmaking news from my colleagues, Luis Garcia and Chris Cumming.

Morgan Stanley’s asset-management arm is investing $30 million in methane-detection services provider Insight M, Luis writes.

And in the first ever deal of its kind, Ohio AG Dave Yost approved the acquisition of a U.S. hospital by a venture-capital firm, but at a higher price and with conditions attached, Chris reports.

We have these stories and more for you below. Please read on…

Goldman Sachs and BlackRock are first movers in providing top executives unconnected to alternative investments with a pay perk common in private-equity firms, with Goldman doling out more than $9 million in investment profits to the bank's named officers this year, Ted Bunker writes for WSJ Pro. Cutting named executive officers into the profits generated by private-markets investments likely will spread to more bank leaders, according to compensation consulting company Johnson Associates and corporate pay analysts at proxy advisory firms.

Morgan Stanley’s asset-management unit is backing methane-detection services provider Insight M with a $30 million investment from the bank’s carbon-focused 1GT strategy, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia writes. The firm made the move amid an increasing abundance of attractive deal opportunities in the U.S. as valuations decline for clean-energy businesses.

Ohio authorities approved the first-ever acquisition of a U.S. hospital by a venture-capital firm, but at a higher price and with conditions attached, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming writes. Attorney General Dave Yost on Wednesday approved General Catalyst’s bid to acquire Summa Health, a hospital system in Akron with over 20 facilities in the area, and convert it to for-profit status. General Catalyst, a veteran startup investor based in Cambridge, Mass., said in November it would pay $485 million for Summa, but Yost has demanded the firm pay $15 million more.

WSJ Pro Private Equity is embarking on its latest Survey of Secondary Market Buyers, which we use as the basis for compiling our annual special report on the latest trends shaping the secondary market. Secondary buyers can complete the survey by June 20 through the following link.

Mark Walter, the billionaire chief executive of Guggenheim Partners and co-chairman of holding company TWG Global with Thomas Tull, is buying the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team at a valuation of $10 billion, the Journal reports, citing a person familiar with the deal. TWG holds stakes in the Lakers, Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, where Walter is the lead owner, several motor racing teams and the Chelsea club of English soccer's Premier League, among other sports assets. Walter is buying the Lakers from Jeanie Buss and her family, which acquired the National Basketball Association franchise in 1979 for $67.5 million.

An investment arm of insurer Prudential Financial will buy up to $500 million of consumer loans from technology-backed lender Affirm Holdings over a period of three years, Matt Wirz reports for The Wall Street Journal. The deal is part of a growing wave of transactions pairing a handful of large private-credit investors with financial-technology companies that are replacing banks as go-to lenders for Americans.

Bregal Investments’ impact investing strategy, Bregal Sphere, is investing in Jubilación Segura, an agroforestry and reforestation project in coffee and cocoa growing regions of Peru. The project was initially launched in 2010 by PUR, which develops projects in areas such as agroforestry, land preservation, and sustainable agriculture. Bregal Sphere’s investment will support the project’s goal of doubling its size over the next five years to enable the distribution of 4.4 million trees and the restoration of more than 5,000 hectares of degraded land.

European buyout firm Mutares in Munich has agreed to acquire the automotive drum-brake production and research and development operations of Continental located in Cairo Montenotte, Italy, through a carveout that will include a manufacturing plant and around 400 employees at the site. The operations are expected to generate revenue of about €100 million, or roughly $114.8 million, this year.

Thompson Street Capital Partners has acquired Bubbakoo’s Burritos, a New Jersey-based fast-casual Mexican restaurant chain. The chain has more than 130 locations across 15 states in the U.S.

Carlyle Group's AlpInvest is providing about $600 million in preferred equity to the Horizon II private-equity program of investment manager Federated Hermes. Federated began investing from the program, which it set up on behalf of the BT Pension Scheme, in 2019 and holds fund interests as well as co-investment assets. AlpInvest's commitment will help Federate manage liquidity in Horizon II while letting the pension, with assets of about £35.7 billion, or roughly $50.36 billion, retain interests in potential future investment gains.

Deerfield Management and Regeneron Ventures led a $66 million growth investment in clinical-stage biotechnology company Actio Biosciences.

NVentures, the venture-capital arm of NVIDIA, joined current backers Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and other strategic investors in a $650 million growth investment in nuclear energy company TerraPower. The Bellevue, Wash.-based company, co-founded by Gates, is developing nuclear reactors tied to large-scale energy storage systems.

Ares Management has acquired a minority interest in racing team France SailGP, a competitor in the Rolex SailGP Championship series of races by large catamarans. Ares is investing through its sports, media and entertainment strategy.

Türkiye İşbank Group's İş Private Equity arm is sponsoring translational development from the work of Harvard University researcher Gökhan Hotamışlıgil, a professor in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, through a biotechnology venture called Enlila. The venture is committing about $39 million over 10 years to support Hotamışlıgil's lab in exchange for licensing rights to the fruits of the lab's research.

A buyout group that includes Buckthorn Partners and One Equity Partners has dropped plans to bid for U.K. chain and gear maker Renold. Ian Walker reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The group had expressed interest in the company last month, but Morgenthaler Private Equity Partners subsequently entered the mix with an 82 pence per share offer, valued at about £186.7 million, or $250.7 million, that Renold directors accepted.

Harbourview Equity Partners led an $85 million growth investment in French animation company Animaj, joined by others including Bpifrance and JPMorgan Chase. Animaj creates children's videos using artificial-intelligence technology.

Media- and entertainment-focused firm Shamrock Capital is backing a deal that gives the private-markets firm participation in the cash flows generated by a film and television library of entertainment company New Regency. New Regency has also entered into a production credit facility provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank and other banks to support new film and television projects.

