Good morning! In today's newsletter, our Chris Cumming writes about a new bill just passed in Oregon, the strictest prohibition yet on private-equity ownership in the U.S. medical industry.

Pencils have been down for many but not for Apollo, Luis Garcia of WSJ Pro reports. The alternative asset manager has committed $2 billion of capital across four M&A deals since 'Liberation Day' in early April as the New York firm moves to take advantage of market dislocation. 

I will be in Berlin all of next week for SuperReturn International. Feel free to say hi.

Now onto the news..

Oregon lawmakers approved a bill to block private-equity firms from controlling healthcare practices, which analysts say would be the nation’s strictest ban on corporate influence in medicine, WSJ Pro’s Chris Cumming writes. Oregon’s House on Wednesday approved the measure, which would prohibit non-physician investors from controlling medical practices and strengthen the state’s nearly 80-year-old prohibition on corporate medical practices. The bill heads to the desk of Gov. Tina Kopek who has about five days to sign or veto it.

Apollo Global Management has told investors in its funds that it is actively looking to buy and sell companies even as market volatility slows down overall private-markets dealmaking, WSJ Pro’s Luis Garcia reports. “Our investors expect us to lean in when others pull back, and we have done exactly that,” the New York-based asset manager said in a May 22 letter to private-equity fund investors. The missive, signed by private-equity co-heads David Sambur and Matt Nord, was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The firm said since April 2, it has committed more than $2 billion to private-equity deals and “kept our foot on the gas.”

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.

Some of the U.S. banks that cut ties with a leading industry climate group have shifted how they talk about their climate efforts.

Nespresso, purveyor of sophistication, wants to win over Gen Z coffee drinkers. It’s having to get more playful with its marketing to do so.

A joint venture formed by Brookfield Asset Management’s infrastructure unit, certain of the unit’s institutional investors and publicly traded Gatx Corp. has agreed to acquire around 105,000 rail cars from Wells Fargo for $4.4 billion, Stephen Nakrosis reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Gatx will own 30% of the joint venture’s equity with the option to acquire 100% over time. Brookfield is acquiring directly Wells Fargo's rail finance lease portfolio, made up of some 23,000 railcars and approximately 440 locomotives.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. has ended take-private talks with London-listed analytics and insights provider GlobalData, Ian Walker reports for Dow Jones Newswires. GlobalData had a market capitalization of about £1.09 billion at the end of April, when the discussions were announced. Separate talks are ongoing with KKR rival Intermediate Capital Group, or ICG, over a possible deal, with a deadline to produce results extended to June 11.

Advent International is in exclusive talks to acquire French home insurance broker Kereis from fellow private markets firm Bridgepoint Group. Although the firms did not disclose terms of the proposed transaction, Bloomberg News reported that the price is more than 2 billion euros, or $2.3 billion.

Bond Capital joined a $350 million growth investment in analytics and data warehousing company ClickHouse that Khosla Ventures led. Other participants included Battery Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners as well as existing backers of the California company.

London-based Vitruvian Partners is making a $190 million investment in U.K.-based payments technology provider Dojo, marking the first time the company has raised outside equity. Dojo processes between 6 million and 9 million transactions daily.

Private-equity and venture investment firm Addition in New York led a $100 million growth investment in data company Snorkel AI in a transaction that values the business at $1.3 billion. The company’s products use artificial intelligence technology to provide customers with data management and analysis applications.

Valeas Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in ticketing and guest management software provider TicketManager with a $110 million commitment, with current top managers retaining equity interests in the Clabasas, Calif.-based business. The company partners with global brands such as Adidas and FedEx as well as major league sports and college athletics programs.

Vista Equity Partners is buying enterprise resource planning software company Acumatica from European buyouts firm EQT AB, which has backed the business since 2019.

StepStone Group joined in a $165 million growth investment in Radiant Industries, led by startup backer DCVC in Palo Alto, Calif., with several other firms also participating, according to a blog post on the company’s website. StepStone invested through its StepStoneVC strategy. The El Segundo, Calif.-based company also called Radiant Nuclear is developing “microreactors” capable of generating as much as 1 megawatt of power as a replacement for diesel-fueled generators in remote locations.

Align Capital Partners has completed its growth investment in Strata Landscape Services, a provider of commercial landscaping services in the Western United States. Alongside the Align Capital investment, Strata has acquired Boulder Landscaping and now serves more than 350 commercial clients.

Adams Street Partners in Chicago led a $72 million investment in Empathy, a provider of digital estate management and grief support services. Other participants included General Catalyst, Entrée Capital and Index Ventures.

Existing backer QED Investors and new investor Fifth Wall led a $50 million growth investment in vacation-rental company Wander, which provides software to manage rental homes, including guest support. The startup bills itself as an alternative to staying in luxury hotels for vacations.

Qumra Capital led a $45 million growth investment in construction management software supplier Buildots, joined by others including Poalim Equity. The Israeli company’s software uses artificial intelligence and machine vision technology to produce predictive analytics used in managing projects.

Specialist private-equity firm Accelmed Partners led a $20 million growth investment in technology company Acclaro Medical, joined by existing investor 3E Bioventures Capital. The Smithfield, R.I.-based company is developing a fiberoptic laser for treating skin conditions.

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

Consumer-focused L Catterton is selling part of its nearly 72% equity stake in German sandal maker Birkenstock Holding, pricing more than 17.9 million shares at $52.50 each to raise about $941.2 million through a secondary sale by the New York-listed company, Nina Kienle reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The shares represent a roughly 9.5% interest in the footwear maker while the price reflects a 3.3% discount to the stock’s closing price Wednesday. Greenwich, Conn.-based L Catterton acquired the company in August 2021 and took it public about two years later.

