Good morning! I hope you had a good first half of the year. Today, WSJ Pro’s Chris Cumming shows us yet another undesired outcome of private equity’s dearth of exits—hundreds of billions of dollars of assets stuck in aging, underwater funds that still charge management fees to investors.

Also, Recognize Partners has amassed $1.7 billion for its latest fund dedicated to tech-services providers, a sector in which artificial intelligence plays an increased role, WSJ Pro’s Laura Kreutzer reports.

Now onto the news...

Private-equity firms’ stash of tail-end funds—those 10 years old or more—has hit a high of $668 billion as firms struggle to sell aging assets, Chris Cumming reports for WSJ Pro. Investors are more often trying to scrutinize the fund arrangements of these old funds, according to people in the industry, because of the disproportionate financial and logistical drag they can be, particularly when they hold little remaining value.

Recognize Partners, a private-equity firm co-founded by former Clayton, Dubilier & Rice executive David Wasserman, has closed its second fund with $1.7 billion, WSJ Pro’s Laura Kreutzer reports. The final tally for Recognize Partners II surpassed the $1.3 billion the New York-based firm raised for its debut fund.

Atlas Holding has agreed to pay up to $500 million to acquire the North American business of steelmaker Evraz—whose largest shareholder is sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, The Wall Street Journal reports. Evraz North America produces large-diameter line pipe for the energy industry, rails for railroad tracks and other steel products at plants in the U.S. and Canada.

KKR has agreed to sell a controlling stake in Indian pharmaceuticals company J. B. Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals to Torrent Pharmaceuticals for an equity value of 256.9 million Indian rupees, or around $3 million. The deal is set to take place in two phases with the first phase involving Torrent’s acquisition of a roughly 46.4% equity stake in J.B. Chemicals through a special purpose vehicle followed by an offer to buy up to 26% of the company’s shares from public shareholders and a plan to acquire up to 2.8% of shares from J.B. Chemicals employees at the same share price as KKR’s. In the second phase, following the merger of the two companies, every shareholder holding 100 shares in JB Pharma shall receive 51 shares of Torrent. KKR initially acquired its stake in J.B. Chemicals in 2020.

Toronto-based TorQuest Partners has acquired restructuring and turnaround advisor GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group from publicly traded B. Riley Financial for $117.8 million.

Brookfield Asset Management is nearing a deal to acquire a majority stake in Oman Tower Co., a telecommunications tower operator in Oman, Bloomberg News reports citing people familiar with the deal.

CVC Capital Partners has closed its investment in the de-listing of publicly traded CompuGroup Medical, an electronic health company controlled by the Gotthardt family, which founded the business and retained just over a 50% stake in it. CVC will own a total stake of nearly 28% of the company as a result of the deal.

Lower midmarket firm Mill Point Capital is acquiring SS8 Networks, a provider of intelligence technology for law enforcement, regulatory agencies and intelligence organizations.

Bregal Sagemount is investing in Extra Duty Solutions, a provider of scheduling and program administration services software for law enforcement and other public agencies.

Neopharmed Gentili, an Italian pharmaceutical company backed by Ardian and Renaissance Partners, is buying the European assets and rights to prescription drug Orladeyo from publicly traded Biocryst Pharmaceuticals for up to $264 million. The transaction includes an up to $14 million earnout.

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

EQT has sold Swedish luxury menswear brand Eton to a consortium of investors that includes Mikael Schiller, Caspar Callerström and Thomas von Koch. EQT initially backed Eton in 2016 out of its EQT VII fund, according to the firm’s website.

Point 41 Capital Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by former executives from Sun Capital Partners, has rounded up at least $242 million so far for Point 41 Capital Partners I, according to a regulatory filing. The fund has a $300 million goal, the filing indicates. Point 41 invests in specialty industrials and services companies, focusing on deals with enterprise values between $50 million and $400 million, according to the firm’s website. The firm was co-founded by Managing Partners Aaron Wolfe and Jordan Wadsworth.

Manulife Investment Management has raised at least $269 million so far for Manulife Co-Investment Partners III, according to a regulatory filing. The firm closed the fund’s predecessor with $683.5 million back in 2021.

Pacific Equity Partners has raised the Australian dollars equivalent of at least $1.72 billion for Pacific Equity Partners Fund VII, according to a regulatory filing. One investor that disclosed a commitment to the fund is Canadian pension manager CPP Investments, which pledged 150 million Australian dollars, or around $97.9 million.

Law firm Proskauer Rose said in an emailed statement that it has tapped Sarah Stasny as a partner and U.S. head of private-equity transactions. Stasny previously worked at rival law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison.

JPMorgan has hired Citigroup’s top private equity dealmaker in the latest senior dealmaker move between the two banks, sister publication Financial News reports. Anthony Diamandakis, who was previously co-head of Citigroup’s global asset managers unit, is set to join JPMorgan as a vice chair within its strategic investor group, according to people familiar with the matter and a memo seen by Financial News.

The American Investment Council, a trade and lobbying organization for the private-equity and -credit industries, has named Will Dunham as its next president and chief executive. Dunham will replace Drew Maloney, who will become president and CEO of Edison Electric Institute on July 1. Dunham has served as executive vice president of government affairs for the council.

Alan Waxman, the chief executive of credit-focused Sixth Street Partners, says publicly traded rivals such as Apollo Global Management and Blackstone have reoriented their credit businesses to take in huge sums of money from insurance companies and individual investors. That means money flows in and must be put to work quickly, whether or not the investment opportunity is ripe, Miriam Gottfried reports for the Journal. He argues these firms are turning private credit from a bespoke type of investing with relatively high returns into a commoditized, lower-returning business.

Asset-based finance firm AIP Capital and private credit firm Monroe Capital are forming a partnership to build a portfolio of up to $1 billion for acquisitions of leases of mid-life aircraft. Monroe has secured commitments from the New York branch of Deutsche Bank  and Fifth Third Bank for an initial $500 million senior secured warehousing debt facility to support the acquisitions.

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

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