KDSA Investment Partners, a food- and beverage-focused firm, has acquired Williams Distributors, a direct-store-delivery distributor of ice cream, frozen pizza and frozen foods in the Northwestern U.S. KDSA backed the deal in partnership with Greylock Capital Group.

Garnett Station Partners has launched commercial roofing services platform Skybound Service Partners in partnership with Jack Miner who will serve as the company’s founder and president. As part of the launch, Skybound also announced a deal with Roof Technology Partners, an Atlanta-based commercial roofing contractor.

Access Biotechnology led growth investments totaling $140 million in clinical-stage company Draig Therapeutics, joined by investors including Canaan Partners and Schroders Capital. The spinout from Cardiff University in Wales is developing treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Bayview Asset Management is acquiring mortgage company Guild Holdings in a $1.3 billion all-cash take-private deal, Adriano Marchese reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Bayview has agreed to pay $20 a share for the San Diego business, representing a 27% premium to Tuesday's close in New York.

Principal owner John Fisher is formally putting the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team up for sale and has hired investment bank Moelis & Co. to lead the process. Fisher has been the Major League Soccer franchise's main owner since he and Lew Wolff helped resuscitate the team and bring it back to MLS play in 2008 following a two-year hiatus. Fisher also oversaw the development of the team's 18,000-seat arena, PayPal Park.

Main Capital Partners in The Hague has acquired enterprise software company CarWise Group and its AutoDisk operation. The business specializes in developing applications used to manage auto leasing and rentals.

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

Blackstone-backed Cirsa, a Spanish casino operator, plans an initial public offering of shares in Spain to raise €400 million, or about $459.3 million, to finance growth, Najat Kantouar reports for Dow Jones Newswires. New York-based Blackstone acquired the gambling business about seven years ago and aims to sell shares worth €60 million in the offering.

Apollo Global Management has fully exited its investment in Italian gambling infrastructure company Lottomatica Group with the sale of nearly 53.6 million shares, representing a roughly 21% stake in the company's equity, for about €1.21 billion, or $1.4 billion. Apollo sold the stake at €22.50 a share. The New York firm sold a roughly 10% stake in the company in May for €496.6 million, following a January sale that reduced Apollo's interest to less than a majority of the company's shares. Apollo took the company public in 2023 at €9 a share in a Milan IPO, giving it a market capitalization of about €2.27 billion.

Sleeping Bear Capital has sold its interest in aerial drone technology developer Edge Autonomy to strategic buyer Redwire, which acquired the company for $925 million in stock and cash. Sleeping Bear has held a minority stake in the business since 2022.

Audax has sold boiler service and maintenance company Thermogenics to Morgan Stanley Capital Partners. The firm's private-equity arm acquired the Aurora, Ontario-based industrial and commercial services business through its lower midmarket-focused Origins strategy about three years ago.

Multistrategy investment firm Aurelius in Munich has wrapped up fundraising for its Aurelius Opportunities V buyout fund, giving the firm €830 million, or roughly $953 million, in fresh investment capital. The new vehicle's predecessor, Aurelius European Opportunities Fund IV, closed with €540 million in 2021.

Ares Management has launched a European long-term investment fund as it targets a wider pool of affluent investors, sister publication Private Equity News reports. The Ares European Strategic Income ELTIF is a semi-liquid vehicle that allows more individual  investors in the European Economic Area to access the $546 billion global alternatives manager’s European direct lending strategy.

Inflexion partner Jonathan Ma, who has focused on technology deals, is in the process of leaving the firm to set up his own shop, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London, citing people familiar with the matter. Ma led Inflexion's investments in companies such as Comparison Technologies and MyPolicy.

MetLife Investment Management has named Brian Funk as president. Funk previously served as interim president and global head of private capital.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. has found itself the target of an unusual stakeholder group: DJs. Partygoers descended on Barcelona last week for an electronic music festival called Sónar, but by the time they arrived, several of its DJs had already pulled out, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. They snubbed the event as nearly 100 music artists protested over KKR's ownership of event operator SuperStruct, and the firm's investments in Israeli companies in the wake of the Gaza war.

CVC Capital Partners is scrapping its growth strategy and replacing it with a new middle-market one, which the firm is betting will be easier to scale, sister publication Private Equity News reports, citing people familiar with the situation. The new midmarket strategy dubbed “Catalyst” will write checks from €75 million, or around $86.4 million to €250 million, larger targets than its growth strategy pursued but still smaller than the deals it backs through its flagship funds.

U.S. life insurers have a large and growing investment allocation to private credit. Based on a survey of insurers rated by Moody’s Ratings, nearly a third of the sector's $6 trillion in cash and invested assets was allocated to private-credit investments at the end of last year. This broad category includes private placements, mortgage loans and similar instruments.

U.S. private-equity and venture-capital distribution rates are well below their 25-year averages, according to a Wednesday report from JPMorgan Asset Management. The private-equity distribution was 13.8% in the third quarter of last year, significantly lower than the 25-year average of 23.2%.

Alternative-investments options are being added to model portfolios that 401(k) plan administrator Fidelity Investments provides to registered investment advisers and broker-dealers on a custom basis, Andrew Welsch reports for sister publication Barron's. The move comes as more RIAs seek to put client assets into alternative investments such as private equity and credit funds.

Apollo Global Management has teamed up with Canada’s National Bank Investments to form NBI Apollo Private Credit Fund, an offering that provides Canadian accredited investors with access to private credit investments originated by Apollo Debt Solutions BDC. The non-traded US business development company focuses on senior secured large corporate direct origination, broadly syndicated loans, and, to a lesser extent, middle market direct lending.

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

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