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Today our Chris Cumming reports that California, a Golden State for private-equity and venture-capital managers in many ways, could require vast new disclosures if a bill that took a step forward this week makes it into law. But it's a long way from here to there, so we'll be watching.

From Washington, the Journal delves into former Cerberus leader Stephen Feinberg's efforts to manage the sprawling Pentagon contracting system as the Trump administration prepares to flood it with $1.5 trillion in the coming fiscal year.

We have these and many more deals, including exits, fundraisings and other news for you below, so please sashay on down...

California just took a step toward enacting perhaps the strictest private-equity transparency law in the country, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming writes. The state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved the Private Equity Sunshine Act, which would require state pension systems to disclose their returns from alternative-investment vehicles such as private-equity and real-assets funds and compare them to the performance of public stock indexes. The measure also would require private-equity managers to disclose the number and classification of employees for every company they control.

Cerberus Capital Management's former Co-Chief Executive Stephen Feinberg faces the toughest pitch of his career in persuading Congress to bless the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion military budget as the Pentagon's No. 2 official, The Wall Street Journal reports. The massive funding surge would pour into a military plagued by years of costly overruns and painful delays. Feinberg has told Trump administration officials he could avoid those pitfalls using a carrot-and-stick approach with companies on the receiving end of those dollars. The 66-year-old billionaire has been the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer for the past year.

European buyout firm EQT AB saw its £7.93 billion offer to buy London-listed product testing, inspection and certification services provider Intertek Group rejected as too low, Nina Kienle reports for the Journal. The firm's offer of £51.50 a share, equivalent to about $69.85 each, represented an 18% premium to its closing price on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a day after it spurned the EQT offer, Intertek began a strategic review to evaluate a potential split of its Intertek Energy & Infrastructure unit from the rest of its operations through a sale or spin off. EQT said it was considering its next steps.

KingSett Capital and Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust are acquiring and breaking up First Capital REIT in a deal valued at about 9.4 billion Canadian dollars, or about $6.84 billion, Adriano Marchese reports for Dow Jones Newswires. First Capital's unitholders will get C$24.40 per unit for their interests in the owner of necessity-based, urban retail properties, which is controlled by the holding company of the Weston family. Holding company George Weston has committed C$600 million to Choice, and owns a majority of its equity.

Bicycle Capital led a $405 million growth investment in Latin American digital banking services provider Plata, investing at a $5 billion valuation. Other participants included new backers such as the Qatar Investment Authority, BTG Pactual and Valor Capital Group. The company began operating in Mexico last month as Banco Plata.

Charterhouse Capital Partners has agreed to acquire London-listed Animalcare Group in a deal that values the veterinary medicines marketing and distribution business at about £235.2 million, or roughly $319 million. The 336-pence-per-share price represents a 36% premium to Wednesday's close. The York, England-based company operates in several European countries as well as the Asia-Pacific region, distributing medicines mainly for companion animals such as dogs and cats, according to its website. Animalcare shares surged nearly 35% on London's AIM exchange Thursday.

Emirates International Investment Co. is investing in Joe & the Juice, acquiring a minority interest in the General Atlantic-backed restaurant chain based in Copenhagen. The deal values the business at about $1.8 billion, sister publication Private Equity News reported from London. The company operates 480 locations in 23 countries, including shops in New York, London and Dubai. Emirates is the investment arm of National Holding, based in Abu Dhabi.

Blackstone and Insight Partners are expected to participate in a $150 million growth investment backing agentic artificial-intelligence bot developer Factory at a $1.5 billion valuation, Angel Au-Yeung reports for the Journal. Other participants in the anticipated round led by Khosla Ventures include Sequoia Capital. Factory's bots are designed to develop software code using whatever AI inference engine provides the most efficient service.

Buyout firm TPG is backing digital student transportation systems provider Zum Services with a $100 million strategic investment through the firm's Rise strategy in a deal that values the company at about $1.7 billion, Christopher Kuo reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The Redwood City, Calif., company's systems are used to coordinate student transportation at over 4,500 schools across 17 states, including in Los Angeles and Boston.

Ribbit Capital joined others in leading a $100 million growth investment in business finance company Slash Financial, investing at a $1.4 billion valuation, Elias Schisgall reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Other leaders of the deal included Goodwater Capital. The San Francisco-based company plans to use the fresh cash to invest in Twin, an artificial-intelligence financial agent.

Charles Schwab is reupping its investment in Wealth.com, an online platform for estate planning, by leading a $65 million growth investment, Kenneth Corbin reports for sister publication Barron's. Other participants include Pruven Capital and Dynasty Financial Partners, as well as existing backers such as Anthos Capital.

Monroe Capital affiliate Horizon Technology Finance has set up a senior credit facility of up to $25 million for digital security company Stellar Cyber, whose products are designed for use by enterprise security teams and managed services providers. Backers of Stellar include Highland Capital Partners and Valley Capital Partners.

