Good day from chilly New York. We’re lucky here in Manhattan that the season so far has been mild compared with other parts of the country. In New England, snow lurks in the forecast while parts of the Intermountain region and upper Midwest have already been through the deep freeze treatment. But on to business.

Today we have a look at how the sluggish deal market has provided a kind of blessing in disguise as WSJ Pro’s Chris Cumming reports that one of the biggest U.S. public pensions has saved millions in expenses on carried interest. As we have reported elsewhere, top executives at Carlyle Group expect the M&A drought to begin lifting next year.

But at least one deal looks like it will conclude sooner than that, as WSJ Pro’s Laura Kreutzer reports that the Federal Trade Commission has given early clearance to Kelso & Co.’s acquisition of a couple of marine insurers. As S&P Global Market Intelligence noted this week, deal volume—which fell to a six-year low in the third quarter—was aggravated over the summer by geopolitical events, from trade tensions, slowing growth and the dragging Brexit debate to the destruction of Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and even a market crash in Argentina. As we keep our fingers crossed, we have collected a full plate of news below, so please, jump in...

The pension fund for California schoolteachers saw its payments to private-equity managers decline last year, one of several recent signs that buyout firms are having more trouble profitably selling investments. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which at $238 billion is the second-largest public pension fund in the U.S., reported that its investment costs fell 14% in 2018 from the year before, mainly because of a 36% decline in the amount of overall carried interest it paid, to $463 million, WSJ Pro’s Chris Cumming reports. The report is the latest sign that successful private-equity exits are becoming harder to find. For pensions like Calstrs, the trend—if it continues—would likely reduce both investment costs and returns.

Midmarket private-equity firm Kelso & Co. received regulatory clearance to take stakes in two insurers that serve the commercial and recreational marine industries. Kelso received early antitrust clearance to buy stakes in Gowrie Group Inc. and Maritime Program Group Inc., according to the Federal Trade Commission.

ICV Partners has agreed to acquire publicly traded restaurant chain franchisee Diversified Restaurant Holdings Inc. in a roughly $130 million deal, including assumed debt. Diversified Restaurant Holdings is a Buffalo Wild Wings franchisee with 64 sports bars across five states. Earlier this month, ICV announced it would acquire another Buffalo Wild Wings franchisee, JK&T Wings.

EQT AG has agreed to sell a 9.9% stake in Swedish pest control services provider Anticimex to Singapore’s GIC, putting the company’s enterprise value at about €3.6 billion ($3.98 billion). The sale was made from the EQT VI fund, which acquired the Stockholm company in 2012. After growing internally and acquiring more than 200 other businesses, Anticimex now operates through 154 branches in 18 countries across Europe, Asia and North America, EQT said. The firm said Anticimex revenue has almost quadrupled and operating earnings have risen sixfold since it acquired the company. EQT said the new investment will help the company expand even more in international markets.

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec has agreed to invest $75 million in Azure Power Global Ltd., a developer of solar-energy projects in India. The transaction will take the form of a share purchase subscription agreement, the company said, and is expected to close in mid-December, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. If the deal is completed, CDPQ will increase its stake in the company to 49.4% from 41.4%.

Omers Growth Equity led a $227 million financing round for software as a service provider Coveo Solutions Inc., along with Evergreen Coast Capital and IQventures and other investors, WSJ Pro’s Marc Vartabedian reports. The company said the equity investment by Omers and existing shareholders represents a 15.5% interest in Coveo at a valuation of $1.46 billion. An enterprise and data analytics software startup, Coveo said the fresh capital would expand its ability to use customer data in industries such as online retailing.

The family office of Peter Nolan, a former Leonard Green & Partners managing partner, has acquired a majority interest in consumer services and retail company Ortega National Parks LLC. Nolan Capital Inc. plans to help the seventh-generation Ortega family business expand its shopping, lodging and hospitality business in national, state and local parks from its base in Santa Fe, N.M. Mr. Nolan, whose family office is located in Hermosa Beach, Calif., remains a senior adviser to Leonard Green.

