Good morning. Stock markets continue to have people guessing, and partly that’s because of ongoing uncertainty over which party is likely to prevail in national elections next month. The Wall Street Journal’s Julie Bykowicz and Ted Mann have an interesting piece on Democrat Joe Biden that shows how difficult it can be to sort out what may result for Wall Street should he win the White House. Meanwhile, the unsettled markets continue to fuel the surge in blank-check transactions to take private companies public, and we have news on several such deals for you today.

Also, we have an exclusive on another rising trend, the popularity of alternative meats, from our Laura Cooper, who has details on an emerging company in that consumer sector. In addition, our Laura Kreutzer has an exclusive look at new funds raised by Arbor Investments and Preeti Singh has details on a Japan-focused buyout firm, Polaris Capital Group, that won backing from the biggest public pension system in Pennsylvania. These stories and much more news await, so please don’t hesitate to jump right in…

A new alternative meats business led by a longtime Unilever executive has raised $335 million since March to compete in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market, Laura Cooper writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The Livekindly Collective, which has amassed five companies since its launch, produces plant-based meat alternatives and operates a lifestyle media platform focused on plant-based living. The company recently raised $135 million in new funding led by its founding organization Blue Horizon Corp. and others, including growth investor Trustbridge Partners and European private-equity firm EQT Partners.

Arbor Investments, which has backed food brands that include baked goods company Gold Standard Baking and deli meats producer Columbus Manufacturing Inc., is armed with a fresh $1.67 billion for investments in the food and beverage industry, Laura Kreutzer reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The Chicago-based firm has wrapped up fundraising for two new funds focused on the sectors, bringing in $1.5 billion in investor commitments for its private-equity fund, Arbor Investments V LP, and $168 million for its second mezzanine debt fund, Arbor Debt Opportunities Fund II LP. Shannon Advisors placed both.

Buyout firm Polaris Capital Group added the largest Pennsylvania pension system to its investor roster as it gears up to hold a final close for its fifth and largest fund for investing in Japan, WSJ Pro Private Equity's Preeti Singh reports. The Tokyo firm aims to collect 150 billion yen, equivalent to roughly $1.41 billion, for its Polaris Private Equity Fund V LP, according to its website. At least 2% of the total would come from the fund’s general partner, which expects to wrap up fundraising during the current quarter, according to a report from investment adviser Hamilton Lane Inc. for overseers of the $59 billion Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System.

Italian soccer league Serie A picked a group that includes CVC Capital Partners and Advent International as its partner in creating a media company to organize and market broadcast rights to the league’s games, the Associated Press reported, citing a statement from Serie A. The deal for a 10% stake in the media business is reportedly worth €1.6 billion, or about $1.9 billion. AP said a four-week negotiation has started between the league and the group to settle terms and conditions. The league snubbed a less lucrative proposal from Bain Capital and NB Renaissance Partners.

TPG Capital- and Leonard Green & Partners-backed WellSky Corp. has agreed to acquire CarePort Health for about $1.35 billion in a carveout from Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Ltd. Allscripts expects the deal to close by the end of the year. WellSky is a community care technology company while CarePort aids hospitals and specialists in transitioning patient care. The deal price represents more than 13 times CarePort’s trailing 12-month revenue and about 21 times its adjusted pre-tax profit for the same period.

Ardian is acquiring a half-interest in ANGUS Chemical Co. from Golden Gate Capital at an enterprise value of about $2.25 billion. The Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based company produces nitroalkanes and their derivatives, which are used in life sciences, personal care and high-growth industrial markets. Golden Gate initially backed the company in 2015 through a carveout from Dow Chemical Co. and is retaining a 50% stake in the deal that is expected to close by year-end.

TPG Capital- and Thoma Bravo-backed McAfee Corp. plans to raise as much as $682 million through an initial public offering of equity at $19 to $22 a share, a deal that would value the security software producer at as much as $3.64 billion, Tomi Kilgore reports for sister publication MarketWatch. TPG would remain the company’s majority shareholder with about 55% of its common stock following the IPO, while Thoma Bravo would hold a nearly 13% stake, a regulatory filing shows.

