Good day, Pro Private Equity readers! The U.S. crossed a sobering threshold in the coronavirus pandemic yesterday, surpassing 500,000 deaths, even as the nation continues to roll out vaccinations against the virus.

In private equity news this morning, our own Chris Cumming examines the potential for a new era of private-equity enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission under the leadership of Gary Gensler, who has been nominated to lead the agency under President Biden. Meanwhile, Preeti Singh reports on a new growth investment by software focused K1 Investment Management in an Israeli software provider, and Chinese private-equity firm Boyu Capital has set up offices in Singapore.

Read on for more details on these and other stories...

Private equity is likely to face tougher SEC scrutiny under Gary Gensler, Biden’s pick to run the agency, lawyers and lobbyists say. As WSJ Pro’s Chris Cumming reports, under former SEC head Jay Clayton the agency issued more penalties against private-equity firms than previously, but generally smaller ones. Now, experts expect that the SEC could return to its earlier strategy of issuing large, eye-catching penalties in an effort to reform industry practices the regulator objects to.

Software-focused K1 Investment Management LLC has invested $25 million in an Israeli software and services company that helps businesses manage and monitor their information technology operations, Preeti Singh writes for WSJ Pro Private Equity. K1 took a minority stake in Atera Networks Ltd. with plans to help the Tel Aviv-based company support product development, increase its marketing and expand geographically, according to the growth investment firm.

Two co-founders of China’s Boyu Capital, a leading private-equity firm set up by a grandson of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, have relocated to Singapore with a share of the company’s operations from its Hong Kong headquarters, Chun Han Wong reports for The Wall Street Journal, citing people briefed on the move. Boyu’s tilt toward the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore was mainly driven by concerns over the ebbing clout of the elder Mr. Jiang, 94 years old, whose patronage has buttressed the firm’s success, the people said.

LLR Partners said it has backed Salute Mission Critical, an information technology data center services company that helps corporate customers maintain, manage, secure and decommission critical data centers. The Clinton Township, Mich.-based company recruits and trains military veterans and military spouses to become data center technicians who then work for Salute. Although LLR didn't disclose financial terms of the deal, one person familiar with the transaction told WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Laura Kreutzer that LLR’s investment fell within the $25 million to $200 million equity check range that the firm typically writes.

KKR & Co. has agreed to purchase a majority interest in a fiber optic network in Chile from a local unit of Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica SA, which will retain a 40% stake, in a deal valued at about $1 billion. KKR plans to set up a local company in Chile to establish the network as an open-access broadband system available to telecommunications operators in the country. The plan also includes expanding residential access to fiber networks to 3.5 million homes by 2023 from about 2 million today, and to provide wholesale service to more than 40,000 businesses. KKR is investing through its Global Infrastructure Investors III fund.

A security services company backed by Warburg Pincus and Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Allied Universal, is set to claim victory in the long-running bidding rivalry to acquire G4S PLC, after BC Partners-backed Garda World Security Corp. declined to raise its offer, Ben Dummett reports for The Wall Street Journal. Allied offered to pay £2.45 a share, or about £3.8 billion (equivalent to $5.3 billion), to acquire G4S, whose half-a-million employees specialize in guarding events and infrastructure, among other businesses. Allied employs more than 265,000 security guards. Garda had offered £2.35 a share for G4S.

Consumer-focused Monogram Capital Partners and Almanac Insights are leading a $42 million investment in convenience store group Foxtrot Ventures Inc., which does business as Foxtrot Market. Participants in the Series B financing also include several industry executives and venture capital firms. The Chicago-based company, whose stores in that city and Dallas make items from their entire inventory available for delivery in an hour or less, plans to use the fresh capital to expand into new markets, including Washington.

Midmarket private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital said it has invested in American Veterinary Group, a Tampa, Fla.-based owner and operator of veterinary hospitals across the South and Southeast United States. Oak Hill has backed previous deals in the animal health sector, including VetCor Group Holdings Corp. in 2018.

Aquiline Capital Partners is leading an investor group backing Premia Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based re-insurer in conjunction with a deal in which Premia is acquiring a unit of Aquiline-backed Armour Group Ltd., Armour Re Ltd., which also insures insurance company risk and is based in Bermuda. Insurer Arch Capital Group and private-equity firm Kelso & Co. set up Premia in January 2017.

MPE Partners, a midmarket private-equity firm once known as Morgenthaler Private Equity, said it has backed MSHS Group, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based company that offers third-party maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for marine and power generation applications.