Cybersecurity company Forescout wants a second bite at a public offering, five years after it delisted from the Nasdaq in a take-private deal engineered by Advent International, WSJ Pro’s James Rundle reports. The Boston-based firm acquired the business for $1.4 billion in 2020. Now the company should be in a position to go public later this year or in early 2026, when market conditions are likely to be more settled, Chief Executive Barry Mainz said. “We want to get to the point where there [are options],” he said.

Permira’s luxury sneaker maker Golden Goose has ruled out an initial public offering this year while it may take that step later and has left the door open to acquisitions in the meantime, Reuters reports, citing Chief Executive Silvio Campara. He indictaed that current market conditions led the company to put off an IPO. Permira acquired the Italian company in 2020. An attempted IPIO last year was withdrawn because of market volatility.

Omada Health, a virtual health care management company whose backers include U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Revelation Partners, Cigna Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners, set terms of its initial public offering, a regulatory filing shows. San Francisco-based Omada plans to issue 7.9 million shares with a price range of $18 to $20 per share.

Cancer Focus Fund, an oncology-focused venture firm formed with support from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, is seeking $250 million for Cancer Focus Fund II, according to a regulatory filing. The venture investor aims to finance Phase I/II oncology clinical trials with MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ochsner Health System New Orleans and the LSU Feist Weiller Cancer Center, according to its website.

Terminus Capital Partners, a private-equity firm focused on business software companies, has closed its debut fund at its $250 million upper limit. Founded in 2017, the Atlanta-based firm plans to invest Terminus Capital Partners I in minority stakes of North American business-to-business software companies with annual revenues of greater than $10 million.

HarbourVest Partners in Boston has added Karin Risi as an independent member of the firm’s board of directors. She retired at the end of last year from index-fund giant Vanguard Group. Vanguard set up a fund to invest in private equity in 2020 and picked HarbourVest to manage it, initially marketing the vehicle, Vanguard HarbourVest 2020 Private Equity Fund, to institutional investors that had selected Vanguard as a financial adviser. Since then the firms have added several more iterations of the strategy. HarbourVest manages more than $143 billion.

Private-equity firm PAG in Hong Kong is losing its co-head of private equity, Lincoln Pan, to conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings, where he has been named chief executive starting Dec. 1. A PAG partner, Pan is also a member of the firm’s group executive committee. At Jardines, which is also based in Hong Kong, he will succeed John Witt, who is retiring.

Private investment firm Monarch Private Capital has added Michael Powley as manager of technology and innovation, a newly created role at the firm. Powley will lead data transformation initiatives at the Atlanta-based impact investment firm. He previously spent seven years at Midwest Housing Equity Group, where he developed predictive analytics and AI-driven processes for asset management and underwriting.

A disgraced former Goldman Sachs banker turned government cooperator was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for his role in the looting of billions of dollars from a Malaysian sovereign-wealth fund in a global scandal that tarnished the Wall Street bank, the Journal reports. Tim Leissner pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiring with another Goldman banker and a well-connected Malaysian financier, Jho Low, to bribe foreign government officials and secure lucrative business deals with 1Malaysia Development Bhd., a state-controlled economic-development company known as 1MDB.

Plenty Unlimited, a vertical farming company backed by SoftBank Group and family office One Madison Group during chapter 11 reorganization, has emerged from bankruptcy after a Texas court affirmed its plans. One Madison and SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 provided interim and Chapter 11 exit financing. The company is focusing on producing strawberries from a farm in Chester, Va., and expanding.

The lead Canadian cabinet minister for U.S.-Canada trade says President Trump's tax and spending bill, passed last week in the House of Representatives, poses significant financial consequences for Canadian investors, businesses and pension funds, Paul Vieira reports for Dow Jones Newswires.

Six large private-equity firms saw a roughly 50% drop in realizations in this year’s first quarter compared with the last three months of 2024, falling to $11.1 billion collectively from $22.4 billion, according to research provider PitchBook Data. The slowdown was attributed to macroeconomic volatility that pushed investors to the sidelines. The researcher included Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, KKR & Co., Carlyle Group, Ares Management and TPG in the group.

Compass Diversified Holdings, a publicly traded business that invests like a private-equity firm but doesn’t raise funds from outside investors, is facing class-action lawsuits after reporting issues with a subsidiary, high-end jeweler Lugano Holding, to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month. Westport, Conn.-based Compass on May 7 said its financial statements for last year can no longer be relied upon and that it is investigating the issues. Compass also said that Mordechai Haim “Moti” Ferder has resigned as Lugano’s chief executive. On May 27, the company said it warned lenders of potential defaults and entered a forbearance agreement through July 25. Law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro said it has sued the company on behalf of shareholders, citing the problems at Lugano, joining existing cases brought on behalf of investors by two other law firms.

Fund manager and investment adviser Hamilton Lane in Conshohocken, Pa., ended its fiscal 2025 with about $958 billion in assets under management or administration, with AUM rising about 11% from a year earlier to $138.3 billion. The firm’s fee-related earnings jumped 51% to about $90.3 million in the fiscal fourth quarter, up from about $59.7 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Net income rose 4% to about $50.5 million, or $1.23 per share. But on an adjusted basis, fee-related performance revenue nosedived and EPS fell 12% to $1.21 from $1.38 a year earlier. Shares of the firm plunged nearly 13% following the results and ended the day down 11% at $156.08 in New York..

Gridiron Capital and Stella Point Capital have combined portfolio healthcare companies Travel Nurse Across America, backed by Gridiron, and TotalMed, held by Stella Point, to form one company under TNAA Chief Executive Tim McKenzie. Gridiron first backed TNAA in March 2016 while Stella Point invested in TotalMed 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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