Good morning! A group of private-credit lenders provided $300 million to Perk, as they believe artificial intelligence is more likely to benefit than disrupt the travel-management software provider, our Isaac Taylor writes.

Chris Cumming reports Configure Partners is moving into the secondary-advisory business, focusing on underserved midmarket private-equity managers.

Also, insurers are raising premiums in coverage of executives and boards of private-credit firms, as they anticipate increased litigation related to their asset-valuation practices, the Journal reports.

Now, onto the news...

A group of private-credit lenders are backing travel and spending management software and services provider Perk with $300 million in fresh credit amid rising concerns about the viability of some applications developers, WSJ Pro's Isaac Taylor reports. Asset managers including Neuberger Berman, Blue Owl Capital, Hercules Capital and Liquidity provided the credit facility to support the company, formerly known as TravelPerk, as it nears breaking into the black. The additional capital for the Boston-based company provides better lending terms, including a more favorable interest rate, than an earlier facility it replaces.

Private-credit advisory firm Configure Partners formed a secondary-advisory unit through two senior hires, hoping to cater to midmarket firms, which it believes are underserved compared with their larger peers, WSJ Pro’s Chris Cumming reports. Managing Director Ravi Mehta, who joins from PJT Partners, and Vice President Jozef Lampa, who joined the firm last year from Evercore, will lead the new advisory unit out of the firm’s New York office.

Private-credit firms have had investors and regulators on edge. Now, their insurers are worried, too, the Journal reports. Insurers that provide coverage to executives and boards are bracing for a wave of lawsuits and regulatory actions in the private-credit industry. Some are starting to raise premiums, with several insurance executives estimating that there could soon be double-digit increases from a year earlier.

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.

Founders Fund led a $435 million growth investment in longevity startup NewLimit that valued the business, which has no products yet, at $3.1 billion, Xavier Martinez reports for the Journal. The new valuation is more than triple the level of just a year ago on growing enthusiasm for drugs that promise to slow or reverse aging. Thrive Capital and Quiet Capital also participated in the deal as well as others including existing backers. NewLimit was co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Lux Capital, Founders Fund and Linse Capital participated in a $500 million growth investment in spacecraft maker Impulse Space, joining co-leaders 137 Ventures and Banner VC. The Redondo Beach, Calif.-based company makes vehicles used to move other orbital spacecraft.

Financial services specialist J.C. Flowers & Co. has acquired Monte Paschi Banque, the French subsidiary of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The carved-out lender has offices in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Lyon and the south of France.

Oaktree Capital Management and Two Seas Capital are among a group of investors that are backing a nearly $100 million acquisition of common stock of publicly traded Quantum in a deal that allows the data management company to repay its outstanding term debt.

Asset manager Nuveen is adding $100 million to a debt facility it set up for energy services company Budderfly, bringing the total to $200 million. Nuveen made the financing available through its Nuveen Energy Infrastructure Credit arm.

Lux Capital, Founders Fund and Linse Capital participated in a $500 million growth investment in spacecraft maker Impulse Space, joining co-leaders 137 Ventures and Banner VC. The Redondo Beach, Calif.-based company makes vehicles used to move other orbital spacecraft.

The early-stage investment arm of Leeds Equity Partners, Leeds Illuminate, and Kingfisher Investment led a $39 million growth investment in artificial intelligence-focused Centrical, joined by existing backer JVP. The software developer's products strive to provide autonomous performance intelligence systems used by banks and telecommunications operators, according to the company.

Apollo Global Management’s S3 Credit Solutions strategy has backed Canal Road Group’s direct lending strategy, which has deployed more than $1 billion in commitments to corporate borrowers since 2024.

Purchase Capital has led a $20 million investment in Ryl Co., a Morristown, N.J.-based ready-to-drink tea brand.

Midmarket firm LLR Partners is backing AxisCare, a provider of home healthcare management software. Growth equity firm Frontier Growth, which invested in AxisCare back in 2024, will retain a stake in the company, which supports more than 4,000 home care agencies.

