Congratulations on making it through another week. To see you into the weekend, we have a story from Luis Garcia on how credit and insurance drove strong returns for Blackstone in the second quarter.

WSJ Pro's Maria Armental writes about Altamont Capital Partners, which made out handsomely from the listing of insurtech business Accelerant, the first of the buyout shop's investments to exit via an initial public offering.

And in Europe, trouble is brewing for KKR, brought about by its multibillion-dollar acquisition of Telecom Italia unit NetCo last year.

Now to the news...

Blackstone is betting its private-credit strategies and funds tailored to wealthy investors will continue to boost its earnings, as the asset manager reported strong returns for this year’s second quarter, Luis Garcia writes for WSJ Pro. During a Thursday analyst call to discuss the results, Blackstone’s leaders highlighted the fast expansion in the assets the New York-based firm manages across credit and insurance strategies, which as of June 30 totaled about $407.3 billion, a 23% increase from a year earlier.

Midmarket firm Altamont Capital Partners scored a sizable gain on its Accelerant Holdings’ investment as the insurance technology company's initial public offering gave it a market value of some $6 billion, WSJ Pro’s Maria Armental writes. It was the first IPO exit for Altamont, which typically backs small companies with check sizes of up to $150 million and manages more than $4 billion in assets. The Palo Alto, Calif., firm sold about eight million shares at $21 each and retained a controlling stake, valued at more than $2 billion based on Accelerant’s $26.50 Thursday closing price. That is more than twice the size of the $1 billion fund through which Altamont first backed Accelerant in 2018.

The European Union opened an investigation into whether KKR supplied the block’s merger regulator with false or misleading information before the investment firm’s multibillion-dollar purchase of Telecom Italia unit NetCo was unconditionally cleared by officials last year, The Wall Street Journal reported. A spokesperson for KKR said the company takes its responsibility to the commission and Italian regulators seriously, adding the group will work with the regulator to address its concerns.

ArcLight Capital Partners has bought power developer and manager Advanced Power and committed an initial $1 billion to build new power infrastructure. The partnership has the potential to invest more than $5 billion of equity over the next five years in new power generation. Advanced Power’s late-stage power project portfolio in the U.S. includes more than 12 gigawatts of conventional and renewable projects, and more than 10 gigawatt hours of energy storage projects.

Ardian has acquired a control stake in Horizon Home Care Group, a Switzerland-based provider of nonmedical home-care services that operates under the name Dovida. The private investment firm is acquiring the shares from company founder Paul Fritz, asset manager Unigestion and family office Verium. The business has 12,000 employees across Switzerland, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands.

The growth-equity business of Goldman Sachs Asset Management led a $50 million investment in LegalOn, which aims to use artificial intelligence to make legal contracting more efficient. Venture-capital firm World Innovation Lab and Japan’s Mizuho Bank were among the other investors in the Series E fundraising round. The San Francisco-based company has raised $200 million in total.

Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners have closed their previously announced acquisition of publicly traded aerospace and defense components and engineered systems company Triumph Group.

Midmarket firm the Sterling Group has launched a new provider of custom glass and coatings, AGS American Glass Services. The company will seek to acquire businesses with market-leading customer service models in adjacent markets.

HarbourView Equity Partners, a private investment firm that backs music, sports and entertainment deals, is buying a stake in the music catalog of pop star Kelly Clarkson. Clarkson’s hits include “Since U Been Gone,” “Because of You,” “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” “Behind These Hazel Eyes” and “Underneath the Tree.”

Carlyle Group has forged a $250 million forward-flow agreement to acquire newly issued farm loans from FarmOp Capital, which provides farm operating loans in the U.S. Carlyle is backing the deal through its asset-backed lending strategy.

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

Anacap has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell French wealth-management firm Milleis Group to Crédit Agricole Assurances and LCL. LCL plans to acquire all of Milleis Group and then immediately sell its life insurance subsidiary Milleis Vie to Crédit Agricole Assurances. Anacap initially acquired Milleis in 2017.

Platinum Equity-backed publisher McGraw Hill saw its shares close roughly flat on its first day of trading after initially pricing at $17 a share, below a $19 to $21 expected price range. Platinum bought the company in 2021 and still controls the company, the Journal reported.

Oak Hill Capital and the Cinelli family have closed the sale of Metronet to a joint venture between T-Mobile and KKR. Oak Hill initially invested in Metronet in 2014 and backed the fiber optic network provider through multiple successive funds.

IK Partners has raised €2 billion, or around $2.4 billion, for its fourth small-cap private-equity fund. The London-based buyout shop closed IK Small Cap IV Fund on its hard cap after less than six months in the market. The fund invests in companies with enterprise values of between €80 million and €200 million in the business services, healthcare, consumer and industrial sectors of Northern Europe.

Heritage Group has closed Heritage Healthcare Innovation Fund IV with more than $370 million to make majority or minority investments in healthcare services and technology businesses. The Nashville, Tenn.-based firm raised about $317 million for the fund’s predecessor, WSJ Pro reported back in early 2021.

Tecum Capital Management has held the fourth close of its latest small-business investment company, bringing the total size of the fund to more than $325 million. Tecum Capital Partners IV makes mezzanine debt and minority equity investments of between $5 million and $20 million across industries, with a particular focus on companies in the Midwest, Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.

HarbourVest Partners has appointed Venu Krishnamurthy as managing director and head of private wealth. He will oversee all aspects of the Boston investment firm’s wealth business, including sales, marketing, operations and client services. Krishnamurthy was previously global head of Aladdin Wealth, BlackRock’s wealth-management technology business.

S2G Investments, which makes venture and growth investments in food and agriculture and energy, hired Kevin Lo as an operating partner. Lo was previously a senior adviser for the U.S. Department of Defense focused on advanced technologies related to food security, synthetic biology and artificial intelligence. 

Lovell Minnick Partners has added Andrew Ralich, Andrew Ramos, Jesse Johnson, Padman Perumal and Steve Braverman to its advisory council. The appointments bring decades of experience from the fintech, capital markets, software and cybersecurity industries, the Pennsylvania growth-equity investor said in a statement.

Virent Capital, a lower midmarket private-equity firm in Radnor, Pa., has hired Bryan Hall as a member of its private-equity team. Hall joins from Incline Equity Partners, where he was a vice president. Virent backs companies with $1 million to $8 million in Ebitda in the business services and consumer sectors.

Revelation Partners, a firm focused on healthcare-secondary deals, has named Rob Rein as principal, and Courtney Munley and Vicky Valverde as senior associates. Rein joined the firm in 2023 while Munley and Valverde joined in 2024.

Monument Group has expanded its secondary advisory team with the addition of Reeve Ganatra as a senior associate in London and Kyle Nelson as an associate in Boston.

Macquarie Group’s profit fell in the first quarter on the back of weakness in its asset-management and commodities businesses, the Journal reports. The Australian giant, known for its infrastructure investments, blamed the timing of investment-related income for asset management’s lower profit contribution. Macquarie had A$23.5 billion, or around $15.5 billion, ready to deploy into private markets at the start of the second quarter, but said it would continue to be cautious amid uncertain global economic conditions.

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Rod James; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.

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