Good morning. Today as the winter season nears in the U.S., our Luis Garcia takes a look at Tailwater Capital's investment strategy focused on natural gas. But the firm's play has more to do with energy industry bottlenecks and supporting power-hungry data centers than providing fuel to warm American homes.

Next our Maria Armental and Laura Kreutzer report on the latest pointers to a rebound in U.S. dealmaking, this time through a survey by industry adviser Deloitte.

Finally, our Journal colleague Miriam Gottfried reports on Brookfield's new strategy focused on AI infrastructure, including a fund that has already collected about $5 billion.

For these stories and many more summarized and linked for you below, please read on...

Tailwater Capital looks to capitalize on rising demand for natural gas by backing operators of infrastructure that helps alleviate the bottlenecks hindering both producers and consumers of the fuel, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports. “We are finding deal flow that is allowing us to solve the infrastructure problems that are cropping up,” said Edward Herring, a managing partner at Dallas-based Tailwater. The private-equity firm specializes in energy infrastructure investments.

Brookfield Asset Management is setting up a strategy aimed at buildings and power supplies tied to artificial intelligence and is targeting $10 billion for a related investment pool, Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund, Miriam Gottfried reports for the Journal. The New York-based firm with assets of over $1 trillion has already received $5 billion in commitments for the vehicle from investors that include AI chipmaker Nvidia and the Kuwait Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth investor. Brookfield aims to build or acquire as much as $100 billion worth of AI infrastructure.

The third quarter seemed to mark a long-awaited turning point for U.S. private-equity dealmakers, with large transactions driving aggregate U.S. value to a nearly four-year high, WSJ Pro's Maria Armental and Laura Kreutzer report. Dealmakers now expect the market to gain momentum, according to a recent survey from financial advisory firm Deloitte. The survey of 1,500 private-equity and corporate executives found that both groups expect average deal numbers to grow in the year ahead, with 90% of private-equity executives predicting an increase.

WSJ Pro is extending the deadline for nominations to our next annual Women to Watch list by one week to Nov. 26. The list, now in its tenth year, highlights the accomplishments of outstanding women in the private-equity and private-credit fields. We're accepting nominations for the next class of senior deal professionals, rising star deal professionals, as well as limited-partner or fundraising professionals through Nov. 26. Submit your nominations here.

Paramount has had early discussions with Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds about investing in its potential tie-up with Warner Bros. Discovery should a deal come together, the Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and other big Gulf investors are ongoing as Paramount plans to submit the nonbinding proposal this week for Warner Discovery, the people said. RedBird Capital Partners is already on board to back the planned bid.

Bain Capital in Boston remains in the hunt to acquire U.K. wealth adviser Amber River from Penta Capital, along with two other prospective buyers, Reverence Capital Partners and Stone Point Capital, Justin Cash reports for sister publication Financial News in London. All three buyout firms met a minimum threshold of £700 million, or about $920.2 million, to remain in the running, according to people familiar with the matter. London-based Amber River advises people and families with assets of about £15 billion.

Altimeter Capital co-led a $106 million growth investment in protein design company Profluent along with the family office of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Bezos Expeditions. Existing company backers such as Insight Partners and Spark Capital also participated. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company uses artificial intelligence and gene-editing technology in designing proteins. Lawyers from Ropes & Gray advised Profluent on the transaction.

Apax's digital funds led a $100 million growth investment in emergency response network operator RapidSOS, pushing the company value past $1 billion. The New York company has stitched together a network of over 600 million devices, 22,000 government agencies and 200 large corporations to form a digital alert system used by first responders.

Hudson Cove Capital Management in Jersey City, N.J., led an $80 million debt and equity growth investment in small-business finance firm SAPI, according to a post on LinkedIn by SAPI co-founder Mai Le. The London company focuses on lending to businesses led by women and minorities. Britain's Sky News reported the deal earlier.

Bessemer Venture Partners led a $70 million growth investment in Doppel, a developer of social engineering defense systems that use artificial intelligence technology, at a $600 million valuation. The Covina, Calif.-based company uses agentic AI and a real-time threat graph to thwart cybercriminals who develop highly personalized attempts to exploit victims using Facebook, X and direct messaging systems as well as other techniques.