Apollo Global Management Inc.’s infrastructure funds have formed a joint venture with mining company Altius Minerals Corp.’s Altius Renewable Royalties subsidiary to accelerate the growth of Great Bay Renewables, Michael Dabaie reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Great Bay is a U.S.-based operating unit of Altius that provides renewable energy development capital in North America. Apollo said it expects to invest up to $200 million through the partnership and will have the opportunity to acquire up to a 50% stake in Great Bay.

Leonard Green & Partners has invested in optical retailer Eyemart Express, joining majority stakeholders FFL Partners and the Barnes family. Based in Farmers Branch, Texas, Eyemart operates 223 stores in 41 states.

Infrastructure-focused First Sentier Investors has agreed to acquire half-interests in two energy-from-waste ventures from U.K. utility company SSE PLC for £995 million (or about $1.29 billion) in cash. The assets, Multifuel Energy Ltd. and Multifuel Energy 2 Ltd., are being purchased through First Sentier’s European Diversified Infrastructure Fund III vehicle, according to a regulatory filing in London. The assets are both joint ventures with Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. in the U.S. and both have the capacity to produce 75 megawatts of electricity.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has acquired solar energy plants from investment manager Q-Energy. The 73 facilities in Spain have a combined peak generating capacity of 216 megawatts, supplying enough power to run 115,000 households, according to a news release. Q Energy, a unit of Madrid-based Qualitas Equity, continues to operate the assets.

Susquehanna Private Capital has made a growth investment in pest-control franchiser Authority Franchise Systems LLC. The Hickory, N.C.-based company has more than 500 employees and franchises mosquito, pest and tick control services across North America and Puerto Rico under the Mosquito Authority and Pest Authority brands.

New Heritage Capital in Boston is backing digital marketing company Carnegie Dartlet LLC. The Westford, Mass.-based company mainly serves educational institutions with research and content creation as well as lead generation.

JLL Partners has acquired health-care data-analysis software provider MedeAnalytics Inc. The Richardson, Texas company is a software-as-a-service provider used by health insurers, hospitals and government health-care plans.

Lower middle-market specialist Shoreline Equity Partners is backing residential swimming pool maintenance provider Bay Area Pools and Spas Holdings LLC. The Tampa, Fla.-based company does business as Pool Troopers and has more than 165 employees who service some 15,000 pools in Florida, Texas, and Arizona.

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

Private-equity backed educational-technology company Skillsoft is going public through an acquisition by blank-check company Churchill Capital Corp II, in a transaction valued at about $1.3 billion, after Skillsoft emerged from a chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in August, Dave Sebastian reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Skillsoft, also known as Software Luxembourg Holding SA, publishes training software for businesses. Once the deal closes, the newly public company would buy technology training and certifications company Global Knowledge Training LLC for $233 million from private-equity firm Rhône Capital. Lenders that backed Skillsoft’s bankruptcy exit included Apollo Global Management Inc.

Blackstone Group Inc. portfolio company Finance of America Equity Capital LLC is set to go public with a valuation of $1.9 billion through a blank-check merger, this year's hottest way to list shares, Corrie Driebusch reports for The Wall Street Journal. Consumer lender Finance of America has agreed to merge with Replay Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, the two companies said Tuesday. In conjunction with the merger, institutional investors will also make a private investment of $250 million in the company. In all, the deal will leave the Finance of America's founder and funds managed by Blackstone with a 70% ownership stake.

The leaders of investment management firm Seaport Global Asset Management are also listed as the top executives of a blank-check company that aims to raise $125 million through an initial public offering of shares, a regulatory filing shows. Seaport Global Acquisition Corp. is led by Stephen Smith as chairman and chief executive of the special purpose acquisition company, while Michael Ring is listed as chief financial officer, the filing shows. Both hold similar positions with the asset manager. The SPAC plans to acquire a privately owned business with an enterprise value of $400 million to $1 billion and expects to benefit from discounted values stemming from dislocations caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Insight Partners-backed supply-chain software company E2open LLC is nearing a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check acquisition company CC Neuberger Principal Holdings I at a valuation of more than $2.5 billion, including debt, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. CC Neuberger I shares rose as much as 10.7% on the news but pared gains to close 3.2% higher at $10.53.

