|
Audax Bags $1.85 Billion | North Sky Seeks $350 Million | Hellman & Friedman Closes In on At Home
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. We on the WSJ Pro Private Equity desk could sense that deal making in the industry was surging, even before the year began—when we had a minute to catch a breath, which wasn’t often. But now Refinitiv data confirm it. Private-equity M&A activity in the first four months of this year shot past all previous records, including during the dot-com era. In April alone, the value of such deals jumped nearly fourfold compared with April 2020, rising to $72 billion in value—and that was down 31% from March. We can only imagine what it has been like inside the firms doing all the horse trading.
But today’s news is heavier on fundraising, which has also been soaring of late. Our Laura Cooper reports that Audax Group’s private debt arm has wrapped up its latest mezzanine fund with $1.85 billion. Meanwhile Preeti Singh has news that North Sky Capital aims to arm its infrastructure strategy with a $350 million first-time fund. And of course there’s a slew of deals to report, and the Journal’s Cara Lombardo leads in that department with news that Hellman & Friedman is near a deal to take retailer At Home private at a value of roughly $2 billion. Now that you’ve had a chance to catch your breath, there’s plenty more below, so please jump in...
|
|
|
|
|
Audax Private Debt is based a block away from the Waldorf Astoria hotel, pictured above, in New York. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
Audax Private Debt, the debt financing unit of multistrategy investment firm Audax Group, has closed on $1.85 billion for its fifth mezzanine fund to target private-equity backed midmarket businesses, Laura Cooper writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. Commitments to Audax Mezzanine Fund V exceeded the firm’s fundraising target of $1.5 billion, Audax said. New York-based Audax Private Debt invests in private-equity backed midmarket companies through a variety of strategies, including first- and second-lien and junior debt as well as equity co-investments.
|
|
North Sky Capital, an impact and infrastructure firm that traces its roots to Piper Jaffray Private Capital, is seeking $350 million for its newest sustainable infrastructure fund, Preeti Singh writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. The firm focuses on smaller infrastructure projects that stand to benefit from potential increases in spending on renewable energy infrastructure, according to people with knowledge of the offering.
|
|
Hellman & Friedman is nearing a deal to buy At Home Group Inc. in a move that would take the home-decor retailer private, Cara Lombardo writes for The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal for around the mid-$30s per share could be inked as soon as Thursday, assuming the two sides reach a final agreement, the people said. At Home shares were trading at $31.15 Wednesday afternoon, giving the Plano, Texas-based company a market value of around $2 billion.
|
|
|
|
|
$312 Billion
|
The value of 3,642 private equity-backed mergers and acquisitions this year through April, a record for the first four months of any year since at least 1980, according to Refinitiv data.
|
|
|
|
|
Kajabi Chief Executive Kenny Rueter stands by the company’s office sign in Irvine, Calif. PHOTO: KAJABI VIA REUTERS
|
|
|
Tiger Global Management led a $550 million investment in ecommerce company Kajabi LLC, joined by TPG, Tidemark, Owl Rock Capital and Meritech Capital. The financing for the Spectrum Equity Management-backed company values it at more than $2 billion. Irvine, Calif.-based Kajabi works with authors, consultants and educators as they build and market educational content, including texts, courses and coaching services.
|
|
Growth specialist JMI Equity led a $40 million investment in cybersecurity company Huntress Labs Inc., investing alongside ForgePoint Capital and Gula Tech Adventures, according to an emailed news release. The Ellicott City, Md.-based company has participated in the technical analysis of some recent headline-making hacks, including the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange exploits and focuses on working with smaller businesses and some 1,500 resellers of its products.
|
|
Avetta, a private-equity backed supply chain risk management software provider based in Orem, Utah, said it has agreed to acquire Pegasus, another software provider focused on worker competency management that is also private-equity owned. Avetta’s backers include Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, Norwest Venture Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures. Newcastle, Australia-based Pegasus’ private-equity backer, Accel-KKR, will become an equity investor in Avetta, according to a press release.
|
|
Canadian pension investment manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has agreed to acquire a minority stake in the European business of publicly traded American Tower Corp. through a transaction valued at about €1.6 billion (or roughly $1.92 billion) and giving the telecommunications infrastructure company’s European unit an enterprise value of about €8.8 billion. The company operates nearly 30,000 communications sites in the region, including those being acquired through its pending purchase of KKR & Co.-backed Telxius Telecom SA’s tower division.
|
|
Partners Group Holding AG is acquiring clinic operator Axia Women’s Health from Audax Group’s private-equity arm. The Voorhees, N.J.-based company runs about 80 care centers with 150 locations and serves more than 475,000 patients. Audax initially invested in the company in 2017.
|
|
Carlyle Group Inc. has agreed to provide as much as $300 million in growth capital to Four Springs Capital Trust, a real estate investment trust that acquires and runs single-tenant income properties across the U.S. The REIT currently owns 122 properties in 29 states that include medical, industrial and retail tenants.
|
|
Grain Management has announced the first investment out of its latest main communications fund with an agreement to buy Tachus LLC, which provides fiber optic network connections to the home in Texas, from Crosstimbers Capital Group. Grain raised $2.25 billion for Grain Communications Opportunity Fund III LP earlier this year.
|
|
Lower midmarket firm Promethean Investments has led a $60 million growth capital investment in Puttshack, a retail chain offering miniature golf, food and drink with locations in the U.K. and the U.S.
