Good Monday morning, after a rare Friday holiday here in the U.S. We get a repeat in a couple of weeks. Holiday periods often lead to slow news days, but last week was an exception on many levels. 

In private credit, the Journal's Matt Wirz reports that research from investment bank Robert A. Stanger & Co. shows an acceleration in the pace of individual investor withdrawals from evergreen and similar "semi-liquid" funds during the current quarter. 

In the deals arena, a $1.5 billion growth investment round backing alternative AI software and services company Baseten came with an unusual two-tiered valuation, the Journal's Angel Au-Yeung reports.

We have those stories and many more concerning deals, exits and other developments summed up for you below, so please, scroll on down...  

Individual investors have accelerated their withdrawal requests from once-hot private-credit funds in the current quarter, adding to a squeeze the industry is facing as fundraising slows and money heads for the exits, Matt Wirz reports for the Journal. So far, investors in four large credit funds, including those managed by Blackstone and BlackRock, have sought to redeem about $12 billion for the current period, up from $7.7 billion the first quarter, according to data from investment bank Robert A. Stanger & Co. The requests continue months of turmoil that industry executives have tried to calm by arguing that investors are overreacting to a few losses and a lot of scary headlines.

Wellington Management, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Altimeter Capital and Conviction Partners are leading a $1.5 billion growth investment in Baseten, a startup that specializes in providing software and computing capacity to companies tapping into lower-cost artificial intelligence models, Angel Au-Yeung reports for the Journal. The backers are putting money into the company at two valuations, $11 billion and $13 billion, under a dual-tier structure.

Swedish private-equity firm EQT AB is buying London-listed Intertek Group in a deal valued at £9.3 billion, or about $12.36 billion, winning over company management after it had rejected three previous approaches, Ian Walker reports for the Journal. The firm is offering £60 a share in cash, or almost 17% more than its first proposal. Investors in the product testing, inspection and certification services provider will also get a final dividend of 107.70 pence a share.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. has approached Stockholm-listed Medicover about acquiring the company's operations in India, according to Medicover, which said discussions are continuing. Meanwhile, the healthcare and diagnostic services provider is preparing for an initial public offering of shares in the unit, Medicover Hospitals India. The company, which lists India as one of its four biggest markets, generated revenue of about €2.38 billion last year, equivalent to about $2.73 billion.

Buyout firm BC Partners in London is looking to take Edenred private, according to a report in French news site La Lettre. The Paris-listed employee benefits and payments services provider confirmed that it has been approached with take-private offers, without naming any prospective bidders. Edenred faces regulatory challenges in Italy and Brazil that have likely cost the company close to €300 million, or about $345 million, since last year, or around 25% of its adjusted pre-tax earnings, according to Bernstein analyst Sabrina Blanc. Edenred shares surged 17% to close at €24.23 in Paris, the highest since early November.

German buyout firm Mutares in Munich is carving out the acrylic acids and esters unit of Synthomer, setting it up as a standalone supplier in Europe. The Czech Republic-based operation, referred to by its London-listed parent as its Acrylate Monomers business, has about 300 employees and generated revenue of about €110 million, or roughly $126.1 million, last year. Synthomer said the unit operated at break-even in the first four months of this year compared with generating a €3 million loss in the same period a year earlier. Mutares isn't paying anything upfront for the business, according to the seller.

Pollen Street Capital in London is acquiring the Universal Banking software business through a carve-out from Finastra, a Vista Equity Partners holding, and plans to set it up as a standalone operation. The unit has over 150 banking and financial services clients worldwide and provides technology to help them manage various core functions as well as the transition from legacy to more modern digital systems. Vista has backed Finastra since its formation in 2017 out of companies the firm had begun to invest in back in June 2012.

Bicycle Capital and startup investor Group 11 led a $260 million growth investment in government-focused cyber defense company Dream, joined by Bain Capital and others. The deal valued the business at about $3 billion.

Forbion, RA Capital Management and Avego BioScience Capital led a $93 million financing investment in newly established biotechnology company Memento Medicines, which was founded by RA Capital-backed Sera Medicines. The new Boston-based company is developing therapies for retinal and vascular diseases.

Insight Partners led a $65 million growth investment in enterprise marketing software developer Gradial, joined by several others. The company's software is designed to integrate with artificial intelligence inference engines.

