Good day, Pro readers! It’s the final day before a long weekend, and I’m looking forward to a day or two of downtime, if that’s possible with a teenager. We have a pair of secondary-market scoops as we head into the holiday weekend here in the U.S. Our own Luis Garcia and Preeti Singh have news of yet another single-asset secondary deal, this time for Calpine Corp., a portfolio company of Energy Capital Partners, while Preeti also has an update on a couple of new hires at midmarket firm Audax Group, which is staffing up to expand into secondary investing. Finally, our colleagues at The Wall Street Journal have an update on Broadcom’s $61 billion deal for Silver Lake-backed enterprise software provider VMware Inc.

On a final note, the WSJ Pro Private Equity newsletter won't be published on Monday, May 30, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. We will resume publication on Tuesday, May 31.

Enjoy the long weekend...

Energy Capital Partners expects to raise nearly $1.6 billion in a single-asset secondary deal that will let the private-equity firm extend its hold over power company Calpine Corp., Luis Garcia and Preeti Singh report for WSJ Pro Private Equity, citing people familiar with the effort. Secondary advisory firm PJT Partners is advising ECP, as the Summit, N.J.-based energy infrastructure-focused firm is known, the people said. Pantheon Ventures is the lead investor in the transaction, according to the people.

Broadcom Inc. Chief Executive Hock Tan’s $61 billion deal to buy Silver Lake-backed VMware Inc. marks the biggest bet yet that the boom in enterprise software demand will endure despite the economic tumult—and that bundling disparate offerings of low-profile products can yield outsize returns, Aaron Tilley and Asa Fitch report for The Wall Street Journal.

Audax Group has hired two DWS Group executives to help build out a new strategy to invest in secondhand stakes of private-equity assets, Preeti Singh writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity, citing people familiar with the matter. Kumber Husain, managing director and head of Americas for the private-equity secondary business at DWS, and Daniel Green, managing director and head of the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, are joining the Boston-based private-equity firm, the people said. Audax has made several other offers to build out the team, these people said.

A fund backed by private-equity firm Blackstone Inc. has purchased the rights to Justin Timberlake’s song catalog in the venture’s largest music-rights acquisition so far, Anne Steele and Miriam Gottfried report, citing fund executives. Terms of the deal, which was done in partnership with music-investment company Hipgnosis Song Management Ltd., weren’t disclosed. People familiar with the matter said it is valued at just above $100 million.

Carlyle Group Inc. reached a deal to buy beauty packaging provider HCP Packaging from funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but Carlyle said equity would come from affiliates of Carlyle Asia Partners and Carlyle Japan Partners.

FirstGroup PLC said Thursday that it has received a number of unsolicited and conditional takeover proposals from private-equity company I Squared Capital Advisors (UK) LLP, the latest of which it is considering, Ian Walker reports. I Squared has until June 23 to make a formal offer for FirstGroup or walk away under U.K. Takeover Panel rules.

Quad-C Management Inc. has closed on an investment in Catapult Print and Packaging LLC, a family-owned business that provides specialty labels primarily serving the food and beverage, industrial and consumer end-markets. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Copley Equity Partners LLC, a lower midmarket firm based in Boston, said it has backed FMG Leading, a human capital advisory firm, according to a press release.

Cyprium Investment Managers has backed a subordinated debt investment in D.P. Nicoli Inc. to help the shoring equipment rental services company fund a new employee stock ownership plan, according to a press release.

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

Court Square Capital Partners is selling portfolio company Terra Millennium Corp. to an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, according to a press release. Terra Millennium, based in Utah, provides outsourced industrial maintenance services, such as refractory design and maintenance. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Terra Millennium’s executive team, led by Chief Executive Bryan Young, will continue to lead TMC and remain as significant shareholders. Executive Chairman Mark Stutzman will continue as a non-executive board member and significant shareholder. Court Square initially agreed to back Terra Millennium in 2016.

Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital sheds nearly half of its 15% stake in Kraft Heinz Co. by distributing about 88 million shares to external investors in its funds, Colin Kellaher reports. 3G's co-founders and partners will still hold a roughly 7.9% stake, with the remaining shares subject to a voluntary 60-day lock-up.

StepStone Group has rounded up more than $3.6 billion for two new secondary funds, Co-Chief Executive Scott Hart said during the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call for the fiscal year ending March 31. Since March 31, publicly traded StepStone has held a final closing on $2.6 billion for its latest venture capital secondary fund and has held an initial closing on more than $1 billion for its latest private-equity secondary fund, according to Mr. Hart. He didn't say how much the firm is targeting for the new private-equity secondary fund, but StepStone closed its previous private-equity secondary fund, StepStone Secondary Opportunities Fund IV LP with $2.1 billion back in 2020, ahead of a $1.25 billion target, according to a press release issued at the time.

SFW Capital Partners, a lower midmarket firm focused on investments in industrial and healthcare technology businesses, is seeking $300 million for SFW Capital Partners Fund III-A LP and related parallel funds, according to a regulatory filing. Rye, N.Y.-based SFW targets equity investments of $25 million to $100 million in founder and family-owned businesses, according to its website.

Flexpoint Ford has hired Meredith Stein as head of investor relations. Ms. Stein previously worked for Cross Ocean Partners, a Stone Point Capital-backed special situations credit manager.

H.I.G. Capital LLC has hired Oliver Slade as managing director in its capital formation group. Mr. Slade will be based in Dubai and will be responsible for capital raising and investor relations activities in the Middle East. He joins the firm from Partners Group.

StepStone Group's assets under management grew to $134.5 billion for the quarter ending March 31, up from $86.4 billion during the same period a year ago, according to its latest quarterly financial report. The firm’s total assets, including assets under advisement, rose to $570 billion. StepStone raised around $5 billion across its commingled funds during the 12 months ending March 31, the report stated. Since March 31, the firm has raised $2.5 billion across its commingled funds, Co-Chief Executive Scott Hart said during an earnings call.

Venture capitalists are financing startups seeking to increase the number of molecular targets for drugmakers to pursue, potentially enabling new treatments for cancer and other diseases, Brian Gormley writes for WSJ Pro Venture Capital. Many drugs work by inhibiting proteins involved in a disease. But the number of proteins accessible to drugmakers is limited because most disease-associated proteins are considered “undruggable,” meaning scientists have been unable to develop compounds against them, investors and entrepreneurs said.

Dallas-based investment manager Westwood Holdings Group Inc. has agreed to acquire the asset management business of Houston-based Salient Partners, which manages $4.5 billion across strategies focused on energy and infrastructure, real estate and tactical alternative investments.

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

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

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