Morgan Stanley’s growth investment strategy led a $33 million investment in Subtle Medical, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based medical imaging software company. Other investors that supported the deal include Shinhan Venture Investment, Fusion Fund, EnvisionX, BRV, and Samsung Ventures. The latest deal brings the total capital raised to date by Subtle Medical to $86 million.

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

Growth investor Valor Equity Partners-backed SpaceX is eying a roughly $1.75 trillion market value in its initial public offering of shares next week, Corrie Driebusch reports for the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. While the company led by Elon Musk hasn't set an expected price range for its shares, Reuters reported they would go for about $135 each. That would make the stake of over 503.4 million Class A shares listed to Valor or Antonio Gracias, who ultimately controls the firm, worth $67.96 billion. Valor has backed SpaceX since 2008 and is its biggest investor after Musk, with 7.3% of its Class A shares, a regulatory filing shows.

Macquarie Asset Management and IG4 Capital have agreed to sell Brazilian ports operator Corredor Logística e Infraestrutura, or CLI, to AD Ports Group in a deal valued at $835 million. Macquarie initially invested in the company back in 2022 through its Macquarie Infrastructure Partners V fund.

Apollo Global Management has sold its stake in aluminum packaging and recycling company Altemira Holdings to fellow fund manager MBK Partners in Seoul. The New York buyout firm backed the formation of the company in 2022 through the combination of businesses carved out of Showa Denko, now named Resonac Holdings, and Mitsubishi Materials. The transaction valued the company at about 1.1 trillion won, equivalent to roughly $726 million, according to the Seoul Economic Daily.

London-based H2 Equity Partners is selling its interest in English electronic components distributor Acal BFI to Astorg-backed Steliau in France to create a business with revenue of over €750 million, or around $872.4 million. H2 has backed Acal since March 2022, according to the firm's website.

Private equity-backed digital banking company Forbright plans to sell 7.9 million shares priced from $18 to $20 each in an initial public offering, a registration filing shows. Gallatin Point Capital and Centerbridge Partners each control about 9.9% of the company's CLass A shares and over 40% of the Class B shares, and neither plans to sell any in the IPO, the filing indicates. Bayview Fund Management holds 8.7% of the Class A shares and about 17% of the Class B stock and also doesn't plan to sell any in the offering. Chevy Chase, Md.-based Forbright, with three branches in suburban Washington, focuses on serving middle-market businesses.

Hellman & Friedman in San Francisco is acquiring events company Hyve Group from backers Providence Equity Partners and Searchlight Capital Partners. The London-based producer of events such as Shoptalk and Source Fashion meetings for retailers and manufacturers, respectively, generates adjusted pre-tax earnings of over $100 million. Providence and Searchlight have backed the business since mid-2023.

Cabot Square Capital-backed investment adviser MKC Wealth in London has lined up bankers to work on a potential sale of the business, Xhulio Ismalaj reports for sister publication Financial News in London, citing people familiar with the situation. Cabot Square has backed the business since 2021, when it was acquired by Nigel Speirs and Dominic Rose, including through at least 37 bolt-on additions. MKC had roughly £3 billion, or about $4.04 billion, under advisement at the end of March.

First Reserve-backed Trillium Flow Technologies has sold its French valves operations to nuclear energy company Framatome. First Reserve has backed Trillium Flow since 2019, when the energy-focused private-equity firm acquired the flow control business of The Weir Group.

Africa-focused Helios Investment Partners is selling a majority stake in reinsurer Africa Specialty Risks to Vitruvian Partners, according to an emailed news release. The London firm has backed ASR since its founding in 2020

Blackstone has closed on $13.1 billion for its Blackstone Capital Partners Asia III fund, joining the number of firms gathering dry powder to invest in the world's fastest-growing region, Megan Cheah reports for the Journal. The firm easily surpassed its $10 billion target for the fund and reached its hard cap. Investors in the vehicle include the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which committed $200 million, and the Minnesota State Board of Investment, which pledged up to $300 million, according to the WSJ Pro LP Commitments database. The new fund is almost twice the size of its predecessor, which closed on about $6.78 billion in 2021.