European buyout firm EQT AB is acquiring German space technology developer Exolaunch from founder Dmitriy Sternharz. The company, which builds launch-related and orbital hardware, has deployed over 790 satellites for over 200 commercial and government customers from North America to Asia.

Nordic Capital is acquiring Liberis, a digital financing services provider backed by venture investor Blenheim Chalcot, and combining the business with Qred, a Nordic-backed European small business bank. Growth investor Verdane is also participating in the deal, which will see a further investment in Qred. Nordic is setting the combination up to provide financing services for small- and medium-size businesses worldwide.

Eurazeo in Paris has acquired a majority stake in temporary and modular industrial structure supplier Lauralu from Bruno Rousset’s Evolem entrepreneurial investment group. The French company's structures have also been deployed in the U.K., the Nordic region, Germany and Spain.

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

Paper check printer Deluxe is stepping further into the digital payments world, and providing an exit for private-equity firm LLR Partners in the process, Ben Glickman reports for the Journal. Deluxe is buying LLR-backed payment-processing company Celero Commerce for $625 million in cash. The Philadelphia firm formed Nashville, Tenn.-based Celero in 2018 and has backed it since then, according to LLR's website.

SoftBank Group-backed robotics company Coowa is gearing up to go public in Hong Kong within the next two to three months, Jiahui Huang reports for the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The Shanghai-based company was valued at more than $3 billion in the latest investment round of more than $600 million to support its growth, the people said. A listing by the company would add to a wave of robotics and technology businesses raising capital in Hong Kong.

Permira-backed fashion retailer Reformation is getting ready to go public as soon as this summer, Lauren Thomas reports for the Journal. The women's clothing chain, which has proven popular with celebrities including Taylor Swift, Meghan Markle and Hailey Bieber, could confidentially file for an initial public offering as soon as this week, with the goal of going public as soon as July, the people said. London-based Permira acquired a majority stake in the business in 2019.

Foresite Capital-backed small molecule drug discovery company RayThera is being purchased by strategic buyer Biogen for as much as $1 billion, including future contingent payments. Foresite has backed the San Diego-based company since its formation last year, investing along with OrbiMed.

Brookfield Asset Management, through its New York-listed Brookfield Business arm, is selling global construction business Multiplex to Japan's Obayashi Corp. for $650 million, including about $530 million at closing, as it keeps recycling capital through asset sales, Fabiana Negrin Ochoa reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Anuj Ranjan, chief executive of Brookfield's private-equity group, said the transaction shows the firm's ability to keep recycling capital and support growth while delivering returns. The New York-based firm acquired Multiplex in 2007.

WestCap Management and Sorenson Capital are among the firms that back companies being acquired by consulting company Accenture in a $4.175 billion bid to strengthen its cybersecurity business, WSJ Pro's James Rundle reports. Accenture is buying a majority stake in Hanover, Md.-based Dragos, an industrial cybersecurity company that San Francisco-based WestCap backed in 2023, when it led a growth investment round joined by others including Anchor Capital. BlackRock backed the business in 2021. Accenture is also buying two Austin, Texas-based companies, Netrise, which growth investor Sorenson entered in 2021, according to the firm's website, and angel investor-backed RunZero. Taken together, the three businesses generate annual recurring revenue of about $208 million.

Lone Star Funds has sold construction materials supplier Xella Group to strategic buyer Holcim, which said the €1.85 billion transaction value represented about 8.9 times Xella's projected 2026 adjusted earnings. The Duisburg, Germany-based company has more than 4,000 employees and is expected to generate 2026 revenue of about €1 billion, or $1.15 billion, from operations in 22 European markets. Lone Star acquired the company in 2017, investing through its 10th flagship fund.

Stockholm-listed EQT AB has sold its remaining stake in climate-control technology wholesaler and distributor Beijer Ref, with about €275 million, or $316.3 million, in gross proceeds from the latest sale going to the firm's ninth flagship fund. EQT first backed the Malmö, Sweden-based company in December 2020

Consumer helpdesk technology company Fin, whose backers include secondaries investors Sprout Capital Partners and 3Spoke Capital, is being acquired by strategic buyer Salesforce for $3.6 billion. The San Francisco company formerly named Intercom develops agentic artificial intelligence technology for clients to provide automated customer assistance. Bond Capital is among Fin's many venture investors.