Main Street Capital is backing outsourced manufacturing company Nearshore Co. with a debt and minority equity investment totaling $27.2 million to support its acquisition of Carmi Cos. Brownsville, Texas-based Nearshore mainly serves clients looking to produce goods near U.S. borders while Laredo, Texas-based Carmi provides transportation and customs services.

Growth investor General Catalyst co-led a $26 million commitment to cybersecurity company Method Security, joined by Andreessen Horowitz while Blackstone also participated, along with others. The company works with government agencies and major corporations. Blackstone invested through its Innovations strategy.

Asset manager GTCR in Chicago has acquired Boston-based private wealth manager Fiduciary Co. and its operating units, which together are known as Fiduciary Trust. Founded in 1885 as a family office, Fiduciary offers wealth management, trustee and custody services to clients with roughly $34 billion in assets at the end of September.

Wafra, a global alternative investment firm backed by the Public Institution for Social Security of Kuwait, has taken a minority stake in Paris-based private-equity firm Ardian, which manages assets of roughly $192 billion.

Ara Partners in Boston has acquired a majority stake in residential broadband services provider Centric Fiber, investing alongside company managers. The Houston company serves planned communities in Florida and Arizona in addition to Texas through bulk contracts with developers.

Riverside Co. is backing software company Contruent, investing through the firm's Micro-Cap strategy. The Naperville, Ill.-based company supplies life-cycle management programs used in the construction and real estate industries to help users with tasks such as engineering, procurement, overseeing contracts and other tasks.

Vance Street Capital has acquired Injectech in Fort Collins, Colo., from the West Group and combined the operation with two businesses the firm acquired earlier to form VSC Medical Molding. The group makes medical device components.

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 firm Preservation Capital Partners aims to raise €700 million, or about $807.7 million, for its third flagship vehicle, PCP Fund 3, and has hired investment bank Evercore in preparation for marketing the pool, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News, citing people familiar with the matter. The London firm collected €459 million for a predecessor fund that closed to new investors last year.

An investment group that includes ICG, TPG, CVC Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs, Lunate, Pantheon and Ardian is backing a continuation vehicle that will let CapVest Partners recapitalize Boston-based nuclear medicine company Curium, according to an emailed statement. The transaction values Curium at $7 billion. The company develops, manufactures and supplies radiopharmaceuticals used to diagnose and treat cancer. Curium also received a separate minority investment from TPG's Life Sciences strategy. CapVest set up Curium in 2017 by combining portfolio company IBA Molecular with the nuclear imaging business of Dublin-listed pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. in New York has named Julian Barratt-Due, a managing director and head of Middle East investing, to lead a newly opened Abu Dhabi office.

A pair of Blue Owl Capital business development companies, one publicly traded and the other private, have called off a planned merger after reports that investors in the private BDC would likely see the value of their investments discounted by the deal. The credit-focused New York firm had planned to put the combination to a vote by shareholders of Blue Owl Capital Corporation II, the private BDC that was valued at about $1.7 billion at the end of September, and investors in Blue Owl Capital Corp., the listed BDC valued at about $17.1 billion. The firm had stressed that the merger would provide additional liquidity options to investors in the private BDC. Both the Financial Times and Bloomberg News reported earlier on the potential haircut and noted that the private BDC had suspended tenders in the meantime. The private BDC said it would resume quarterly tenders starting next year.

A proposed $2.4 billion media rights deal for the Big Ten collegiate athletics conference anchored by the investment arm of the University of California system has been put on hold after debate over the deal divided the 18-member group, Rachel Bachman reported for the Journal. A standoff developed between Tony Petitti, the Big Ten commissioner, and leaders of the University of Michigan.

Performance Equity Management in Greenwich, Conn., is rebranding as the private-equity arm of Sagard, which invested in the firm last year. As Sagard Private Equity Solutions, the firm will manage about $23 billion in combined assets.

Strategic acquirers backed by private equity use their ability to move quickly and with certainty to gain an edge in mergers and acquisitions, analysts with investment bank Robert W. Baird & Co. said in a new report on the deals marketplace. PE-backed buyers are a rising force in corporate M&A, the Milwaukee-based bank's analysts said in the report.

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

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