Happy Friday! We’ve come to the end of another week and the temperatures are falling rapidly here in Massachusetts, making me all the more grateful for the new water heater we installed a year ago. This morning’s newsletter kicks off with two stories related to antitrust actions, including one from the Federal Trade Commission, which moved to block the sale of American Industrial Partners-backed Liquid Nails to Henkel.

Meanwhile, our WSJ Pro Bankruptcy colleagues look at how another antitrust lawsuit, this one filed by telecommunications company Optimum against a group of asset-management firms, has put law firm Kirkland & Ellis in a tight spot.

Read on for more deets on these stories and many more…

The Federal Trade Commission sued to block Henkel from acquiring private-equity-backed Liquid Nails, a competitor of its construction adhesive brand Loctite, Kelley Cloonan and Laura Kreutzer report for WSJ Pro. The move could thwart the partial exit for American Industrial Partners, which acquired the parent company of Liquid Nails late last year in a corporate carveout from publicly traded PPG.

An antitrust lawsuit filed by some of the largest asset-management firms is stirring business tensions for Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm with clients on both sides of the legal battle, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reports citing people familiar with the matter. Optimum, the telecommunications company formerly known as Altice USA, last month filed an antitrust lawsuit naming eight defendants, including Apollo Global Management and Ares Management, many of whom are Kirkland & Ellis clients. The lawsuit alleges that the asset-management funds conspired to fix Optimum’s debt prices and made it more expensive for the company to obtain financing.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and General Atlantic are investing in Boats Group in a deal that allowed Permira to partially realize its 2020 investment. Permira remains a significant minority investor. CPP Investments said it has committed $600 million and will have a co-control interest in the company. Boats Group operates online marketplaces for buying and selling boats, including Boat Trader, YachtWorld and boats.com.

Stonepeak has agreed to buy a 43.8% in Spanish multinational energy company Repsol’s Texas-based Outpost solar project for $252.5 million, giving Outpost an implied valuation of about $775 million. Outpost began commercial operations in August and has an installed capacity of 629 megawatts. The partnership marks the second collaboration between Repsol and Stonepeak this year in the renewable energy sector.

Oaktree Capital Management and Lane42 Investment Partners are committing $500 million of equity to support the launch of Avocet Partners, an insurance-focused investment and operating company. At the same time, Avocet has agreed to acquire  EMC National Life Insurance Company from EMC Insurance.

Goldman Sachs Alternatives led a $240 million investment in Harness, valuing the AI software delivery provider at $5.5 billion. The investment consists of a $200 million equity investment and a $40 million tender offer with participation from investors that include IVP, Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures.

Blue Owl Capital announced the expansion of a $2.5 billion strategic partnership with publicly traded home-equity financing products company Finance of America Cos. to develop and support new products across multiple asset classes, allowing the company to further expand beyond its reverse mortgage offerings. Blue Owl is also investing $50 million in Finance of America.

Tailwater Capital has acquired Central Midstream Partners, a provider of gas liquids transportation, storage and terminal services. The company operates a portfolio that includes over 100 miles of pipeline, roughly 350,000 barrels of storage capacity and a terminal in Ohio.

Private-equity firm StoneTree Investment Partners has backed Reel Power International, a manufacturer of engineered equipment for wire, cable and flexible material handling. StoneTree manages roughly $200 million in assets and focuses on lower middle-market industrial businesses.

Joe Lonsdale’s venture firm 8VC is betting that artificial intelligence could help lower construction costs, one of the key challenges in the U.S., Yuliya Chernova writes for WSJ Pro Venture Capital. 8VC led a $35 million early-stage investment in Bobyard, a San Francisco-based startup that developed artificial-intelligence software to analyze blueprints and help contractors estimate labor and materials costs to make accurate bids quickly.

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

Arcline Investment Management has agreed to sell Medical Manufacturing Technologies to publicly traded Perimeter Solutions for $685 million. Arcline initially acquired the Charlotte, N.C.-based medical device technology manufacturing company in 2020.

Dallas-based firm CenterOak Partners announced its fourth exit of the past two years with the sale of Turf Masters Brands to Wind Point Partners’ ExperiGreen Lawn Care. Atlanta-based Turf Masters provides residential lawn, tree and shrub care services to more than 200,000 customers across 12 states. CenterOak initially formed the company in 2022 by combining three lawn care companies.

Lumexa Imaging Holdings, a provider of outsourced imaging and radiology practice management backed by Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, raised nearly $463 million in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange. Welsh Carson initially invested in the Raleigh, N.C.-based company, which was formerly known as US Radiology Specialists, back in 2018.

Sverica Capital Management has sold consulting firm Coastal Cloud Holdings to Tata Consultancy for $700 million. Sverica initially invested in the Palm Coast, Fla.-based company in 2020.

Oak Hill Advisors has amassed $17.7 billion for OHA Senior Private Lending Fund, its first fund for its dedicated senior private lending strategy and, so far, the largest investment pool raised to date. The strategy provides first lien and unitranche loans to companies with at least $75 million of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

Oak HC/FT, a private investment firm focused on healthcare and fintech investments, is seeking $2 billion for Oak HC/FT Partners VI, according to documents from the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which approved a $100 million commitment to the new fund. Oak HC/FT closed the fund’s predecessor with $1.94 billion in 2022.

Private-credit and special-situations firm Arbour Lane Capital Management has raised at least $1.9 billion so far for Arbour Lane Credit Opportunity IV, according to a regulatory filing. Investors that have disclosed commitments to the fund include Dallas Fire and Police Pension and Penn Mutual Life Insurance’s Penn Insurance and Annuity Co.

CVC Capital Partners has promoted Peter Rutland to the newly created role of president as part of a wave of provisions that also elevated Søren Vestergaard-Poulsen to chief investment officer of the firm’s private-equity business, Sebastian McCarthy writes for sister publication Private Equity News.

Olympus Partners is promoting Sam Greenberg to partner at the firm starting Jan. 1, 2026. Greenberg joined Olympus in 2015 from Lazard and focuses on deals in the industrial and healthcare markets.

MML Capital has closed its first continuation fund with more than €630 million, or $739.6 million, to recapitalize two European services businesses that the firm previously backed through earlier funds. Secondary buyers HarbourVest Partners and StepStone Group served as co-lead investors in the continuation fund’s formation.

Ardian said it is expanding to Canada its Ardian Access offering, an evergreen private-markets investment vehicle catering to investors for minimums as low as 25,000 Canadian dollars, or around $18,153. The offering provides investors access to Ardian’s primary, secondary and co-investment private-equity platform.

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