L Catterton has made a strategic investment in Brazilian dental clinic chain OdontoCompany through the private-equity firm’s Latin America-focused funds, according to a news release. L Catterton is partnering on the deal with the company’s founder and chief executive, Dr. Paulo Zahr, as well as with existing shareholder José Carlos Semenzato. OdontoCompany expects to have 700 active dental clinics across Brazil by the end of 2019, the release stated.

Cyxtera Technologies Inc., backed by investors that include BC Partners and Medina Capital, plans to spin out its cybersecurity business, called AppGate Inc., under newly named chief executive and former Google manager Mike Aiello. Coral Gables, Fla.-based Cyxtera said the new company would share its own ownership structure, with both the private-equity firms included. The separation of the two companies is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Midmarket firm Olympus Partners has acquired education and health-care staffing provider Soliant Health from Switzerland’s Adecco Group. Soliant primarily provides therapists, including speech pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and nurses, to grade schools. The Atlanta-based company also provides travel nurses, allied health clinicians and clinical development specialists for the life-sciences market.

QL Capital Partners LP and Devon Energy Corp. have agreed to create a new partnership and fund selected gas-gathering and compression assets owned by Devon in the Delaware Basin in West Texas and southeast New Mexico. Devon will dedicate to the partnership, called Cotton Draw Midstream, roughly 24,000 gross upstream acres for gathering and compression.

HCAP Partners has invested in TCS Healthcare Technologies, which develops population health and managed care software. Principal Hope Mago led HCAP Partners' investment and joined TCS's board. The company's Acuity suite of products supports managed care workflows. Whitehawk Advisory served financial adviser to TCS on the deal.

Naxicap has agreed to acquire German roofing company Alwitra, according to legal adviser Watson Farley & Williams. The flat-roof materials specialist has annual revenue of about €80 million and roughly 300 employees working at two plants, in Trier and Hermeskeil. The buy-and-build investment is expected to help the company expand.

Anacapa Partners has invested in Agasus, one of the largest hardware-as-a-service providers in Brazil. Agasus provides rental services for technology hardware infrastructure such as desktop computers, notebooks and tablets, to large and medium-size companies.

Rohatyn Group has invested in Amethyst Radiotherapy, obtaining co-control of the company alongside its two co-founders, the New York-based asset management firm said. The company operates radiotherapy treatment clinics in Europe for cancer patients. TRG said the fresh capital would be used for expansion.

Midmarket firm Staple Street Capital has bought Cyberlink ASP Technology Inc., a managed information technology services provider. Dallas-based Cyberlink has more than 800 customers spanning 46 states.

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

Sumeru Equity Partners has agreed to sell its majority-owned portfolio company Buildium LLC to publicly traded RealPage Inc. for $580 million in cash, less adjustments. The company, a provider of real estate management software as a service based in Boston, had trailing 12-month revenue of about $50 million over the four quarters through September and is expected to have annualized revenue of roughly $60 million by year-end. Richardson, Texas-based RealPage provides programs for rental property management and is used to handle 16.8 million units world-wide. Sumeru invested in the business in 2016, according to its website.

Audax Group’s private equity arm, in partnership with management, has sold AAMP Global to Halifax Group. AAMP,  an automotive aftermarket consumer technology company, serves customers across light vehicle, marine, powersports, agricultural and commercial fleet end-markets. Since Audax acquired the company in 2006, AAMP has completed nine add-on deals.

MPE Partners has sold the original equipment manufacturing unit of B&E Group, a defense and aerospace components maker in Southwick, Mass., to Arlington Capital Partners portfolio company Cadence Aerospace. MPE specializes in investments in commercial and industrial services as well as manufacturing.

White Deer Energy has agreed to sell On Point Oilfield Holdings to Gravity Oilfield Services Inc., a water and energy infrastructure company in Midland, Texas, that is backed by Clearlake Capital. Austin, Texas-based On Point is a midstream water company that acquires, develops and operates saltwater disposal wells and saltwater pipeline infrastructure in the Permian Basin. White Deer helped form On Point in 2016.

