Welcome back. Dealmakers at the annual SuperReturn conference in Berlin are talking shop—including AI and what’s projected to be the largest capex boom in history.

Against that backdrop, our top stories today touch on the private-equity industry's appetite for take-private deals, as well as its push to take companies public as dealmakers continue their quest to unlock the exit logjam. Joe Stonor reports on KKR and Energy Capital Partners’ sweetened roughly $7.63 billion bid for Irish energy company DCC, and Robb Stewart reports on Canadian drug maker Apotex Health’s Toronto trading debut splash—marking the country’s largest public offering since 2021.

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Energy Capital Partners and KKR & Co. have raised their offer by 15% to about £5.7 billion, or roughly $7.63 billion, for Irish energy company DCC, which the company intends to accept, Dow Jones Newswires' Joe Stonor reports. The deal calls for the group to pay £65.25 a share plus a 147.22 pence special dividend, representing an 11% premium to Tuesday's closing price of 6,000 pence a share. DCC rejected the group's first offer.

SK Capital Partners-controlled Apotex Health's stock rose 12.5% in its trading debut in Toronto Wednesday after the Canadian drug maker priced the country’s biggest initial public offering in years to raise 1.3 billion Canadian dollars, or about $932 million, Robb M. Stewart reports for The Wall Street Journal. The shares priced at C$24, the top of the expected range for the upsized offering, and closed at C$27. Apotex makes generic drugs, biosimilar treatments, over-the-counter health products and branded pharmaceuticals.

WSJ Sports: The Next Sports Economy will bring together investors, team owners, executives and advisers at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York July 15-16 for conversations on the forces transforming the business of sports. Join leaders from across finance, media, ownership and operations as they sit down with WSJ reporters to explore the future of investment, governance and value creation across the global sports landscape.

Evolution Equity Partners led a $600 million investment in enterprise data security software maker Cyera, joined by Temasek as well as existing backers such as Blackstone and Accel. The deal valued Cyera at $12 billion. In December, Blackstone led a $400 million investment that valued Cyera at $9 billion, the Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.

Magnetar Capital and AMD Ventures led a $350 million investment in cloud computing company TensorWave, which exclusively uses hardware and software made by Advanced Micro Devices, Robbie Whelan reports for the Journal. The deal valued the Las Vegas-based business at about $1.55 billion.

Singapore's Temasek led a $300 million growth investment in U.K. engineering software and services provider PhysicsX, joined by others including M&G Investments, Intrepid Growth Partners and existing investors. Temasek first backed the company last year.

Picton Investments and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec participated in a 302 million Canadian dollars, or $216.6 million, investment in mortgage technology and financing company Nesto at a valuation of about C$1.47 billion, or about $1.05 billion. Other participants in the investment included Fidelity Investments Canada and Endeavor Catalyst.

Credit-focused Hercules Capital is providing $165 million in debt financing to biotechnology company Beren Therapeutics, which is developing a treatment for infantile-onset Niemann-Pick Type C disease, and has also secured equity commitments totaling $135 million from backers such as Wellington Partners and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company's Adrabetadex drug targets the accumulated intracellular cholesterol that drives the fatal neurodegenerative disease.

Madison Dearborn Partners has backed accounting and advisory firm Stephano Slack with support from co-investor Norlantic Capital. Stephano Slack Chief Executive and Managing Partner Michael Stephano will continue to lead the company, while former Grant Thornton Chief Operating Officer Jim Brady will join the company as executive chairman.

Midmarket infrastructure investment firm Ridgewood Infrastructure has acquired Dauntless Air, an aerial firefighting company that provides emergency-management infrastructure used to combat wildfires.

European private-equity firm EQT AB has acquired a collection of warehouses located in the Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville and Lakeland, Fla., markets, investing through its real-estate arm.

Onex Corp. and Griffon Corp. have formed Veritage Brands, a provider of hand tools, home organization solutions, and lawn and garden products. Veritage was formed through a joint venture that combined subsidiaries of Onex portfolio company Venanpri Group with Griffon’s AMES Cos. Veritage will operate as a subsidiary of Venanpri, which together with affiliates of Onex’s lower midmarket strategy Oncap will own a 57% stake in the company.

Buyout firm HGGC is acquiring a minority stake in wealth-management company Crewe Advisors, with managers of the Salt Lake City-based business retaining majority control. Crewe is also entering into a partnership with financial services holding company Wealth Partners Capital Group, which invests in registered investment advisers. HGGC is investing through its Aspire Holdings strategy.

