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Twin Brook's Record Continuation Fund | Large Firms Turn to Europe

By Luis Garcia

 

Good morning! As private-equity firms increasingly resort to continuation funds to return capital to their investors, TPG Twin Brook Capital Partners aims to score the largest of such deals to date in the private-debt market, WSJ Pro’s Rod James reports. The credit specialist is letting investors cash out from several older vehicles through a continuation fund that is expected to reach about $3 billion.

Meanwhile, large, publicly traded private-equity firms are finding opportunities outside the U.S., particularly in Europe, as policy uncertainty slows dealmaking at home, my other colleague Maria Armental reports.

We have those stories and much more below. Now onto the news…

 
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Today's Top Stories

The Maine Public Employees Retirement System, based in the state capital of Augusta, committed $70 million to Twin Brook’s new continuation fund. PHOTO: ROBERT F. BUKATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Credit-focused TPG Twin Brook Capital Partners is letting investors cash out of several older funds in what would be the largest continuation-fund deal to take place in the private-debt market, WSJ Pro’s Rod James writes. Twin Brook, which lends to small to midsize businesses backed by private equity, is giving fund investors the option to sell their holdings or remain invested by rolling their stakes into a continuation vehicle, according to several people familiar with the matter. The continuation fund is expected to reach around $3 billion, handily topping the largest such vehicle raised so far to buy private-credit loans, according to the people. Boston-based Abry Partners closed that fund with $1.6 billion last year, they said.

Private-equity firms and their fund backers are setting their sights outside the U.S. for investing opportunities as policy uncertainty at home wrecked an anticipated deal bonanza, WSJ Pro’s Maria Armental reports. In recent earnings calls and industry events, private-equity executives stressed that some of the best deals often happen in challenging times and said they intended to play offense to capitalize on market volatility. Increasingly, they pointed at opportunities outside the U.S., particularly in Europe, which is going through a “potentially pivotal moment,” according to a recent note from KKR & Co. strategists.

 
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Big Number

$185.7 Billion

The value of private-equity-backed M&A deals this year through Thursday, up 30% from the same period last year, according to London Stock Exchange Group data

 

Deals

Private-equity firm TPG’s Rise Climate strategy is joining Renaissance Partners as an investor in biostimulants producer Sicit Group, with Renaissance and Intesa Holding agreeing to sell their interests in the business. Renaissance is reinvesting in Sicit through its Renaissance Partners Fund IV while Intesa is also reinvesting to hold a minority interest. TPG and Renaissance will acquire a controlling stake. Other participants in the new investment include LGT Capital Partners and Schroders Capital. Sicit processes residue from leather-making products for agriculture, biofuels and other applications.

Infrastructure investor Stonepeak and newly established Energy Equation Partners have agreed to acquire a majority stake in fuels retailer JET Tankstellen Deutschland from a Phillips 66 subsidiary in a deal that values the operation at about €2.5 billion, or $2.79 billion. Phillips is retaining a 35% stake. The business operates some 970 filling stations in Germany and Austria.

Private-equity firm BGH Capital’s overture to buy a controlling interest in online travel agency Webjet got a flat rejection from the Sydney-listed target, David Winning reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Webjet said BGH's proposal of 80 Australian cents a share, equivalent to 51 U.S. cents, materially undervalues its assets and creates significant uncertainty for shareholders. The offer valued Webjet at A$314 million, below its current market capitalization of A$341.5 million.

Blackstone in New York is backing specialty software maker Entrata with a $200 million minority investment that values the property technology company at about $4.3 billion. Lehi, Utah-based Entrata, which Silver Lake backed with a majority investment in 2021, focuses on applications used by property managers to operate their buildings including rental homes.

Temasek Holdings in Singapore led a $90 million growth investment in software maker Cohere Health, joined by others including Deerfield Management, Longitude Capital and Polaris Partners. The Boston-based company’s applications are used to preauthorize patient treatments by doctors and health plans.

Houston-based private-equity firm Sterling Group has acquired Pavement Preservation Group and Vance Brothers. The two organizations will operate as regional divisions of Pavement Preservation Group, a newly formed national platform. The new organization will look to extend the life of urban and rural asphalt roads.

Oak HC/FT led a $60 million growth investment in healthcare company Akido Labs, Stephen Nakrosis reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The Los Angeles company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its ScopeAI system that fully integrates artificial intelligence into a health-care-provider visits.

Lower midmarket-focused Valesco Industries, a private-equity firm in Dallas, closed its fourth platform investment in Valesco Fund III. Trimlight provides exterior lighting for residential, commercial and municipal markets across the U.S. and Canada

HealthQuest Capital and Samsara BioCapital led a $52 million growth investment in clinical-stage oncology company Alpheus Medical, with existing investors including Orbimed participating. The investment will support the company’s development of sonodynamic therapy devices to treat solid tumors.