|
|
AMP Capital in Sydney is backing publicly traded road infrastructure company Sadbhav Infrastructure Project Ltd. in India, committing to invest the equivalent of about $73 million in convertible debt issued by the business. The cash will help finance the completion of roadwork across the subcontinent.
|
|
Lower midmarket firm Periscope Equity said it has created a new information technology management platform called brightfin through the merger of three companies it recently acquired. The firm is merging technology expense management businesses MobiChord, Visage and Mobile Solutions.
|
|
Consumer-focused L Catterton is backing Indonesia beauty and personal-care ecommerce company Social Bella International, which does business as Sociolla. The company sells make-up, skin- and hair-care products and said in December that it was opening 10 new stores in five cities around the island nation, including Jakarta.
|
|
Stage, a growth-investment firm focused on technology and consumer businesses, has acquired Haystack Mountain Creamery, an artisanal cheesemaker in Longmont, Colo.
|
|
Growth-equity investor Teleos Capital Management is backing software company Teesnap LLC. The Las Vegas company’s cloud-based applications are used to manage golf course operations.
|
|
|
|
Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.
|
|
|
|
Private-equity backed gym operator Equinox Holdings has held talks to go public through a merger with blank check company Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. VI, Bloomberg News reported. The fitness club chain operator’s backers include Silver Lake and L Catterton.
|
|
The pace of blank-check company initial public offerings slowed dramatically last month, with just 13 totaling $3 billion, Luisa Beltran writes for sister publication Barron’s. Dealogic data show that 109 blank-check companiest raised $35.4 billion in March. The slowdown came after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance in April, advising companies that they should treat warrants as liabilities and not equity.
|
|
|
|
Honest Co. co-founder Jessica Alba and Nick Vlahos, center left, the baby products company's chief executive, mark the company's IPO in New York's Times Square. PHOTO: MICHAEL NAGLE / BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
L Catterton-backed consumer-goods company Honest Co. saw its shares jump about 44% in their first day of trading after the Los Angeles brand’s initial public offering at $16 per share, Kimberly Chin writes in The Wall Street Journal. The close at $23 a share gave the marketer of baby products and household items a market value of $2.68 billion. Other firms backing the company started by actress Jessica Alba included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners and General Catalyst.
|
|
Beringer Capital has purchased affiliate marketing company Perform[cb] LLC from Centre Lane Partners. The Sarasota, Fla.-based company changed its name last year from Clickbooth.com LLC. Centre Lane initially backed the business in 2016.
|
|
EQT AB-backed software company SUSE SA expects to sell shares for €29 to €34 each in an initial public offering in Frankfurt to give it a market capitalization of as much as €5.7 billion (equivalent to $6.84 billion), according to a news release. The offer period is expected to begin Thursday with trading to start on May 19. EQT is expected to sell at least 14.2 million shares and as many as 19.1 million if underwriters exercise over-allotment rights. Singapore’s GIC and Capital Research Global Investors have agreed to acquire as much as €360 million of the shares.
|
|
|
Mountaingate Capital, a lower midmarket private-equity firm founded by former executives from Denver based KRG Capital, is seeking $400 million for Mountaingate Capital Fund II LP and related parallel funds, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mountaingate, also based in Denver, targets investments in profitable companies with between $5 million and $25 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, according to the firm’s website.
|
|
|
Cimbria Capital in Houston has named Matt Boczkowski as an operating partner, with a strategic advisory role for the Houston firm’s investments in water businesses. His current roles include deputy chief executive with Aquaporin in Copenhagen.
|
|
Elsewhere Partners, a growth investment firm focused on software and technology, said it has promoted Michael Massad to vice president to co-lead investment diligence and execution and oversee the firm’s marketing and business development efforts.
|
|
Lower midmarket private-equity firm P4G Capital Management said that it has promoted DJ Marshall to managing director in the firm’s portfolio resource group, which provides operational expertise to the firm’s team and portfolio companies.
|
|
|
Willis Towers Watson said it is forming a working group from its public and private equity research teams to evaluate what it calls a new type of investment firm that can invest across the equity landscape. Specifically, the firm said that structures of traditional private-equity funds pressure managers to sell assets prematurely while longer-dated or evergreen funds may mitigate this pressure and offer a better fit for investors with longer time horizons.
|
|
A federal judge threw out a national eviction moratorium, saying the Covid-19 pandemic-relief measure exceeded the powers of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Andrew Ackerman and Brent Kendall report for The Wall Street Journal. The CDC, citing public health grounds, had ordered a temporary halt on evictions, extending protections for millions of tenants who have fallen behind on their rent during the pandemic. But a series of conflicting lower court rulings has called into question the legality of the moratorium, creating uncertainty for landlords and tenants alike.
|
|
Private-equity investor W Investments Group is joining with the Walter Global Asset Management unit of the Walter Group and with the Grondin Group to set up Samara Multi-Family Office Inc. in Westmount, Quebec. Samara is led by Michael Grondin as president and chief executive and Catherine Janson as a partner and chief investment officer.
|
|
Multi-strategy investment firm Golding Capital Partners has hired a pair of impact-investing specialists to help the firm expand the strategy. The Munich-based firm added Sonanz founders Andreas Nilsson as head of impact and Nina Freudenberg as a director on the investing team and said it plans to raise its first impact-investing private-equity fund later this year. Both the new hires set up Sonanz, an impact-investing fund-of-funds firm, in 2015 and focused on commercial solutions to social problems and environmental sustainability.
|
|
|
|
|
|