Another week ends with news of a pending deal for troubled media company Vice, as well as updates on more earnings reports from listed private capital firms and so far the results are mixed. Perhaps one of the takeaways so far has been the boost that some firms are getting from heavy exposure to credit, particularly private credit. Our colleagues at WSJ Pro Bankruptcy report this morning that Vice Media Group is nearing a deal to be acquired by its lenders. 

Also, yesterday, Carlyle Group reported disappointing earnings for the first quarter of this year with the firm predicting that fundraising this year would be tilted more to private credit than private equity. Meanwhile, Blue Owl Capital, which has a hefty weighting to direct lending, reported a rise in distributable earnings over the previous year. Stay tuned next week for first-quarter results from other firms, including KKR, Apollo and Brookfield.

Now onto the news …

Carlyle Group reported an unexpected decline in revenue for the first quarter amid lower fee-related performance revenue, Sabela Ojea and Chris Cumming report for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The investment firm on Thursday reported net income attributable to shareholders of $100.7 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with $571.6 million, or $1.57 a share, for the same period a year earlier. Distributable earnings, or profit that can be returned to shareholders, fell 10% to $272 million from a year ago.

Vice Media is nearing a deal for senior lenders including Fortress Investment Group and Soros Fund Management to acquire the troubled media company out of bankruptcy at a valuation of around $400 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Nearly every Vice stockholder—including backers such as private-equity firm TPG Group, Sixth Street Partners and media mogul James Murdoch—would be wiped out under the proposed reorganization, the people familiar with the matter said. Outstanding debts held by TPG and Sixth Street would also be impaired as part of the plan, the people said. The Murdoch family is a major shareholder in Journal parent News Corp.

Blue Owl Capital rebounded in the first quarter, posting a net profit as assets under management swelled and fee-related earnings rose 32% to help the firm defy market headwinds as the year began, Rod James reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The New York-based firm best known for its private credit business and for backing other asset managers said it managed $144.4 billion at the end of March, up 42% from a year earlier, while fee-paying assets rose 40% to $91.6 billion. Fee-related earnings rose 32% from last year’s first quarter to $225.9 million, or 16 cents per share, while distributable earnings climbed 34% to $209 million, or 15 cents a share. Blue Owl reported net income of $8.3 million in the first quarter, or 2 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $11.86 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

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Apollo Global Management has entered negotiations with Air France-KLM to provide another round of financing for the European carrier, according to a news release. Apollo would provide €500 million, or roughly $550.6 million, through the deal under discussion that would be structured through a “quasi-equity financing instrument” similar to last July’s agreement with the New York asset manager. Under that deal, Apollo provided €550 million to back an Air France affiliate that owned a pool of spare airliner engines. Under the new transaction, Apollo’s financing would be tied to maintenance and engineering assets.

Silver Lake and Software AG in Germany have agreed to increase the California firm’s take-private offer to €32 per share, representing a 63% premium to the technology company’s share price before Silver Lake’s intentions became public late last month, according to a news release. The new bid implies an equity value of around €2.4 billion for the business, equivalent to about $2.6 billion. Silver Lake initially offered €30 per share for the company last month and already holds a significant portion of the company’s stock. Software AG dismissed a competing proposal as “not achievable” and said it wouldn’t hold further discussions with a rival U.S. bidder which it didn’t name. Bloomberg News said the rival was Bain Capital in Boston.

A take-private engineered by Madison Dearborn Partners cleared a major hurdle with the Reserve Bank of India’s approval of the $1.8 billion transaction involving financial technology company MoneyGram International, according to a news release. Chicago-based Madison Dearborn earlier this year said that a delay in obtaining approval in India led to the extension of a deadline to close the deal to May 14.

Apollo Global Management, joined by Irenic Capital Management, has agreed to acquire aluminum products maker Arconic for $30 a share in a deal that gives the Pittsburgh manufacturer an enterprise value of about $5.2 billion, according to a news release. The take-private deal includes a minority investment from recently formed Irenic, which focuses on investing in public companies with a goal of improving their results, according to the New York firm’s website. The Wall Street Journal reported that the deal was imminent on Wednesday.

Energy and industrial-focused First Reserve Management in Stamford, Conn., said it is backing fuel, lubricant and chemicals distributor Palmdale Oil, making a growth investment alongside the company’s founding Cheatham family, which retains a significant stake in the business. The Fort Pierce, Fla., company operates across most of Florida, delivering commercial, industrial and marine fluids including gasoline and fuel oil for a variety of uses, according to a news release.

Ares Management’s direct lending and alternative credit strategies served as the lead arranger and junior agent for $3 billion in asset-backed and operating company financing for fleet management services provider Merchants Fleet by Bain Capital and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, according to a press release.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board is backing wireless communications infrastructure company Diamond Communications with a growth investment, according to a news release. The pension investor joins Canada’s Manulife Financial’s investment management arm as well as others in backing the owner of more than telecommunications tower sites. The Short Hills, N.J.-based company also manages over 300,000 properties across the U.S., according to the release.

A former Blackstone executive’s family office, LG Capital Investors, is backing the 4x4 Capital investment platform with a minority investment, according to a news release. Lawrence Guffey, a former senior managing director at Blackstone, invested in 4x4 Fund I in 2021 and saw how the firm’s team engineered a sports drink company from KKR and Carlyle Group, leading him to invest in 4x4 through the family office he had established in 2014, according to the release.

Vista Equity Partners said it is backing software company Innovapptive, leading a recent growth investment, joined by existing backer Tiger Global Management. The Houston-based software-as-a-service provider helps clients across a variety of industries improve productivity, including through training and compliance, according to a news release.