Oaktree Capital Management has agreed to sell its cold-storage company Agro Merchants Group to Americold Realty Trust for $1.74 billion, Matt Grossman reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal will unite two large owners of temperature-controlled warehouses, bringing Americold a portfolio of 46 facilities totaling 236 million refrigerated cubic feet in 10 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Portugal, Poland and Australia. The deal includes $554.3 million of Americold common shares, $519 million in cash, repayment of approximately $560 million of existing Agro debt and the assumption of $110 million of Agro capital leases and sale-and-leaseback obligations.

Australia's AMP Capital has agreed to sell its Spanish broadcasting and telecommunications company Axión to Madrid-based infrastructure investor Asterion Industrial Partners. Axión provides wholesale telecommunications services and builds telecom towers for client companies, having delivered 35 and holding orders for 148 more, according to a news release. Sydney-based AMP Capital invested in the company through its $2.4 billion AMP Capital Global Infrastructure Fund in 2016.

Lead Edge Capital raised a $950 million fund for growth-stage technology investing, adding to the already soaring fundraising total for the sector, WSJ Pro's Marc Vartabedian reports. Lead Edge Capital V LP, which closed at its hard cap, is more than 80% larger than its predecessor fund, which closed in 2018 at $520 million. The new fund will write checks of up to $150 million to fuel mature startups that are capitalizing on society’s increasing embrace of digital technologies, a trend that has been pushed forward by the coronavirus pandemic, said Lead Edge founder and Managing Partner Mitchell Green.

Middle market-focused Levine Leichtman Capital Partners has wrapped up marketing for its Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Europe II SCSp fund, closing it to new investors with €463 million (equivalent to $544.5 million) in commitments. The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based firm closed its first Europe-focused private-equity fund with €100 million in capital in early 2015. The firm said it has already closed one investment through the new fund and has agreements in place for two more.

Pictet Alternative Advisors, part of Geneva-based private bank Pictet Group, has launched its first tech-focused fund, a $300 million private equity vehicle, Elisângela Mendonça reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The new strategy, Pictet Thematic Private Equity – Technology, will target funds of all sizes and companies from early stage to buyout.

Riverside Co. has hired Christian Stein as partner and Michael Aring as an associate on its Riverside Acceleration Capital team. Both are based in Cologne, Germany and focused on sourcing growth investment deals, executing transactions and working with portfolio companies. Both join from investment firm Coparion, which Mr. Stein co-founded and helped lead as a managing director. Mr. Aring was an investment professional for venture capital at the firm.

Behrman Capital has named Lyndon Faulkner as an operating partner while he continues to lead portfolio company Pelican Products Inc. as executive chairman. Previously, he was general manager of Microsoft Corp.’s Americas division.

Health-care focused Grant Avenue Capital has promoted Alex Ferree and Eric Kim to vice president positions in the New York private-equity firm.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is keeping people guessing about his positions on a range of financial regulation and policy issues, Julie Bykowicz and Ted Mann write for The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Biden’s roots in Delaware, a corporate Mecca, and support from private-equity executives such as Jon Gray at Blackstone Group Inc. have fueled the uncertainty.

Money-management giant BlackRock Inc.’s quarterly profit rose 22% as investors turned to its massive lineup of funds across markets, Dawn Lim reports for The Wall Street Journal. The world’s largest money manager listed $7.8 trillion in assets.

Health-care focused Revelstoke Capital Partners has set up an internal group to examine debt capital markets and assessing and developing infrastructure, strategic, operational and human capital capabilities and initiatives across its portfolio companies to enhance value. The firm placed Samantha Gordon Webb in charge of the effort as director of its Portfolio Transformation Group. The firm also named Howard Lipshutz as a managing director of debt capital markets.

Diversity charity Level 20 and the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association are starting a diversity survey that will, for the first time, collect data on ethnicity within the private equity industry, Elisângela Mendonça reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. Currently, there is no reliable data on the industry’s racial diversity as firms have mostly concentrated on improving gender balance.

The American Investment Council and the National Association of Investment Companies have begun a collaboration to advance programs designed to bring more women, particularly women of color, into the alternative investments industry.  The AIC represents the interests of private-equity firms in Washington while the NAIC is an association of diverse and women-owned private investment firms.

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Ted Bunker; Laura Cooper; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Preeti Singh; Chitra Vemuri.

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