Good morning.

Today, Luis Garcia reports that NOVA Infrastructure has collected $1.45 billion to back midsize infrastructure operators of assets such as data centers and battery projects.

Next, I report on California's efforts to reduce private equity's influence in medicine. State Attorney General Rob Bonta is taking aim at an ownership structure firms often use to back physician practices. 

Now onto the news ...

Specialist investor NOVA Infrastructure has amassed $1.45 billion to back midsize operators of assets such as data centers, battery projects and water-management systems, as the firm looks to benefit both from rising demand for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence and the industry’s relative immunity to AI-driven disruptions, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports. The New York-based firm wrapped up NOVA Infrastructure Fund II with more than double the $565 million raised for its debut vehicle, which it closed nearly four years ago. The new vehicle, collected as fundraising for the overall industry has slowed significantly, reflects increased investor interest in infrastructure, as well as a belief that it’s easier to expand and sell smaller infrastructure assets than larger holdings, said Chris Beall, NOVA’s managing partner.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent an ominous message to private-equity firms as the state starts to implement a new law banning corporate influence in medicine, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming reports. Bonta last week advocated erecting a strict barrier between corporate investors such as private-equity firms and the medical practices they back. In a court filing, he cited research showing investments from buyout firms degrade healthcare providers’ quality of care. Bonta took aim at an arrangement known as the friendly physician model, which is commonly used in private-equity healthcare deals, saying that the state's new law forbids private-equity or other investors from making hiring or firing decisions at medical providers they invest in.

Blackstone and TPG expect to close their take-private deal for Marlborough, Mass.-based medical-technology company Hologic on Tuesday after the transaction received all the needed regulatory and shareholder approvals, Robb M. Stewart reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal was valued at as much as $18.3 billion when announced in October.

Buyout firm TPG, joined by Singapore's GIC and ICICI Bank, is buying Aseem Infrastructure Finance, a non-bank lender in India, for the equivalent of about $479 million, according to the Economic Times and other Indian publications. Current backers including the Indian government and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund II are exiting through the deal. Aseem finances renewable energy projects, electric-vehicle support systems and other developments.

Macquarie Group has invested $150 million in Mesabi Metallics to support the mining company’s direct reduction grade iron ore mine and pellet plant in Nashwauk, Minn. Recently, Breakwall Capital announced a $520 million senior secured credit facility with Mesabi Metallics, which is backed by Indian multinational company Essar Group.

Royalties investment specialist HealthCare Royalty, majority-owned by KKR & Co., is providing up to $150 million to sleep apnea medicine developer Apnimed, spread over three parts. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company will get $50 million up front and another $50 million after it receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its first drug. The final $50 million is subject to sales performance.

A group of investors that includes Spanish private-equity firms Nazca Capital and Buenavista Equity Partners as well as the Spanish government-backed Center for Technological Development and Innovation, or CDTI, and Endeavor Catalyst are investing $130 million in Xoople. The data infrastructure company tracks physical changes on Earth to help with tasks that include optimizing supply chains, managing infrastructure, underwriting risk, responding to disasters and monitoring geopolitical and security risks.

Specialist firm Energy Capital Partners is reacquiring nuclear fuels services provider EnergySolutions from TriArtisan Capital Advisors in West Palm Beach, Fla. The company processes, transports, recycles and disposes of reactor fuel for clients in North America, Europe and Asia. TriArtisan bought the business from Summit, N.J.-based ECP in late 2021.

Midmarket firms Kelso & Co. and Ara Services Partners are backing technology and services provider Beacon Communications, joining William Henry Insurance as investors in the Littleton, Colo.-based business.

Midmarket firm Whiteoak is backing restaurant chain Zeus Street Greek in Australia with a growth investment, according to a LinkedIn post on the company's page. Founders of the chain, Costa Anastasiadis, Peter Koutsovasilis and Terry Anastasiadis are retaining significant stakes in the franchise business. The company has dozens of locations around Australia, according to its website.

Edison Partners has led a $24.5 million growth investment in Mappedin, a provider of digital mapping technology for indoor spaces, according to an emailed press release. Betatron Venture Group also backed the investment, which Mappedin plans to use to expand its technology application beyond individual buildings.

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

A Kedge Capital-backed unit of Madison Industries, Madison Air Solutions, plans to sell about 82.7 million Class A common shares priced from $25 to $27 each through an initial public offering, a securities filing shows. The IPO would give the company a potential equity value of about $13.2 billion. Kedge holds nearly 44.9 million shares, or about 55% of the Class A common stock of the ventilation and filtration systems provider based in Chicago, the filing shows. Kedge is an investment affiliate of Swiss pharmaceuticals scion Ernesto Bertarelli's family office.

Susquehanna Growth Equity has sold its stake in youth sports media company LiveBarn to GTCR in Chicago. The Canadian company's network of live events includes more than 4,000 venues and has over 200,000 subscribers. Susquehanna had backed the business since 2021.

Trinity Hunt Partners has sold its stake in litigation services provider IMS Legal Strategies to recently established Uplift Investors in Darien, Conn. Trinity had backed the Dallas-based company for about nine years.

Nuveen's Churchill Asset Management has collected nearly $604.5 million so far for Churchill Secondary Partners III, the latest vehicle in the New York firm's $1.9 billion secondaries strategy, a regulatory filing shows. The firm collected about $1.19 billion for the second pool in the strategy, according to research provider PitchBook. Churchill indicated in the filing that it recorded its first commitment to the latest vehicle at the end of March and so far it has 33 investors in the fund.

Frazier Life Sciences has added Christian Schade as a senior adviser focusing on corporate strategy and business development for its portfolio companies. He was president and chief executive of cancer therapies developer Halda Therapeutics, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson last year.

Goldman Sachs received withdrawal requests totaling roughly 5% of shares from investors in its Goldman Sachs Private Credit Corp., a business development company with loans to 184 organizations with a fair value totaling about $15.67 billion at the end of December, a regulatory filing shows. The filing indicates that Goldman plans to honor all the redemption requests for almost 17.3 million shares. The BDC's net assets climbed 76% to $8.64 billion last year, a separate filing shows. On a per share basis, net asset value stood at $24.99 at year-end. Goldman said it received about $1.04 billion in fresh investor capital during this year's first quarter, more than double the amount expected to be paid out through withdrawals.

JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon predicted that most types of high-risk credit would take a bigger-than-expected hit in a downturn as underwriting standards among many lenders have deteriorated, Alexander Saeedy reports for the Journal. In his annual shareholder letter, Dimon also argued that the push from private credit funds to sell investments to retail clients required “greater transparency” and “higher standards” than was currently the case. “Not everyone providing credit is necessarily good at it,” Dimon said.

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