Apollo Global Management affiliate Bridge Investment Group has collected nearly $1.4 billion for its Bridge Logistics Value Fund II and parallel vehicles, surpassing its $1 billion goal. The Salt Lake City firm focuses on warehouses serving global gateway markets with the fund. Overall, Bridge managed about $49.3 billion at the end of last year, a regulatory filing shows.

European asset manager EQT AB aims to raise $6 billion for its property-focused EQT Exeter Industrial Value Fund VII, and plans to pursue the same strategy as it has with a predecessor vehicle. The Stockholm-based firm closed on  $4.9 billion for the earlier pool in mid-2023. The series has focused on industrial real estate and supply-chain infrastructure since EQT's $1.87 billion acquisition of Exeter Property Group in 2021, and is run from Radnor, Pa.

Groupe BPCE's Natixis Investment Managers and its Loomis, Sayles & Co. fund management subsidiary in Boston have set up a credit-focused interval fund designed for retail distribution. The Loomis Sayles Credit Income Opportunities Fund, managed by Loomis Sayles, will invest in both public and private credit. Paris-based Groupe BPCE operates major banks in France.

Angeles Equity Partners in Los Angeles has added Chris Huetsch as a principal focusing on investments in the industrial sector. Huetsch previously served as an investment principal at Arsenal Capital Partners, where he also focused on industrial deals.

Multi-strategy asset manager Ambienta has hired former BC Partners managing partner Jérôme Losson as a partner to head up its  private-equity portfolio operations team, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. Losson retired from BC Partners in 2024.

Frazier Healthcare Partners has hired Milton Boyer as an executive-in-residence for the healthcare focused firm’s growth buyout team. Boyer has previously led multiple private-equity backed businesses, including contract development and manufacturing organization Kindeva Drug Delivery and compounding company SCA Pharmaceuticals.

Thematic investor GLP in Singapore, with about $80 billion in assets under management at the end of December, plans to go public in Hong Kong  and join a host of companies that have tapped one of the world’s most active capital markets, P.R. Venkat reports for the Journal. The company is aiming to list by the fourth quarter of the year after raising $2 billion to $3 billion, though the final size of the offering is still being determined, according to people familiar with the matter. GLP mainly invests in logistics, data centers and energy and infrastructure.

Alternative assets manager Cliffwater is aligning with other credit interval fund operators in holding investors to a 5% limit on quarterly redemptions, advising shareholders of its $31.31 billion Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund that it will provide pro rata distributions in response to requests to withdraw capital representing about 17% of the shares outstanding, Matt Wirz reports for the Journal. The California-based firm said it "remains committed to acting in the best interests of our shareholders" in a letter sent to investors in the retail-oriented interval fund. The firm paid out 7% of shares in the first quarter, after receiving requests representing about 14%.

The ratio of defaulted loans in the Blackstone Secured Lending Fund business development company jumped to 4.7% from 0.6% last quarter, prompting Moody's Ratings to change its outlook on the credit to negative, Matt Wirz reports for the Journal. Moody's also made a similar change on its outlook for Golub Capital BDC as its default ratio nearly doubled to 2.3% from 1.3%. About 7% of performing loans in the Blackstone fund are marked below 90 cents on the dollar, an indicator of more potential defaults to come, Moody's said.

Bain Capital has teamed up with veteran aviation leasing executive Thomas Garbaccio and Miami-based Brickell Asset Management to form JB Aircraft Finance to provide financing to mid-life corporate aircraft.

For family offices, private-equity investments have been growing for years. But now more are taking a different approach: direct investing in private companies, Abby Schultz reports for sister publication Barron's. Last year, wealthy families more than doubled the value of direct investments to nearly $13 billion, according to research provider S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Dealmaking by private equity firms in the U.S. is expected to remain flat this year compared with last year, according to a model developed by Ernst & Young's EY-Parthenon. But that's an improvement: In this year's first quarter, PE dealmaking fell 11%, according to EY-Parthenon. The change reflects a more measured approach by buyout firms amid rising geopolitical tensions and accelerating disruption from artificial intelligence advances.

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