Good day. Looking at the bright side, the S&P 500 index has gained almost 44% in barely four months since crashing to its 2020 closing low in March. Whether the gain can be sustained remains to be seen as fund managers and their investors absorb the valuation damage wreaked by the March market plunge. As our Preeti Singh writes, in Massachusetts the hope is that the dip was just a blip. But as our Laura Kreutzer and Laura Cooper report, a climbing credit-default rate in loans mainly to private-equity-backed companies signals that the pandemic’s economic damage is a long way from over. Meanwhile, the surge of blank-check IPOs continues, with a couple more emerging that have ties to the private-markets sector—details are below—while The Wall Street Journal’s Miriam Gottfried has a story on one that is aimed at the pro-sports industry and features Billy Beane of Moneyball fame. These stories and more await, so please jump in…

Privately held companies, particularly smaller operations, are starting to feel more pain from the coronavirus pandemic as loan default rates rise while their lenders and private-equity backers seek ways to steer them safely to the end of the year, Laura Kreutzer and Laura Cooper report for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The default rate on private debt rose to 8.1% in the second quarter, according to the Proskauer Private Credit Default Index, which measured 546 private loans issued mainly to private-equity-backed businesses. That’s up from a 5.9% default rate for the previous quarter, according to Proskauer Rose LLP, the New York law firm that compiled the index.

Private-equity returns turned negative in the second quarter for the Massachusetts state pension fund’s portfolio, reflecting the coronavirus pandemic’s economic effects, Preeti Singh reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity, citing a presentation to executives who oversee the assets. The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board’s private-equity portfolio posted an 8.3% loss for the period, but that doesn’t reflect a “permanent impairment to the portfolio,” Michael Bailey, director of private equity for Mass PRIM, said during a public investment committee meeting on Tuesday. Private equity has been the $75 billion pension fund’s best performing asset class over a long period.

Private-equity firm RedBird Capital Partners is teaming up with Oakland Athletics executive Billy Beane of Moneyball fame to launch the first-ever special purpose acquisition company dedicated to sports, Miriam Gottfried reports for The Wall Street Journal. RedBall Acquisition Corp. plans to raise $500 million through an initial public offering of shares and will focus on businesses in sports, and sports-related media and data analytics, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. Possible targets could include professional sports franchises or leagues, according to the filing.

Singapore sovereign-wealth fund manager GIC has led an $85 million investment in Stack Exchange Inc., the operator of the Stack Overflow network. Another new investor in the company, Silver Lake’s Waterman arm, joined existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, who also participated in the Series E financing round, according to a news release. The New York-based company’s platform is used by technologists and software developers.

TA Associates and Francisco Partners have agreed to invest in Edifecs Inc., a provider of secure systems to process administrative and clinical data. The growth investment is expected to help the Bellevue, Wash.-based company with more than 600 employees accelerate product development and expansion. The deal is expected to close in the current quarter.

ICONIQ Capital has joined Luminate Capital as an investor in Conexiom, a software-as-a-service business created by Ecmarket Inc., based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Luminate retained a majority interest in the business, which provides sales order and invoicing automation.

Growth-equity investor Equality Asset Management has backed Mindoula Health Inc., a health management services provider based in Silver Spring, Md. The company focuses on behavioral health, comorbid medical conditions and other specialty areas and operates in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Louisiana, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and California. The Boston firm’s investment is expected to help the company expand into the rest of the U.S.

Trive Capital has invested in heavy aircraft customizer Field Aerospace Inc., providing a way for the Cincinnati-based company to buy out minority investor Dan Magarian through a structured capital investment. The Dallas firm’s structured capital deals typically include both debt and equity.

Blackstone Group Inc. is increasing its stake in a Gulf of Mexico oil project run by Navitas Petroleum, an Israeli company with energy assets in the U.S. and Canada. Navitas indicated in a news release written in Hebrew that Blackstone affiliate Beacon Development LLC raised its interest in the Navitas ShenHai project to about 47% from 16% as LLOG Deepwater Development Co. transferred its stake to the Blackstone affiliate.

NordStar Capital, a Canadian private investment firm owned by entrepreneur Jordan Bitove and former Fairfax Financial Holdings President Paul Rivett, won court permission for its bid to take Toronto Star publisher Torstar Corp. private at 74 Canadian cents (55.5 U.S. cents) a share in cash. Shareholders in the media company previously backed the NordStar bid over a competing proposal from Canadian Modern Media Holdings Inc. The acquiring firm has said it has no intention of altering editorial policies, noting that as a privately held company, Torstar can focus on long-term investments in its operations rather than quarterly earnings. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the takeover, Reuters reported.

3i Group PLC has acquired single-use bioprocessing systems and components maker Sani-Tech West Inc. through a bioprocessing platform the London-based firm had previously set up. The acquired business, in Camarillo, Calif., has about 170 employees and makes containers and other products used for handling and shipping biologic-based drugs and vaccines from two plants in Southern California, according to a news release.

Defense- and government-focused Battle Investment Group has acquired mobile communications systems integrator Oceus Networks Inc. Battle plans to reposition the Reston, Va.-based company as a provider of fifth-generation mobile technology to defense and civilian government agencies, according to a news release from the Atlanta-based firm.

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

Thomas H. Lee Partners has sold its majority interest in software maker Juvare LLC to Five Arrows, Rothschild & Co.’s private-equity arm. Atlanta-based Juvare develops applications for use in emergency preparedness and response operations. The buyer made the deal through its Five Arrows Principal Investments fund in Europe and its Five Arrows Capital Partners fund in the U.S. Lee initially invested in Juvare in 2018, according to the firm’s website.

