Good morning. Good news on the U.S. economic front in the form of factory output and rising copper prices signaling a strengthening rebound in China, is showing that the gloom spread by the coronavirus pandemic may finally be lifting beyond Wall Street. With the pandemic still disrupting life in many ways, the data suggest things are getting better, even if the disease isn’t going away.

The pandemic didn’t stall plans to invest in private equity by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, our Preeti Singh reports. Calstrs co-investments are up 50% over last year through June. Meanwhile, General Atlantic is once again leading an investment round for Brazilian fintech Neon Pagamentos SA, as our Laura Cooper reports, though the stakes have risen dramatically. Finally our Luis Garcia has an exclusive look at TCV’s latest acquisition, business software supplier Oversight Systems.

All that and more await you, so please read on…

Growth-equity firm General Atlantic has led a $300 million funding round for Brazilian financial technology company Neon Pagamentos SA to foster the startup’s continued growth. The latest round comes less than a year after Neon announced a prior $92 milion financing round that was also led by General Atlantic.

Fallout from the coronavirus pandemic failed to slow a push into private-equity co-investments by one of California’s largest public pension plans during this year’s first half, according to a Meketa Investment Group presentation. The $253.6 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or Calstrs, ramped up commitments to both co-investing alongside fund general partners and to opportunistic debt funds. In this year’s first half, Calstrs committed almost $715 million to co-investments, roughly 50% more than the $475 million earmarked for the strategy during the first six months of last year.

Technology and consumer specialist TCV has acquired a majority stake in Oversight Systems Inc. from fellow private-equity firm Luminate Capital Partners, which retained a minority interest in the business software maker. The investment from TCV will help  Atlanta-based Oversight expand its customer base abroad and among smaller businesses, said Terrence McCrossan, Oversight’s chief executive.

Mobile-gaming company Skillz Inc. is set to go public through a merger with a blank-check firm run by veteran Hollywood executives, valuing the company at $4.3 billion after the deal is done, according to people familiar with the matter.

Singapore’s GIC and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP have acquired a collection of roughly 135,000 wireless telecommunications towers from a Reliance Industries Ltd. unit in India for about $3.4 billion. Brookfield said it would invest roughly $600 million in the deal.

Centerbridge Partners, joined by Berkshire Partners, has agreed to acquire cloud services provider Ahead LLC from Court Square Capital Partners. Chicago-based Ahead is projected to have more than $1.3 billion in revenue this year, up from $365 million five years ago. Centerbridge is acquiring a majority interest in the business while Berkshire is taking a minority position, alongside company management.

Traub Capital has acquired contract cosmetics manufacturer MANA Products Inc. The Long Island City, N.Y.-based company was founded in 1975 and supplies makeup artists as well as major beauty brands.

Bow River Capital has acquired NextEdge Networks Holdings LLC and its Modus LLC subsidiary from Titan Grove Holdings. Modus, a  B Lab Co. certified B Corporation for its social, environmental and governance policies.

Onex Corp. has made a $110 million follow-on investment in insurer Ryan Specialty Group LLC to help finance its acquisition of wholesale broker and insurance program manager All Risks Ltd. The business operates across the U.S. with more than 850 employees and is projected to produce $2.6 billion in premiums this year, according to a news release. Onex, which initially backed Ryan Specialty in 2018, received preferred equity from the company in exchange for its most recent investment.

Oaktree Capital Management has acquired a minority stake in Jones Industrial Holdings Inc., acquiring a stake in the Houston holding company from MML Capital Partners and investing additional capital in the business. Jones is the parent of energy industry-focused Universal Plant Services.

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

Cognizant, a public technology company, said it has agreed to acquire 10th Magnitude, a Chicago-based cloud computing software provider backed by Pamlico Capital. 10th Magnitude, which specializes in technology to support Microsoft Corp’s Azure computing platform was initially backed by Pamlico in 2016.

Novacap-backed payments processing systems maker Nuvei Corp. plans to go public, saying Tuesday that it had filed preliminary papers with government agencies in Canada to register for the offering. Novacap initially invested in the Montreal-based company in 2017 through its Novacap TMT V fund, according to its website.

PlanetArt, a division of French technology company Claranova Group, has acquired the assets of CafePress, a unit of private-equity backed digital imaging company Shutterfly’s Snapfish unit. Shutterfly was acquired by Apollo Global Management earlier this year.

Access Capital Partners has collected at least €100 million ($119 million) in commitments so far for its Access Co-Investment Fund Buy-out Europe II fund and held a first closing in July for the new vehicle, which has a target size of €300 million. Access Capital raised €226 million for its predecessor fund, which had a €150 million target and closed to new investors in 2016.  

AlpInvest Partners has led a $460 million recapitalization of midmarket fund Kinderhook Fund III LP, in a secondary transaction that allows earlier fund investors to cash out. Kinderhook Industries LLC initially raised $300 million for the fund back in 2009. The general partner-led secondary deal consists of a portfolio of assets remaining from the fund that were valued at around $360 million but remaining limited partners and AlpInvest pledged another $100 million to help grow the portfolio, according to a press release. Earlier this year, AlpInvest had committed $65 million of preferred equity to help fund follow-on investments for Fund III portfolio companies, the release said.

Jean Hynes has been named to succeed Brendan Swords as chief executive of Wellington Management in Boston. Ms. Hynes is a managing partner with the firm, which manages more than $1 trillion in capital, including $27 billion in alternative investments such as private equity. Ms. Hynes, who joined the firm out of college in 1991, has served as one of the firm's three managing partners since 2014 and will replace Mr. Swords when he steps down at the end of June 2021.

The New York Stock Exchange’s plan to let companies raise capital through direct listings is on hold after an influential investor group took an unusual regulatory step in a last-ditch effort to block it, Alexander Osipovich reports for The Wall Street Journal. The Council of Institutional Investors raised concerns that the Big Board’s plan would let companies circumvent protections built into the IPO process, ultimately harming investors. The council filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that it would petition for a review of the plan by the SEC’s commissioners. The SEC’s staff approved the plan last week, opening the door to a new, cheaper alternative to the IPO for companies seeking to go public. The agency has stayed the new rule indefinitely.

Deal talks for TikTok’s U.S. operations have hit a snag over the question of whether the app’s core algorithms can be included as part of a deal, Liza Lin, Aaron Tilley and Georgia Wells report for The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The algorithms, which determine the videos served to users and are seen as TikTok’s secret sauce, were considered part of the deal negotiations up until Friday, when the Chinese government issued new restrictions on the export of artificial-intelligence technology, according to people familiar with the matter. Now both sides are trying to figure out whether the order means the algorithms need Chinese government approval for transfer, and if so, whether Beijing would sign off. The complexity involved has reduced the chances that a deal could be completed soon.

AT&T Inc. is exploring a potential sale of its Xandr digital advertising operations, a sign the telecommunications company in Dallas is curbing its ambitions to become a force on Madison Avenue. AT&T also is said to be discussing the sale of most of its shrinking DirecTV satellite business with private-equity firms.

MiddleGround Capital has joined Principles for Responsible Investment, a group dedicated to raising awareness of environmental, social and governance issues among investors.

Security First Corp., a cybersecurity software company that counts major Donald Trump supporter Robert Mercer among its shareholders, filed for bankruptcy with plans to sell its business to ESW Capital LLC for roughly $6 million, Becky Yerak writes for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. Mr. Mercer, formerly co-chief executive at hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC, and his daughter Rebekah are among the dozens of shareholders of privately held Security First. Others include Topspin Partners LP, which is managed by Long Island venture capitalist Leo Guthart.

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