TCG Capital Management, formed by former media executive Peter Chernin, has raised more than $700 million in commitments for its latest fund, the co-founders said in a letter posted on the Playa Vista, Calif. firm’s website. TCG plans to target equity investments averaging $25 million to $75 million with an emphasis on consumer-facing businesses, according to a firm spokesman. As of March 25, the firm had about $482.6 million in assets under management. It also focuses on investing in media, technology and sports-related businesses. Mr. Chernin, who is also a television and feature-film producer, is a past president and chief operating officer of News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Co.

Apollo Global Management Inc. has added five executives to newly created positions serving its insurance solutions group and European yield investing businesses. Apollo named Jeffrey Jacobs as chief investment officer of the insurance group and Jeremy Ellermeyer as managing director of the insurance group’s business strategy team. Mr. Jacobs, who previously was BlackRock’s global chief investment officer and head of portfolio management for financial institutions, is based in Los Angeles. Mr. Ellermeyer previously worked at Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and is located in New York. In London, Apollo added Leslie Mapondera as a partner in the global financial credit group, from Qatar Investment Authority; Boris Olujic as a managing director, European core plus real estate, from Agram Real Estate; and Jesus Rio Cortes as a managing director, European residential mortgages and consumer assets, from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Danish pension system ATP, which manages some €119 billion ($131.9 billion) in assets, has named Mikkel Svenstrup as its new chief investment officer, according to Private Equity News, a U.K. trade publication of Dow Jones. Mr. Svenstrup previously was chief investment officer at P+, another Danish pension system, and will join ATP on March 1.

Aftermarket auto supplier APC Automotive Technologies LLC expects to dilute the ownership stakes of Harvest Partners and Audax Group’s private-equity arm in a debt restructuring deal to cope with rising costs stemming from U.S.-Chinese trade tensions. APC Chief Financial Officer Marc Weinsweig told WSJ Pro’s Alexander Gladstone that the company’s private-equity owners and lenders agreed to provide a $40 million capital infusion while converting $125 million of junior debt into equity. But the private-equity firms will retain majority control of the company, Mr. Weinsweig said.

The Massachusetts state pension fund may soon be taking applications for a private-equity consultant. The investment committee of the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, which manages about $75 billion, last week voted to issue a call for private-equity consultants. The pension fund's contract with its current consultant, Hamilton Lane Inc., expires at the end of next September. The full board has to approve the decision before it can go forward, a spokesman for the pension said. Mass PRIM has been the top-performing private-equity investor among U.S. public pension funds for four straight years, according to a ranking released earlier this year by the American Investment Council, a private-equity lobbying group. The pension fund's portfolio was worth about $32 billion and recorded a net internal rate of return of 13.53% as of the end of September, pension documents show.

Investcorp, the Bahrain private-equity firm, is moving on multiple fronts to advance its presence in China. On Wednesday, Investcorp said it would join Hong Kong’s China Everbright Ltd., an alternative investment manager focused on China, to oversee technology-focused China Everbright New Economy Fund I. They will also examine establishing a follow-on vehicle under the same team. On Thursday, Reuters reported that Investcorp had agreed to a three-way partnership with Hong Kong-based Fung Group’s investment arm and state-owned China Resources to set up a $500 million investment pool focused on Asian food brands and manufacturing sites. The firms expect to supply rising demand for foreign foods in China’s expanding middle class.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. said it may be unable to stay in business if oil and natural gas prices remain depressed, underscoring the challenges faced by drillers still trying to regain their footing after a collapse in commodity prices in 2014 and 2015. In a regulatory filing Tuesday, the Oklahoma City-based company said there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern, barring an increase in prices, and suggested that the situation could become increasingly dire over the next four quarters. The company said it was pursuing various alternatives to refinance debt, cut spending and raise cash through asset sales.

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

Ted Bunker, Laura Cooper, Chris Cumming, Luis Garcia, William Louch, Chitra Vemuri.

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