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Sycamore Partners is involved in early discussions with Australia's Sigma Healthcare over the sale of the Boots pharmacy chain in the U.K., Rhiannon Hoyle reports for the Journal. Sycamore is also in discussions with other potential buyers, including the billionaire Weston family, on a possible $10 billion sale of the retailer, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Sycamore took control of Boots last year through the acquisition of parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance. A spokesman for Sycamore declined to comment.

Buyout firm Mutares in Munich is selling NEM Energy Group in the Netherlands to the Hyundai Heavy Industries Power Systems business of Seoul-listed MiCo Ltd. Mutares acquired the operations through a carve-out from German manufacturer Siemens in December 2022.

Investors that include Marunouchi Innovation Partners and New Enterprise Associates are selling stakes in three-dimensional metal printing company Fabric8Labs to strategic backer TDK, which is buying the San Diego company for up to $400 million. Tokyo-based Marunouchi first invested in the business in November while NEA has backed it since 2022. TDK's venture investing arm participated in a $19.3 million growth investment in Fabric8Labs in mid-2021.

Blackstone-backed Ennovi is selling its Interplex Datacom division to strategic buyer BizLink Holding at an enterprise value of as much as $900 million, including $50 million in contingent consideration. The Singapore-based division generated revenue of roughly $392 million in the 12-month period through March. Blackstone acquired Interplex from Baring Private Equity Asia in January 2022 at an enterprise value of about $1.6 billion and launched Ennovi in 2023 as a stand-alone company.

Kainos Capital has bought Patten Seed Holdings, which does business as Super-Sod, from fellow private-markets investment firm Heartwood Partners. Super-Sod provides sod, seed and soil through a network of farms, retail outlets and online. Heartwood initially backed the company in 2020 through Heartland Partners III, a $600 million fund.

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Parabilis Medicines has raised $670 million in an upsized initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Backers of the company include RA Capital Management, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Frazier Life Sciences, Janus Henderson Investors and Soleus Capital, among others.

Ares Management has closed its Are Pathfinder Fund III and a related vehicle with about $12.7 billion, including extended commitments to a predecessor fund totaling roughly $4 billion. Ares had targeted $6.5 billion for its third asset-based finance fund and, as of the end of March, managed around $57.3 billion through its alternative credit arm. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the fund include New Mexico State Investment Council, Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System, Stanislaus County Employees’ Retirement System and Texas County & District Retirement System, according to WSJ Pro’s LP Commitments database.

OceanSound Partners has appointed Kenneth Wolff as a partner and chief legal officer. He joins from law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System is losing its chief investment officer, the Globe and Mail reports from Toronto. The newspaper said Ralph Berg is set to join Singapore's Temasek in London, citing two sources. An Omers spokesman told the Globe and Mail that Blake Hutcheson, the pension system's chief executive, has added Berg's duties to his own. Berg joined Omers in 2013. The system managed about 145.2 billion Canadian dollars, or roughly $104.12 billion, at the end of last year.

Apollo Global Management is adding Huw van Steenis as a partner and European economics and policy strategist and Sarah Jenkins as a managing director and head of government affairs for Europe. Both roles are new for the New York firm. Van Steenis was most recently vice chairman of consulting company Oliver Wyman and Jenkins was with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as a managing director, global public affairs EMEA.

Wendel has appointed Nabil Bennis as head of valuation and investment strategy performance monitoring in its private-asset-management business, Wendel Investment Managers. Bennis joined the Paris-listed firm in 2017.

Lower midmarket investor Verix Equity Partners in Boca Raton, Fla., has added Graham Kantor as a principal on its investment team, which focuses on businesses in the national security arena. He was previously with AE Industrial Partners and will be based in Delray Beach, Fla.

American Industrial Partners and its firefighting apparatus rollup REV Group face a federal lawsuit brought by the city of Des Moines, Iowa, alleging anticompetitive behavior to reap "extraordinary profits" at the city's expense. The complaint cites AIP's strategy to buy up makers of fire trucks and related apparatus starting about a decade ago. AIP hasn't responded to the complaint, filed Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in Iowa. The Des Moines Register first reported on the lawsuit. The issue of private equity's role in the firefighting industry has come under scrutiny in Congress and in Los Angeles, following devastating wildfires there early last year.

Ardian and French banking company Société Générale are forming a partnership focused on backing and scaling projects focused on preservation and restoration of natural ecosystems. As part of the agreement, Societe Generale will invest €100 million, or $115 million, in Ardian Infrastructure’s Averrhoa NBS impact investment fund as well as support the fund’s structuring and deployment.

Family office Lewis & Clark Capital in St. Louis has formed commercial property-focused AirCore Environmental through the acquisitions of two Florida companies, Radon Mitigation Services and Radon Professional Services. The firm is pursuing more deals to acquire similar businesses.

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