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Early Battery Storage Bets Begin to Pay Off | Companies Get Creative With Financing | New Credit Suisse Bank Gains Saudi Backing
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Welcome back, Pro readers! As we progress into the last month of the year, deal volume has definitely slowed and many professionals I talk to speak of actually being able to take a break as they look to the end of the year. That said, as our colleagues Corrie Driebusch and Laura Cooper write, companies that are looking for capital, both public and private, are getting creative in their quests. Meanwhile, as our own Luis Garcia reports, growth in the market for battery storage deals is allowing some early movers in that sector to cash in on prior bets in the sector and Journal colleagues Justin Baer, Margot Patrick and Summer Said have news that Saudi Arabia's crown prince is among the investors planning to invest in Credit Suisse's new investment bank.
Read on for more details...
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Growing adoption of renewable energy is lifting demand for battery systems that can provide power when solar and wind sources can’t. PHOTO: BING GUAN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Energy storage, once a sliver of the renewable-power generation sector, is becoming an asset class of its own, and some early private-equity backers of battery-project developers are beginning to reap the benefits, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. EnCap Investments, a Houston-based private-equity firm that focused exclusively on the oil-and-gas industry before putting money into energy storage in 2019, has exited two of those new investments.
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Companies, both public and private, are getting creative in their quest to raise capital, including through the use of structured equity rounds, Corrie Driebusch and Laura Cooper report for The Wall Street Journal. The rethinking of how to raise money comes at a time when the U.S. IPO market is on track for its worst year in decades in money raised. Companies are unable to turn to buyout shops as they have in other slow IPO markets, as leveraged-debt financing also has dried up.
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Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and a U.S. private-equity firm run by Barclays PLC’s former chief executive are among investors preparing to invest $1 billion or more into Credit Suisse‘s new investment bank, the Journal’s Justin Baer, Margot Patrick and Summer Said write, citing people familiar with the matter. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is considering an investment of around $500 million to back the new unit, CS First Boston, and its CEO-designate, Michael Klein, some of the people said. Additional financial backing could come from U.S. investors including veteran banker Bob Diamond's Atlas Merchant
Capital, people familiar with that potential investment said.
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263,000
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The number of new jobs the U.S. economy added in November, according to the Labor Department.
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Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, previously founded virtual reality company Oculus, which sold to social media company Meta in 2014.
PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS / BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Valor Equity Partners led a nearly $1.5 billion growth investment in Anduril Industries, in a deal that values the defense technology company at about $8.48 billion, according to a company blog post on Friday. Valor has been an investor in the company since 2019, according to the private-equity firm’s website. Other participants in the investment included Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Thrive Capital.
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Investcorp said it has agreed to acquire Marble Point Credit Management LLC, a Greenwich, Conn.-based manager of collateralized loan obligations, or CLOs, and syndicated loan portfolios. Marble Point, which is an affiliate of Eagle Point Credit Management LLC, manages $7.8 billion in assets.
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SK Capital Partners and Edgewater Capital Partners have completed their acquisition of the crystals and detectors business of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, according to a press release. Saint Gobain initially announced it would sell the unit to the private-equity consortium in September.
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Comvest Credit Partners, a midmarket specialty lending unit of Comvest Group, said it has served as administrative agent on a senior secured credit facility for digital healthcare technology company CheckedUp to support its acquisition of digital health and wellness platform Health Media Network, according to a news release. CheckedUp is backed by Rockbridge Growth Equity.
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Global midmarket private-equity firm MML Capital said it is investing in OnPoint Industrial Services, a Houston-based industrial safety and maintenance services provider, according to a press release.
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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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Dallas-based firm Tailwater Capital sold a portion of its stake in Blue Tide Environmental LLC to a subsidiary of Shell PLC, according to an emailed press release. Pennzoil-Quaker State Co. has acquired a 49% stake in Plano, Texas-based Blue Tide, which is building a network of lubricant, including used motor oil, recycling facilities, including a 5,000 barrel per day plant in Baytown, Texas, that Blue Tide will operate. Tailwater initially backed the company in 2016 out of Tailwater Energy Fund II, according to the firm’s website.
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WestView Capital Partners is seeking $1 billion for WestView Capital Partners V LP, according to documents presented to the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board at its Dec. 1 meeting. The pension system was considering a commitment of up to $125 million in the fund, which targets growth investments in companies across the business services, IT services, healthcare IT, software and growth industrial sectors, the documents stated. Boston-based WestView raised $700 million for its previous growth fund back in 2017, according to a press release issued at the time.
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Argonaut Private Equity, a Tulsa, Okla.-based lower midmarket firm, has raised at least $188 million so far for Argonaut Private Equity Fund V LP and a related parallel fund, according to a regulatory filing. Although the filing did not specify a target, Argonaut said in a February news release that the fund has a $400 million target. Shannon Advisors is placing the fund, the filing indicates. Argonaut targets investments in companies that are headquartered in middle America or other underserved U.S. markets, according to
its website.
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The Mastercard Foundation, a Canadian foundation launched in 2006 that now has some $40 billion in assets, announced the launch of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund with $200 million. The fund-of-funds will support investment vehicles that back early-stage, growth-oriented small and medium enterprises in Africa, particularly ones that foster job growth for young people, according to a press release.
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David Malm, the managing partner of healthcare-focused private-equity firm Webster Equity Partners, is paying $19.9 million for a property on the island of Nantucket, E.B. Solomont reports for the Journal, citing Nantucket Land Bank records. Mr. Malm, who owns around a dozen properties in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, said he plans to use the home as a high-end vacation rental.
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Madison Dearborn Partners said it is creating a partnership with former Dovel Technologies Inc. executives Damon Griggs and Jon Brooks to invest in technology companies serving the government. Mr. Griggs was chief executive of Dovel and Mr. Brooks served as the software company’s chief legal officer, according to a press release. Guidehouse, a portfolio company of Veritas Capital, acquired Dovel, which was backed by Macquarie Capital, in late 2021.
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Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, a nontraded real estate investment trust, is curbing redemptions after investor withdrawal requests exceeded the REIT's monthly limit in November, Andrew Bary writes for sister publication Barron’s. Known as SREIT, the $14.6 billion REIT is chaired by Barry Sternlicht, the founder and CEO of Starwood Capital, a private investment firm focused on real estate with over $125 billion in assets under management. Starwood Capital manages the REIT. Sternlicht also is CEO of Starwood Property Trust (STWD), a publicly traded real estate lending company. News of the move follows revelations last week of a similar move by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, one of the largest non-traded REITs aimed at wealthy individuals.
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26North Partners LP, a private-equity firm founded by former Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, has backed an equity investment in Braven, a newly formed venture-capital firm launched by William Abecassis, founder and former head of BlackRock's Innovation Capital venture group, according to a press release. Braven will target investments in startups that utilize scientific and technical innovation to transform regulated industries, such as finance, healthcare, defense and industrial infrastructure, the release stated.
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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said Friday that it intends to appeal a liability ruling against it in a lawsuit brought on by an entity controlled by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, Dow Jones Newswires’ Adriano Marchese writes. The lawsuit was filed by Cerberus in November 2015 against the Canadian financial institution relating to a transaction that took place in late 2008 in which CIBC issued a limited recourse note to Cerberus specifying certain payment streams, as well as another transaction three years later.
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