Paris-based private investment firm Ardian said it has increased its stake in Italian marketing technology and services firm Jakala and that it now owns a 60% majority stake in the company alongside the company’s founder Matteo de Brabant and other legacy equity investors. Ardian, which is backing the majority stake out of its buyout funds, first invested in Jakala back in 2018 with a minority stake led by its growth investment team.

Partners Group has acquired water facilities developer and operator Resilient Infrastructure Group. The Portland, Ore., company acquires and finances water and wastewater operations in the U.S. and Canada to serve commercial, industrial and municipal needs. In conjunction with the acquisition, Resilient closed on the purchase of a wastewater project that is designed to produce natural gas at Threemile Canyon Farms in Oregon.

American Industrial Partners has extended a tender deadline again after owners of just 8.1% of the shares in Seacor Holdings Inc. agreed to sell to the private-equity firm by late last Friday, far short of the two-thirds required to close the deal. AIP pushed the deadline to accept its $41.50 per share offer back to 5 p.m. this Friday. Seacor shares closed last Friday at $43.32 apiece, or 4.4% above the AIP offer.

BlackRock Inc.'s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure team has agreed to acquire the 45% of shares in liquefied natural gas tanker ship operator GasLog Ltd. that aren’t owned by Blenheim Holdings Ltd. or the Onassis Foundation for $5.80 per share. The take-private offer represents a 17% premium over the stock’s closing price on Friday. The New York Stock Exchange-listed company based in Piraeus, Greece, operates a fleet of 35 LNG carriers.

Family office Dunes Point Capital is backing labelling and packaging company Overnight Labels Inc. in Deer Park, N.Y. The firm is investing through its Dunes Point Capital Fund II.

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

Thousands of miles from Wall Street, the boom in blank-check companies is taking hold in a region where major stock exchanges don't let firms raise money for unspecified uses, Jing Yang reports in The Wall Street Journal. In mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore, investment firms controlled by tycoons and money managers had collected about $2.3 billion in the U.S. this year through Feb. 18 using special-purpose acquisition companies, showing how far-reaching the SPAC boom has become.

A blank-check company led by a Comvest Partners executive and a former Carlyle Group Inc. partner has agreed to acquire and take public electric vehicle maker Xos Inc. in a deal that gives the Los Angeles-based company a pro forma equity value of about $2 billion. Xos makes commercial vehicles including 10-wheel tractors used to haul trailers, box trucks and cargo vans. The deal includes a $220 million private placement of shares in the special purpose acquisition company, NextGen Acquisition Corp., which trades on the Nasdaq stock market. The SPAC is led by Gregory Summe, a former buyouts executive with Carlyle, and George N. Mattson, who is an executive partner with Comvest and an operating partner with Star Mountain Capital.

A special purpose acquisition company led by Cornell Capital adviser and former magazine and television executive Joanna Coles has agreed to acquire financial technology company Apex Clearing Holdings LLC in a deal that values the business at about $4.7 billion. The Dallas-based company provides digital custody and clearing services to brokerage firms and wealth managers as well as other clients. The SPAC, Northern Star Investment Corp. II, was set up last year by Ms. Coles and Jonathan Ledecky, a co-owner of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders and the founder of U.S. Office Products.

A company backed by Advent International, ATI Physical Therapy will become a publicly traded company following a merger with private-equity backed Fortress Value Acquisition Corp. II, a special-purpose acquisition company, Matt Grossman reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal values the company at about $2.5 billion. ATI, based in Bolingbrook, Ill., operates 900 physical-therapy centers in the U.S. Advent will remain the company's largest stockholder after the transaction closes. The SPAC was set up by New York-based Fortress Investment Group LLC, a private-equity arm of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.

L Catterton is backing a special-purpose acquisition company that seeks to raise $250 million through an initial public offering of shares to finance the purchase of a business that focuses on consumer technology sectors across Asia, Dave Sebastian reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The SPAC, called L Catterton Asia Acquisition, is led by executives of the private-equity firm’s Asia strategy, including Chinta Bhagat and Scott Chen as co-chief executives.

Comvest Partners has sold residential services provider D&S Community Services to the Mentor Network, which delivers home and community-based healthcare and support services. Austin, Texas-based D&S specializes in serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Renovus Capital Partners has sold a majority stake in data analytics company KSM Consulting to Investcorp. The firm retained a sizable minority interest in the Indianapolis company, which provides services to government agencies and private organizations. Renovus acquired the business in early 2019 through its second flagship fund.

