Good Morning! As we slog through the dog days of summer, our Maria Armental opens a window on the private-equity industry's outlook and describes a widening gap between the biggest players and the smaller outfits when it comes to fundraising and dealmaking. 

Also, our Chris Cumming reports on the SEC's action Friday against New York firm TZP, extracting a $175,000 penalty and a return of around $509,000 to investors in its funds. TZP isn't admitting anything, though, in settling the matter.

We have these stories and more summarized and linked for you below, so please jump in... 

Private equity is ready once again to flex its financial muscle, with larger firms emphasizing their size and scale against the backdrop of a widening gap between the industry’s giants and smaller fry, WSJ Pro's Maria Armental reports. Executives of large publicly traded firms took an increasingly bullish tone in recent earnings calls, reflecting a resurgence in dealmaking and fundraising during the second quarter. But a rebound won’t necessarily lift all the thousands of smaller firms that have navigated a yearslong slump in industry dealmaking and fundraising, some said.

Federal regulators penalized TZP Group, a buyout firm that backs lower midmarket companies, for charging investors excessive management fees without proper disclosure, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming writes. On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said New York-based TZP would settle the allegations by paying a $175,000 penalty and returning about $509,000 in improperly collected fees and interest to investors. TZP didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Friday. The SEC said the firm didn’t admit or deny the charges.

BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners led an $11 billion deal with energy producer Aramco involving the company's Jafurah gas processing facilities in Saudi Arabia. The 20-year sale-leaseback deal would give the investment group led by GIP a 49% stake in a new joint venture with Aramco. Other members of the investment group weren't disclosed.

Advent International in Boston is in talks with Swiss chip maker U-blox Holding about a potential acquisition of the Zurich-listed technology company, which disclosed the discussions Friday following media reports of a potential deal. The company provided no further details. U-Blox shares jumped 24% on the news, closing at 138.60 Swiss francs on Friday, giving the maker of components used in autos, consumer electronics and drones a market value of roughly 1.5 billion francs, or about $1.3 billion.

Affinity Partners, the private-equity firm formed by Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, plans to acquire a minority stake in U.K. startup lender OakNorth Bank, Britain's Sky News and the Financial Times reported. Sunny Isles Beach, Fla.-based Affinity is reportedly buying the stake from another backer of the London-based bank, which makes loans to home builders and entrepreneurs. OakNorth investors include Singapore's GIC and SoftBank Group's Vision Fund, according to the bank's website. In a securities filing last year, the digital lender reported a 34% annual gain in net interest and fee income for 2023, at £296.8 million, or roughly $401.6 million, and after-tax profit that rose 22% to £138.5 million.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in Denmark has acquired a 1 gigawatt-hour utility-scale power storage project in Arizona, investing from its more than $14 billion fifth flagship fund in Beehive Battery Energy Storage System. The Peoria, Ariz., project is still under construction and is expected to come online in next year's first half, with connections to a regional power grid serving 11 counties in the state with some 1.4 million homes and businesses. The project is designed to store energy during periods of peak renewable generation and release it during peak demand hours under a 20-year deal with utility company Arizona Public Service Co.

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

Midmarket-focused private-equity firm BGH Capital in Melbourne, Australia, is selling cybersecurity company CyberCX to global consulting firm Accenture to expand its compute and network security services offerings in the Asia-Pacific region, Megan Cheah reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The Australian Financial Review newspaper said the deal values CyberCX at more than 1 billion Australian dollars, or roughly $649.7 million. BGH formed CyberCX in 2019 by combining around a dozen businesses in 2019. The Melbourne-based company now has around 1,400 professionals on its staff operating across Australia and New Zealand, as well as offices in London and New York.

British private-equity firm Endless is selling its interest in bakery business Hovis Group to strategic buyer Allied Bakeries, a unit of Associated British Foods, Andrea Figueras reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Earlier industry reports put the estimated price at around £75 million, or roughly $101.5 million. Endless acquired U.K.-based Hovis in November 2020 from Gores Group.

Private-equity investment firm Jafco Group in Tokyo is selling candy shop chain Papabubble Japan to strategic buyer Akatsuki. The company's shops feature candy makers creating sweets in full view of the public, providing an experiential treat along with eye-pleasing confections. Jafco first backed the company in October 2017.

Morgan Stanley's investment management arm has collected almost $1.2 billion so far for North Haven Credit Partners IV and parallel vehicles, a securities filing shows. The fund is dedicated to providing lower ranking, higher-returning debt to private companies. The New York firm was targeting $2 billion for the fund and has been on the fundraising trail since at least April 2023. Investors include the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana. Morgan Stanley Investment Management closed on $1.6 billion for a predecessor fund in 2021.

Healthcare and life sciences venture investor Sofinnova Partners, which Apollo Global Management has backed since May 2022, has collected about $500 million so far for Sofinnova Venture Partners XII, according to a U.S. securities filing. The Paris-based firm has a $550 million goal for the vehicle, the filing indicates. Apollo said in 2022 that it was acquiring a minority interest in Sofinnova and pledged to commit as much as €1 billion, or roughly $1.17 billion, to Sofinnova funds, including future strategies that the firms might develop together.

Summa Equity co-founder Tommi Unkuri is setting up Lucerna, a healthcare-focused private-equity firm with Summa partner Christoph Waer, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London, citing people familiar with the situation. Unkuri was one of five partners who set up Stockholm-based Summa in 2016 and remains an adviser to the firm.

Vistria Group in Chicago has added Janice Jackson as an executive in residence with its knowledge and learning team. She is a former chief executive of Chicago's public school system and of Hope Chicago.

Midmarket-focused Backcast Partners in New York has hired Rob Czesak as managing director, finance and administration. He was most recently chief financial officer for New Rhein Healthcare Investors.

The chief executive of London-listed accounting services provider MHA has questioned how private-equity funds that have descended on the sector will exit their investments, Zoe Hu reports for sister publication Financial News in London. Rakesh Shaunak, the MHA CEO, said his company had "stolen a march" on buyout firms by listing its shares in London in April, raising £98 million, or about $132.6 million, by selling a minority stake. He said some private-equity firms buying into the accounting industry have indicated that exit plans could include IPOs.

Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund wrote off about $8 billion in "giga-project" investments, such as its vast NEOM and Red Sea land development works, last year, according to reports from CNBC and Reuters. The reduction in value pushed down the $912.47 billion fund's giga-projects to a total of 211 billion Saudi riyals, equivalent to about $56.23 billion, according to the Saudi Public Investment Fund's annual report. Overall, the fund reported a 19% gain in assets under management last year from 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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