Good morning! Today our Chris Cumming offers a contrarian look at the presidential order aimed at easing access to private-markets assets by 401(k) retirement plans. The bottom line: It may not be the key to achieving private equity's dreams, when all is said and done.

Next our Rod James reports on an innovative strategy developed by Audax that involves what it calls "midlife" co-investing. The firm has amassed $1.3 billion to make deals with fund sponsors looking for capital to help them invest in certain holdings.

We have those and many more summaries of deals, including exits, fundraisings and other news laid out for you below, so please dive in...

President Trump’s executive order intended to get more Americans to invest their retirement savings in private funds may not be enough to move the market, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming reports. Trump last week handed the private-equity industry a huge policy win by ordering federal agencies to make it easier for 401(k) plans to offer private assets to retirement savers. The Labor Department made its first change Tuesday, rescinding Biden-era guidance stating that private equity is likely a bad fit for many plans. But many industry participants doubt Trump’s order will lead to an embrace of private-market assets by risk-averse 401(k) plan sponsors.

Audax has closed its first fund dedicated to midlife co-investments, a form of financing that the investment firm’s Strategic Capital arm is pitching as an alternative to the booming continuation-fund market, WSJ Pro's Rod James reports. Audax Strategic Capital, a unit of the firm’s Boston-based midmarket buyout operation, closed its inaugural Audax Private Equity Solutions Fund to new investors after collecting $1.3 billion of commitments, exceeding the firm’s target. Audax’s team is looking to invest with private-equity sponsors that want to build out a business they own through acquisitions but face capital constraints.

General Catalyst, a Cambridge, Mass.-based venture firm, is turning its hand to a roll-up strategy focused on infusing artificial intelligence into services businesses, Belle Lin reports for CIO Journal. The firm, which reported managing almost $33.56 billion at the end of last year, has collected $1.5 billion for its Creation fund, and plans to invest as much as half of it in what it calls AI-enabled roll-ups. General Catalyst led a $74 million investment in Titan, a holding company for information technology services providers that the firm intends to expand partly through acquisitions of other IT services businesses.

Private-equity firm Advent will acquire Sapiens International in a deal valuing the Israeli software company at about $2.5 billion, Kimberley Kao reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Advent offered $43.50 a share in cash for Sapiens, a 64% premium to the Aug. 8 closing price, the software company said Wednesday. Sapiens's Nasdaq-listed stock ended at $29.50 on Tuesday. Sapiens said it will become a privately held company after the deal is completed, expected by the fourth quarter this year or the first quarter of 2026. Existing shareholder Formula Systems will retain a minority stake in the company.

Midmarket firm Inflexion in London is backing a new U.K. financial planning company, Absolute Financial Group, with a £100 million commitment, equivalent to roughly $134.3 million, to support the acquisition of Absolute Financial Management, which oversees about £1.1 billion. The startup is also supported by Paul Hogarth, who founded Tatton Asset Management and is Absolute's chairman. Inflexion is investing through its sixth buyout fund.

Altimeter Capital led a $65 million growth investment in rare-earth magnet maker Vulcan Elements in a transaction that valued the startup at around $250 million, Hannah Miao reports for the Journal. One Investment Management also participated in the round to back Vulcan, which recently opened a pilot factory in Durham, N.C.

European asset manager CVC Capital Partners is financing CapVest Partners-backed Novus Foods. CVC is investing  through its CVC Credit strategy to support the company's combination with yogurt maker Noosa Holdings and underwrite future expansion. CapVest's refrigerated foods company Lakeview Farms became Novus after combining with Noosa in February.

Shares of S4 Capital jumped in London Monday after the U.K. advertising company founded and led by industry titan Martin Sorrell said it was in talks with One Equity Partners-controlled MSQ Partners about a potential tie-up, Adrià Calatayud reports for the Journal. Commenting on a proposal from MSQ, S4 said any potential deal would be structured as an acquisition of MSQ by S4.

European private-equity firm IK Partners is backing industrial and commercial cooling specialist Francks Kylindustri, succeeding Amplio Private Equity as the majority investor in the company. Francks has mofre than 650 employees at sites across the Nordic countries.

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

Golden Gate Capital in San Francisco is selling high-voltage power infrastructure components maker DMC Power to strategic buyer Hubbell for $825 million in cash, subject to adjustments, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. DMC, with more than 350 employees and manufacturing plants in California and Mississippi, expects to generate revenue of about $130 million next year. Golden Gate has backed DMC since 2023.