The TPG Angelo Gordon credit arm of buyout firm TPG and property investor Hondo Enterprises are selling south London indoor retailing location Brixton Market, prompting some of the merchants there to scramble for financing to mount an 11th-hour bid, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London. They have until Monday.

Platinum Equity in Beverly Hills, Calif., is selling indoor climate equipment supplier Heat Controller to strategic buyer Lennox. Platinum acquired the Jackson, Mich.-based company in July 2024 in a transaction backing parts and supplies distributor Motors & Armatures.

An €800 million Partners Group investment vehicle listed on the London Stock Exchange, Partners Group Private Equity, plans to set up a dual share class to give fund investors a way to withdraw their cash over an eight-year period. The so-called Realisation Shares pool will hold no more than 30% of PGPE's net asset value, currently at about €800 million, or roughly $920 million. Both ordinary and realization shares will trade separately. Existing investors will have the option of receiving realization shares, but if the amount so chosen exceeds 30% of the fund's NAV, participation will be pro-rated. The plan is also meant to counter recent persistent discounts of share trading prices to NAV.

Secondary and sustainability investor North Sky Capital is nearing a $250 million goal for its Clean Growth Fund VII, having raised $235 million so far from 62 investors, a regulatory filing shows. The firm reported managing about $986.1 million as of the end of September, in a March regulatory filing. Last month, North Sky said it had made its final investment from the new pool's predecessor, which the firm described as an "impact secondary fund."

Partners Capital Investment Group in London is expanding its global reach with a new office in Zürich, led by Jean-Claude Garo as managing director and head of Switzerland. The new location will be the $77 billion firm’s 11th office and third in Europe.

Ares Management has appointed Brent Canada as head of Ares infrastructure debt, succeeding Patrick Trears, who is becoming a senior adviser. Canada joined the firm as a partner in 2022. Ares also tapped partner Lorenzo Ceretti to become co-head of EMEA infrastructure debt alongside Roopa Murthy. Ceretti has been with the firm since 2023.

Braemont Capital has hired Daniel Grinnan as a managing director and Will Olson as vice president of business development. Grinnan joins from Riverside Co. while Olson previously worked for a Braemont-backed company, Vixxo Facility Solutions.

Midmarket firm Arsenal Capital Partners has added Max Schechter as head of business development for industrial growth. Schechter was previously with Angeles Equity Partners.

The Virginia Retirement System reduced its target allocation to private equity at a board meeting last week, in another sign that U.S. public pension funds may be pulling back from the asset class, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming reports, citing a spokeswoman. The trustees of the VRS, which manages over $129 billion for state employees and retirees, reduced its target private-equity allocation for the coming fiscal year to 15% from the current 16%. The fund currently holds $19.9 billion in private-equity assets, for an actual allocation of 15.4%.

Geopolitical turmoil is becoming a bigger factor for private-equity investors considering new commitments, according to a new survey of limited partners by Coller Capital, released Monday. Over a third of the 108 LPs surveyed said geopolitics are influencing private-markets allocations more than in the past, with nearly half of respondents in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region saying so. In addition, 23% of respondents said they expect to cut back on private-markets manager relationships, a higher percentage than in the past, Coller said.

Net asset values of 32 business development companies examined by Fitch Ratings declined 2% on average in this year's first quarter, driven down by factors that included shareholder redemptions, according to a new analysis from Fitch. New Mountain Finance and FS KKR Capital had the biggest losses, dropping 11.7% and 9.8%, respectively. Goldman Sachs Private Credit posted the biggest NAV gain, rising 6.2% during the period, Fitch said.

Loans issued by Waterfall Asset Management have been securitized by Funding Circle to comprise SBOLT 2026-1, London-listed Funding Circle's 10th asset-based security. Waterfall loans included in the ABS went mainly to small businesses in the U.K.

General partner investor Stable Asset Management is committing $100 million to Zenzic Real Estate Credit Opportunities Fund, an evergreen vehicle established by European asset-backed investment manager Zenzic Capital. Stable invests on behalf of institutions including public pensions.

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