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

One Rock Capital Partners is selling its interest in mill operator North Pacific Paper to strategic buyer International Paper, which is acquiring the company for $360 million, Katherine Hamilton reports for Dow Jones Newswires. North Pacific's Longview, Wash., mill has about 500 employees and produces around 1 million tons of containerboard and other grades annually.

Arcline Investment Management-backed electronic and mechanical engineered components supplier Arxis climbed over 38% in its Nasdaq debut Thursday, closing at $38.75 after pricing at $28, the top of the expected range. The offer price gave the Bloomfield, Conn., company an initial market capitalization topping $11 billion, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Nashville, Tenn.-based Arcline has backed the business since 2019.

Shares of Aevex are set to make their trading debut Friday after the drone maker's initial public offering was priced toward the upper end of expectations, raising $320 million, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Aevex, owned by Madison Dearborn Partners, late Thursday said it is selling 16 million shares at $20 apiece, compared with an expected price range of $18 to $21 each. The pricing gives the Solana Beach, Calif., company an initial market capitalization topping $2.2 billion. Aevex shares are due to begin trading later Friday under the symbol AVEX.

The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and Orion Resource Partners are selling their interests in Wyoming landowner Sweetwater Royalties to a new company being formed by Uranium Royalty for $330 million in cash and newly listed shares of Uranium Royalty worth $813 million. Ontario Teachers and Orion will hold 16% and 43%, respectively, of Uranium Royalty's Nasdaq shares, once they are listed and the deal closes. Asset manager Orion formed Sweetwater in 2020 and sold a 25% stake to the Ontario pension system for $221.6 million in 2023.

Spring Lane Capital has sold its equity stake in Texas-based data-center development Project Dorothy 1A to Soluna Holdings for $16.5 million, giving Soluna full ownership. The acquisition will be paid in cash in two installments, including $6 million at closing of the deal and the rest in July.

Thompson Street Capital Partners is selling technology services company Data Dimensions to strategic buyer One Call. Data Dimensions mainly serves the healthcare and insurance industry as well as government agencies. Thompson Street first invested in the company in 2019.

CapVest Partners in London has raised €4.5 billion, or about $5.31 billion, for its CapVest Fund VI flagship buyout pool, surpassing the firm's initial €3.85 billion target, according to law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which advised CapVest on the fundraise. Investors in the fund include the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, which committed at least €30 million in October.

Asset-backed securities investor LL Funds in Philadelphia has collected nearly $335.3 million so far for LL Private Lending Fund II, which it has been managing since 2018, a securities filing shows. Among other activities, the firm invests in specialty consumer finance companies and mortgage-backed securities, such as collateralized mortgage obligations, as well as ABS deals, according to a regulatory filing last month. It also provides growth equity investments to specialty finance companies, and said its lending funds "provide warehouse lines to such companies."

Multifamily office Caprock Group's new Denver branch is anchored by former professional athletes Eric Osmundson, director and client adviser, and Bennie Fowler III, director of strategic development. The new location brings the firm’s U.S. offices to 10.

Eurazeo in Paris is opening a new office in Munich, led by Jan Haase, managing director and head of DACH for the firm's Elevate buyout and growth-investment strategy, and Johann-Felix Herter, managing director and head of DACH for the investor relations team.

The number of private-equity exit deals in the first quarter fell nearly 6.3% from the same period of last year as sales between sponsors and through secondary transactions both declined, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The research showed macroeconomic headwinds, changing tariffs and supply chain risks all combined to make pricing assets difficult, according to S&P's With Intelligence analyst Brenden Gobell, managing director for client strategy and data insights. One upshot is that private-equity holding periods keep stretching out, with median durations regularly surpassing five years from four to four and a half years during 2017 to 2019.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice and its Multi-Color portfolio company reached a settlement with dissenting lenders, allowing the label maker's chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring plan to receive court approval, WSJ Pro's Alicia McElhaney reports. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan's approval clears a path for the company to exit bankruptcy, shedding roughly $4 billion in debt along the way. The plan calls for giving the New York private-equity firm a sizable stake in the restructured company in exchange for its $400 million equity investment, while also calling on the firm to chip in another $17 million to a group of Multi-Color lenders.

A trio of U.S. senators are promoting a bill to eliminate favorable tax treatment of carried interest that benefits executives of private-equity firms, saying the loophole is used "to dodge paying a fair share" of taxes. The latest effort, from Sens. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) and Angus King (I., Maine), would end capital gains treatment for carry, with a 23.8% rate currently, and tax it as normal income, with a maximum rate of 40.8%. The measure, estimated in 2023 to promise $63.1 billion in new tax revenue over 10 years, is co-sponsored by 10 other Democrats in the upper chamber.

Barings is opening an office in Abu Dhabi, after setting up a Dubai location in 2024.

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