Lee Equity Partners is selling its interest in management services organization for urologists Solaris Health to strategic acquirer Cardinal Health, which is investing $1.9 billion in cash to facilitate the deal. Solaris owners also include physicians and members of management. Cardinal is buying the company through its Specialty Alliance MSO unit, and will own 75% of Specialty Alliance following the close of the deal. Solaris supports more than 250 practice locations and over 750 providers across 14 states. Lee first backed the company in 2020.

Lower midmarket-focused Access Holdings is selling bus company American Student Transportation Partners to CVC Capital Partners, which is investing through its CVC DIF infrastructure strategy. Access set up the company in 2021 after acquiring Krise Transportation, which became the basis for the new business, which began with seven school districts and 435 vehicles and now serves more than 50 districts with over 2,300 vehicles. Access invested through its $340 million Fund I and this deal marks the first full exit from that pool.

Lower midmarket investor Riverside Co. is selling fire- and life-safety services provider Performance Systems Integration to strategic buyer Summit Fire & Security. Based in Portland, Ore., PSI serves more than 21,000 customers mainly located in the Pacific Northwest and is one of three regionally focused providers of such services in Riverside's portfolio. Riverside has backed PSI since 2019.

Avedon Capital Partners in Amsterdam is selling audio-visual integration and collaboration services provider Kinly to One Equity Partners-backed York Telecom, a video technology managed services provider and reseller. Avedon has backed Amsterdam-based Kinly since 2017. One Equity acquired Yorktel, which is based in Wall, N.J., last October.

Sector-focused ATL Partners in New York has sold LightRidge Solutions aerospace sensors unit Geost to strategic buyer Rocket Lab USA. ATL acquired Tucson, Ariz.-based Geost in 2021.

Midmarket-focused H.I.G. Capital's direct lending affiliate has closed on $5.9 billion for its H.I.G. WhiteHorse Middle Market Lending Fund IV. The lender, H.I.G. WhiteHorse, invests from the fund in senior secured loans to sponsor-backed companies and others that generally have adjusted pre-tax income of $30 million to $100 million. Miami-based H.I.G manages around $70 billion.

Periscope Equity in Chicago has closed its Periscope Equity III fund with $370 million, surpassing a $300 million target. The firm raised the new pool in less than a year.

Comvest Partners, through its credit arm, has wrapped up Comvest Credit 2025-2 CLO, a $403 million collateralized loan obligation. It is the West Palm Beach, Fla., firm's second CLO to close this year.

Banner Capital Management in Lehi, Utah, hired Michael Muscheid as a principal to lead its new office in Phoenix. Muscheid, a native of nearby Scottsdale, was most recently with hedge fund manager Citadel and previously worked for Marlin Equity Partners.

Summit Park in Charlotte, N.C., has brought back Parker Widhelm as a vice president with its business development group and added Garrett Steneman as an associate with the investments team, according to an emailed news release. Widhelm joins from Percheron Capital but previously worked for Summit Park for four years. Steneman was previously with Lazard.

Canadian pension investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which prefers to be known as La Caisse, posted a 4.6% return for this year's first half, exceeding its 4.3% benchmark. The investor formally known as CDPQ said its assets rose almost 4.9% to 496 billion Canadian dollars, or about  $360.07 billion, at the end of June.

A large majority, or 84%, of private-equity firms saw their average asset holding periods increase compared to last year, illustrating the difficulty they face in selling portfolio companies, according to a survey that services provider BDO USA conducted with hundreds of buyout fund managers and operating partners across the U.S. Nearly two thirds of the respondents, or 63%, reported a five-year or longer average holding period. Among large funds, 29% with assets of $30 billion or more indicated an average holding period of seven years or more, the survey showed.

Improving earnings helped lift the value of companies included in the Lincoln Private Market Index, leading to a 2.5% gain in the gauge during the second quarter, according to investment banking and advisory firm Lincoln International. But the increase trailed the benchmark S&P 500 index of publicly traded equities, which rose 10.6% for the period.

Norway’s 19.586 trillion-kroner, or $1.914 trillion, sovereign-wealth fund returned 5.7% in the first half, driven by strong equity markets, Dominic Chopping reports for the Journal. Most of the fund is invested in equities and bonds but about 2.3% is committed to private real estate and renewable-energy infrastructure.

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