Audax Private Equity has agreed to sell drug development services company Altasciences Co. to Novo Holdings A/S, based just outside Copenhagen. The Laval, Quebec, company provides contract research services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. Audax acquired the business in June 2017, investing alongside management.

Paris-based Tikehau Capital said it has raised more than €1 billion ($1.22 billion) for its T2 Energy Transition Fund, which invests in medium-sized energy transition companies across three main areas: clean energy production, low carbon mobility, such as infrastructure to support electric vehicles, and improvement in energy efficiency, storage and digitalization. Tikehau said it has already invested €440 million across the strategy. The firm held a first closing on €350 million for the fund back in late 2018.

Peterson Partners, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based investment firm, said it has raised $225 million for Peterson Partners IX LP, the firm’s latest flagship fund. The fund will invest $10 million to $25 million at a time in some 10 to 12 portfolio companies, according to a press release. It has already backed the fund’s first deal, leading an institutional investment in Breeze Airways, a low-cost leisure-focused airline started by JetBlue founder David Neeleman.

Blackstone Group Inc. has named Iain Conn as a senior adviser for energy and sustainability, to help guide the New York firm’s investments in infrastructure and energy businesses. Mr. Conn is a former Centrica PLC chief executive and BP PLC executive.

Impact-focused Creation Investments Capital Management has hired Emily Stella as head of investor relations, a new position. She joins from Russell Investments, where she was director of institutional sales. Creation also promoted Tyler Day to partner from director. He joined the Chicago firm in 2011.

Churchill Asset Management announced a wave of promotions that include two new co-heads of senior lending, Randy Schwimmer and Mathew Linett. Mr. Schwimmer has been a senior managing director and head of origination and capital markets, while Mr. Linett was a senior managing director and head of underwriting and portfolio management. The firm also promoted Chief Risk Officer of Senior Lending Christopher Cox to chief risk officer of the entire Churchill organization.

Private-equity firm Praesidian Capital said it has promoted Tom Duffy to partner. Mr. Duffy has been with the firm since 2012.

Infinedi Partners has hired Henry Blynn as a senior associate. He was most recently an associate with Harvest Partners.

The owner of vegan restaurant chain By Chloe has named its bankruptcy lenders as the lead bidders to acquire its assets out of chapter 11, with hopes to get the proposed sale approved by next week, Aisha Al-Muslim reports for WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The chain’s bankrupt parent BC Hospitality Group Inc., designated a group of investors as the stalking horse bidders, according to records filed Saturday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., setting the minimum price for other potential bidders to beat. The investor group includes Qoot International UK Ltd., along with equity investor Kitchen Fund LP, private-equity firms Lion Capital LLP, investment firm Bain Capital LP, and venture-capital firm Simple Capital Management LLC.

Private-equity ownership of nursing homes increases the short-term mortality of Medicare patients by 10%, which suggests that an estimated 20,150 people died because of PE ownership over a 12-year period, a study published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper asserts. The four authors of the study, which was reported by Vox, also conclude that PE ownership leads to declines in other measures of wellbeing for patients, such as reduced mobility, while taxpayer spending per patient episode rises by 11%. The paper says factors leading to these effects include reduced nursing staff and declining compliance with standards.

Private-equity firms that own healthcare companies may face greater scrutiny from the Biden administration as the government applies the False Claims Act in connection with payments from government programs, particularly Medicare and Medicaid, according to a study from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, an activist group that says it aims to empower workers, unions and communities and connect them with private-equity investors. In its report published Monday, the activist group says at least 25 companies backed by private-equity funds have paid more than $570 million in total settlements over allegations they violated the act since 2013, noting that the firms involved own more than 200 other healthcare companies. Citing statements from the Justice Department, the group says enforcement of the act against private-equity firms is ramping up. Bloomberg News reported on the study earlier Monday.

Arlington Capital Partners has sold a minority stake in itself to the Petershill strategy of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The deal for the nonvoting interest follows a decade in which Goldman Sachs invested in the Chevy Chase, Md.-based firm’s funds as a limited partner.

Recognized net gains of $679.4 million drove fourth-quarter earnings of Cannae Holdings Inc. as the Las Vegas-based investment company run by William P. Foley II overcame a $61.1 million operating loss to post net income of $531.3 million, or $5.80 per share for the period, compared with $24.5 million, or 33 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. The firm said that during the first quarter of this year, it exited an investment in CoreLogic shares produced a net gain of about $187 million.

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