Great Hill Partners and Sageview Capital are selling Reflexis Systems Inc. to Zebra Technologies Corp. for about $575 million. Reflexis provides workforce management and communications systems to organizations in the retail, food service, hospitality and banking sectors and had sales of about $66 million last year, according to a news release. The exit deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Tikehau Capital subsidiary Ace Management has raised €630 million ($738.6 million) so far for its new aeronautics fund, which has marked its first close, Selin Bucak reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. The firm aims to raise €1 billion for the fund, which has received a €200 million commitment from the French government, according to a statement. Ace Aero Partenaires has attracted €200 million in investments from aerospace companies Airbus, Safran and Thales, as well as aircraft manufacturer Dassault. Tikehau has invested €230 million.

Blackstone Group Inc. has named former Mastercard Inc. and Bank of America Corp. executive Gene Lockhart as a senior advisor to the New York private-equity giant. With a wealth of experience in the financial services sector, Mr. Lockhart is expected to concentrate on the firm’s Blackstone Growth and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities strategies. He is a former chief executive and president of Mastercard and a former global retail bank president at BofA.

AnaCap Financial Partners, a specialist private-equity firm that invests in European financial services, has promoted Edward Green, Nassim Cherchali and Tassilo Arnhold to partner. All three will join various investment committees at the firm. Mr. joined AnaCap in 2007, while Mr. Cherchali joined in 2008 and Mr. Arnhold came aboard in 2015.

AE Industrial Partners has hired Mano Nazar as an operating partner. Most recently, he was president of NextEra Energy Inc.’s nuclear power unit, according to a news release.

A team of investment industry and infrastructure professionals leads a blank-check company that plans to raise $300 million through an initial public offering of shares to acquire a renewable energy or infrastructure-focused business, a regulatory filing shows. Leaders of Kansas City, Mo.-based Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. include Stone Capital Partners founder Michael Hoffman. He is a former partner at private-equity firm Riverstone Holdings, where he led the firm’s renewable energy investing. Also among the company leaders is Ken Manget, a former global head of relationship investing at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and InfraStar Investments head Ian Robertson.

A pair of technology industry executives leads a blank-check company seeking to raise $350 million through an initial public offering of shares with an eye toward buying a privately held company in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors, according to a regulatory filing. Menlo Park, Calif.-based BowX Acquisition Corp. is led by Vivek Ranadivé and Murray Rode, who are both former TIBCO Software Inc. chief executives. Mr. Ranadivé led the software maker until it was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2014 for $4.3 billion and Mr. Rode ran it as a Vista portfolio company until last year. In 2016, Mr. Ranadivé formed an early-stage venture investment group, Bow Capital Management to invest alongside the University of California system, according to the filing. He is also the CEO of the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings.

Biotechnology-focused RA Capital, joined by fellow life-sciences investors Bain Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Redmile Group and Samsara BioCapital, is pushing for the development of quick and cost-effective tests to detect Covid-19 infection. With the support of law firm Goodwin Procter, the five investment firms have created the $50 million Covid Apollo Project with the goal of bringing the first tests to market within a few months. Led by RA Capital, the five will evaluate and scale up technologies that the project will accelerate, according to a news release. The goal is to develop tests that can be deployed in a cost-effective way to meet the needs of reopening the U.S. economy. The group is also providing $4.5 million to help fund a $5 million industry competition to develop low-cost, effective tests for the virus. The companies plan to work with competitors to develop the best ideas that emerge through the competition.

Leonard Green & Partners-backed hospital manager Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. is trying to block Prime Healthcare Services Inc.'s $350 million purchase of a bankrupt Los Angeles-area facility, Aisha Al-Muslim reports for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. Los Angeles-based Prospect is making a last-minute attempt to scoop up St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, Calif., by offering to top Prime Healthcare's bid by as much as $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter. St. Francis owner Verity Health System of California Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2018.

Private-equity firm L Catterton is expected to retrieve Australian swimwear brand Seafolly Pty. Ltd. from the equivalent of bankruptcy, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The firm was chosen as the preferred  bidder for the company, which went into administration in June, the newspaper said on its website. At that point, Seafolly operated 44 stores, including under the Sunburn brand, and had annual revenue of about 112 million Australian dollars ($80.6 million). L Catterton is owed A$27 million by the company, the Herald said.

TPP Capital Management Group aims to raise at least $300 million for a fund to invest in health and well-being projects in Black neighborhoods of Philadelphia, according to a news release. Calling the effort a $1 billion initiative, the Philadelphia-based impact-investing firm led by Black executives is concentrating initially on five urban, underserved Black neighborhoods in the city, starting with the predominantly Black Tioga section. Anthony Miles and Clinton Bush, principals of TPP, designed an integrated and scalable model to bring health care and food services to the district, along with smart neighborhood technology, based on real estate development. The plan includes 500 new affordable housing units and roughly 900 more units in various residential structures.

Neiman Marcus Group Ltd.'s creditors say the retailer inflated its own value by billions of dollars before the 2018 spinoff of its fast-growing e-commerce unit, MyTheresa, so it could carry out what they say was an improper transaction, Soma Biswas reports for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. A valuation expert hired by creditors concluded that Neiman Marcus was only worth $3.9 billion before the spinoff, according to a report that was recently unsealed in bankruptcy court. But Neiman valued its business at more than $7 billion in 2018, before the MyTheresa transfer, documents show. The difference in values could be a key to potential legal claims against Neiman's owners—including private-equity firm Ares Management Corp. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board—over the spinoff to a holding company controlled by the company’s owners.

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

Ted Bunker; Laura Cooper; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; William Louch; Preeti Singh; Chitra Vemuri.

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