 

Add-On Deals

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

 
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Exits

Lotus Infrastructure Partners is selling seven natural gas-fired electricity generating stations to strategic buyer Vistra for $1.9 billion. The power plants have a combined capacity of about 2.6 gigawatts and are located in Pennsylvania, New York, California, Rhode Island and Delaware. Lotus has been building the group of assets for “many years,” according to Himanshu Saxena, the firm’s chairman and chief executive.

 

Funds

Inflexion in London has closed on £2.3 billion for its multiasset Inflexion Continuation Fund I, which includes four companies backed by the firm through earlier vehicles. The businesses include industrial device supplier Aspen Pumps, liquid medicines producer Rosemont Pharmaceuticals, corporate and fund services provider Ocorian and specialty drug company CNX Therapeutics. Exiting investors received net proceeds of £1.5 billion, for a return of 3.4 times invested capital. Lead investors included Carlyle Group’s AlpInvest, HarbourVest Partners and Lexington Partners.

Blue Owl Capital closed on $7 billion for its Blue Owl Digital Infrastructure Fund III, far surpassing the firm’s initial $4 billion target and reaching its upper limit. The firm plans to invest from the fund in data centers and connectivity-related real assets. Earlier this year, the New York firm acquired infrastructure-focused IPI Partners, boosting its assets in the strategy.

Private-equity firm PX3 Partners in London has collected its inaugural fund, closing PX3 Partners Fund I at its hard cap of €500 million, or roughly $558.7 million, bringing the firm’s assets under management to about €1.1 billion. The firm began operating in 2021 after being set up by co-founders Gianpiero Lenza, Petter Johnsson and Sébastien Mazella Di Bosco, according to a regulatory filing and the founders’ LinkedIn pages.

 

People

Renewable energy investor Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners in Houston has added Ryan Gordon as a managing director and head of APAC, replacing Rob Kerr, and Jonathan Borland as a senior director for relationships and fundraising, Europe and Nordics, according to an emailed news release. Gordon joins from QIC in Australia while Borland comes aboard from DWS Group’s infrastructure arm in Europe. Kerr is set to leave the firm in midsummer.

Asset manager Aksia has added three professionals to its headcount. Sebastiaan van den Berg joins Aksia as a partner on the private-equity team. Most recently, he was a partner at Astorg. Benjamin Parks joins the firm as chief financial officer. Prior to joining Aksia, Parks was the corporate controller at Pretium Partners. Christopher Schelling joins Aksia as a managing director on the pan-alts team. He will work closely with Aksia’s data, risk and asset class teams on research projects.

Manulife Financial Group’s investment-management arm has appointed Brent McGowan as global head and chief investment officer of agriculture. He was most recently chief operating officer of agribusiness services provider Novus but was previously with Manulife as global head of agriculture.

Tikehau Capital in Paris has appointed Xavier Musca as chairman of its supervisory board, succeeding Christian de Labriffe, who will continue to support the group in the role of special adviser. In his new role, Musca, a former Credit Agricole executive and French government official, will support Tikehau in its expansion in France and internationally. Tikehau managed about €50.6 billion, or $62.64 billion, at the end of March.

European private-equity firm Astorg has elevated Benjamin Cordonnier to chief executive, replacing co-founder Thierry Timsit, who moves to executive chairman. Cordonnier is also moving up to co-managing partner with Judith Charpentier to manage the firm’s day-to-day business. They joined the firm in 2011 and 2009, respectively.

 

Industry News

European buyout firm CVC Capital Partners recorded a 42% gain in fee-paying assets in the 12 months through March, rising to about €141.8 billion, or $158.61 billion. The Amsterdam-listed firm said by the end of March, it had “raised €8.2 billion of investable capital” for CVC Credit Partners European Direct Lending Fund IV, without breaking down the sum’s components. Last year, the New Jersey Division of Investment committed up to €150 million to the vehicle following the receipt of a report that stated the firm’s target for the fund was €4 billion and that it had a hard cap of €4.5 billion. The firm intends to lend from the fund in the form of senior secured loans to European businesses backed by private equity.

London-listed private-equity firm 3i Group’s shares dropped at market open after a key metric of the firm, which reflects the value of its investments, rose over fiscal 2025 but missed analyst expectations. The firm’s net asset value for the year through March stood at 2,542 pence a share, including a 27 pence a share loss on foreign-exchange translation. The result was 22% higher than a year prior, but came in a little short of the 2,576 pence result penciled in by a company-compiled consensus.

Eurazeo in Paris raised €944 million, or about $1.1 billion, from investors during this year’s first quarter, with €491 million of that for its private-equity strategies, or about four times more than it collected in the same period a year earlier for its PE funds. The firm ended March with assets of about €36.77 billion, up 7% year-on-year, and fee-paying assets climbed 9% to €27.54 billion.

Infinity Capital Partners in Atlanta has acquired healthcare- and biotechnology-focused investment firm Soundlink Partners in Roslyn, N.Y., to expand its offerings to family offices, high-net-worth individuals and investment advisers.

 
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About Us

Send us your tips, suggestions and feedback. Write to:

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

Follow us on Twitter:@wsjpe, @LHVGarcia, @LauraKreutzer

 
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