Healthcare specialist Amulet Capital Partners in Greenwich, Conn., is backing brand development and marketing agency Minds + Assembly with a growth investment. The New York-based company works with drug makers, and biotechnology and digital health companies, according to a news release.

Midmarket firm One Equity Partners announced the simultaneous acquisitions of two European information technology services companies. The firm has bought Milan, Italy-based IT systems integrator and technology company Kirey Group as well as Bulgarian IT services provider Synergyc according to a press release.

African mezzanine fund manager Vantage Capital said it has agreed to acquire a minority stake in medical consumables and equipment distributor Promamec in Morocco for €30 million, equivalent to about $33.2 million. The deal will enable private-equity backer AfricInvest to exit its investment in the business, according to a news release.

Buyout firm Ardian in Paris said it has acquired a majority stake in electric chain hoist supplier Liftket Group from German investment firm Afinum Management, with company managers reinvesting as well. Afinum remains a minority investor in the German company, which serves more than 800 customers, according to a news release.

Kohlberg & Co. in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. has invested in body-building studio operator Solidcore Holdings, joining VMG Partners and Peterson Partners in backing the Washington, D.C.-based company, according to a news release. Solidcore opened its 100th location in Santa Monica, Calif., and said it plans 25 such openings this year, according to the release.

Institutional fund manager Lind Partners is backing publicly traded HUB Cyber Security through its Lind Global Asset Management VI vehicle in an agreement that would deliver as much as $16 million in gross proceeds to the Israel-based company, according to a news release. Lind’s commitment to provide growth capital comes in the form of convertible debt.

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

Latin America-focused private-equity firm Southern Cross Group has agreed to sell Brazilian dental implant manufacturer S.I.N. Implant System to publicly traded Henry Schein Inc., according to a press release. The company generated around $61 million in sales in 2022, the release stated. Southern Cross acquired the company in 2009, according to the firm’s website.

Shoreline Equity Partners in Neptune Beach, Fla., said it has sold Florida Veg Investments, which operates as Mr. Greens, to Sterling Investment Partners. The Miami-based company distributes produce, dairy products and dry goods to more than 3,500 restaurants, hotels and other end-users in Florida and Texas, according to a news release. Shoreline first backed the company in 2019 with what the release described as co-investments from Apogem Capital and Churchill Asset Management, among others.

Riverside Co. said it is appointing Ali Al Alaf as managing director and head of origination for its Europe operations, reporting to Karsten Langer, managing partner, Riverside Europe. Mr. Al Alaf joined the firm in 2015 and is based in Stockholm, according to his LinkedIn page.

Toronto-Dominion Bank and Tennessee-based First Horizon have called off their $13.4 billion merger, the Wall Street Journal’s Vipal Monga and Adriano Marchese write. TD ran into hurdles getting regulators to sign off on the deal, announced in February 2022. The Canadian lender said it couldn’t be sure when or if it would get the necessary approvals, so the two banks decided to terminate the deal.

Johnson & Johnson consumer-healthcare spinoff Kenvue saw its shares surge more than 22% in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, closing Thursday at $26.90 after an initial public offering of the shares priced at $22 a share late Wednesday.  The IPO was expected to raise at least $3.7 billion and valued the business at more than $40 billion, making it by far the year’s biggest market debut. The deal provided a glimmer of hope amid a dismal period for new issues, with traditional IPOs in the U.S. on pace for their worst year since 2009, according to Dealogic. Johnson & Johnson still owned a nearly 91% interest in Kenvue after the offering, according to sister publication Barron’s.

Secondary investor Montana Capital Partners in Switzerland said it is opening a New York office and has hired David Overton as a director and head of the new location, its first outside Switzerland. The firm said two of its professionals will move to the new office, which is set to open in June. Mr. Overton joins from Newbury Partners, according to a news release.

Investor access to a Hamilton Lane credit fund is being offered over a blockchain-based trading system operated by Securitize, which said the private-asset manager is reducing the minimum commitment from qualified investors to $10,000 from $2 million and adding a redemption-on-demand element to the mix. Securitize began offering tokenized slices of another Hamilton Lane fund earlier this year and said its feeder vehicle for the firm’s Senior Credit Opportunities Fund is now available over the Polygon blockchain. In October, Hamilton Lane said it planned to offer three tokenized vehicles in partnership with Securitize, which operates a blockchain-based trading system for digital assets. Sales of the Hamilton Lane Equity Opportunities Securitize Fund V through Securitize began in January, according to a news release.

Latin America-focused Patria Investments said its fee-related earnings held nearly steady in the first quarter at $31.2 million, down slightly from $31.9 million in the year-earlier period, while distributable earnings rose nearly 12% to $39.1 million. Assets under management edged down to $27.3 billion at the end of March, even though the firm said its fundraising efforts brought in $390 million in the first quarter and $2.1 billion in the 12 months through March.

London-listed asset manager Pollen Street said its assets under management held roughly steady in the first quarter while its fee-paying assets rose, Michael Susin reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Formed through the combination of Honeycomb Investment Trust and Pollen Street Capital Holdings, the firm managed £3.4 billion, or roughly $4.27 billion, at the end of March, about the same as at the end of last year, while average fee-paying assets rose to £2.5 billion.

Fairway Capital Management in Chicago said it is making its Fairway Private Equity & Venture Capital Opportunities Fund available to qualified investors via Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab & Co., which have both agreed to provide custodial services. The 40 Act fund-of-funds vehicle is set up to provide access to private-markets funds and liquidity options on a quarterly basis, according to a news release.

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