Good morning and TGIF! We conclude a busy week with news that Advent is exiting hair-care brand Olaplex after shepherding the company to a Nasdaq listing in 2021 and remaining its controlling shareholder. Strategic buyer Henkel is acquiring Olaplex for about $1.4 billion in equity value, as Aimee Look reports for the Journal.

The paper also reports that Reflection, a startup backed by artificial-intelligence chip maker Nvidia, aims to raise $2.5 billion as a growth investment at a $25 billion valuation. JPMorgan Chase may be in the mix.

We have those stories and many more collected, summarized and linked for you below, so please scroll on down...

Advent International-backed hair-care brand Olaplex Holdings has agreed to be acquired by strategic buyer Henkel for about $1.4 billion in equity value, or $2.06 a share in cash, Aimee Look reports for The Wall Street Journal. The price represents a roughly 55% premium to Wednesday's closing price on the Nasdaq stock market. The deal gives a full exit to Boston-based Advent, the company's controlling shareholder and a backer since 2019. Advent took Olaplex public in 2021. Law firm Ropes & Gray represented Advent in the deal.

Reflection, a startup backed by artificial-intelligence chip giant Nvidia that is leading an effort to create freely available U.S. AI systems, is in talks to raise $2.5 billion at a valuation of $25 billion, the Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Participants could include JPMorgan Chase through its recently established Security and Resiliency Initiative. The company is one of a handful of Nvidia-linked startups that are seeking to build a network of “open source” AI models, which businesses, labs and universities can use and repurpose according to their needs.

Carlyle Group and a portfolio company of KKR & Co. and BlackRock have entered exclusive negotiations to build and operate two hyperscale data centers on U.S. Army bases in Texas and Utah. Should the deal be finalized, Carlyle would construct the project planned for Fort Bliss in Texas and CyrusOne would develop the one planned for the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Dallas-based data-center builder and operator CyrusOne was acquired by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners, now part of BlackRock, in a $15 billion deal struck in late 2021.

Advent International led a $1.5 billion growth investment in Shield AI, joined by an investment arm of JPMorgan Chase and existing investors in the autonomy-enabling software maker and drone manufacturer, Nicholas G. Miller reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal values Shield at about $12.7 billion. Blackstone is injecting $500 million in the business through a purchase of preferred equity and providing $250 million in credit. Advent said the commitment is part of a new commitment to invest as much as $1 billion in emerging defense technology.

Stone Point Capital in Greenwich, Conn., led a financing deal to increase a $300 million credit line to $450 million for personnel-management and payroll software supplier Vensure Employer Solutions. The increased capacity will back the Chandler, Ariz., company's pursuit of acquisitions. Stone Point invested through its capital markets arm.

Lone Star Funds has acquired airport services provider Alliance Ground International from Audax Group's private-equity arm and Greenbriar Equity Group. The Miami company has around 12,000 workers and operates cargo handling, security and hospitality services at more than 60 U.S. and Canadian airfields. Audax and Greenbriar first invested in the business in June 2021.

Inspirit Capital in London is acquiring the private sector contact centre business of Capita for as much as £61.5 million, or $82.2 million, in future payments.

Sun European Partners is backing aviation logistics company B&H Worldwide, adding the business to its buy-and-build holdings. The London Heathrow-based company provides services from airports around the globe.

Software-focused firm Terminus Capital Partners is taking a majority stake in Andesa Services, an Allentown, Pa.-based software provider focused on insurance and annuities administration.

Bow River Capital in Denver has acquired a majority stake in compliance software supplier TrackVia, whose earlier backers include Primus Capital in Atlanta. The Denver company's applications are used to monitor contracts and ensure compliance with various requirements.

Cedar Capital Partners and the real-estate strategy of buyout firm L Catterton have formed a joint venture and acquired resort hotels on the French Riviera and in Portugal. The joint venture plans to add more luxury properties to supplement the 177-key Garden Beach Hotel in Juan-les-Pins, France, and the 204-key Penha Longa Resort in Linhó, Portugal.

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

Macquarie Group's asset-management arm is selling nine toll-road concessions in India to Vinci Highways for the equivalent of about $1.6 billion, Nina Kienle reports for the Journal. The concessions total nearly 700 kilometers of highway sections, linking industrial, agricultural and logistics hubs, that are operated under contracts with the National Highways Authority of India. Macquarie Asset Management began investing in the operations in 2018.

Defense industry investor Sagewind Capital is selling software company Aechelon Technology to strategic buyer Shield AI, which is backed by Advent International and Blackstone, among others. The South San Francisco, Calif.-based company's applications are used in managing geospatial databases and flight simulators, among other things. New York-based Sagewind first backed the business in August 2024, according to the firm's website.

Midmarket-focused H.I.G. Capital has agreed to sell Brazilian internet service provider Desktop to a subsidiary of publicly traded Latin American telecom company América Móvil in a transaction valued at 4 billion reais, or around $750 million, including debt. Miami-based H.I.G. initially backed Desktop in 2020, according to the private-equity firm’s website.

Capital Dynamics and EOS Investment Management Group have sold a jointly held collection of utility-scale solar power plants in Lazio, Italy, to strategic buyer Sonnedix. The six projects, including one still being connected to the local power grid, can generate as much as 194 megawatts of electricity.

Peak Rock Capital has sold software developer CodeRoad, which focuses on integrating artificial intelligence in enterprise applications, to Etna Capital. Peak Rock backed a carve-out of the company from Mojix in 2024.

The investment management arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. is setting up a new credit-focused interval fund as many large private-credit managers grapple with surging withdrawal requests, testing their funds' semi-liquid structures. Perhaps as a bow to that trend, the bank plans to offer quarterly repurchases totaling 7.5% of net assets, or 50% more than is commonly made available by such vehicles, a regulatory filing shows. Chase is also asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to permit monthly liquidity options for as much as 2% of net assets of the JPMorgan Public and Private Credit Fund.

Forward Consumer Partners, a private-equity firm that backs branded consumer products, has closed Forward Fund II at the fund’s $500 million upper limit. Greenwich, Conn.-based Forward Consumer Partners was founded in 2023 by Matt Leeds, a former partner on the flagship strategy at consumer-focused firm L Catterton.

Top executives of Apollo Global Management and Blue Owl Capital faulted wealth advisers and others who guide wealthy everyday investors into private-credit funds without making their liquidity restriction clear, saying the result has been a pile up of unfulfilled withdrawal requests, Bloomberg News reports from Melbourne, Australia. Speaking at a financial conference there, Apollo President Jim Zelter and Blue Owl Co-Chief Executive Doug Ostrover both suggested that the industry failed to make sure that investors understood the liquidity risks that come with private-credit investing.

Shares of a majority of listed business development companies have been trading at a discount to net asset value, Reuters reports, citing London Stock Exchange Group data. Investors are discounting shares of Ares Capital and Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by about 10% while Blue Owl Capital Corp. shares were roughly 25% below NAV, Reuters said.

Wall Street's securities-industry bonus pool rose 9% last year to a record $49.2 billion while the average payout climbed 6% to $246,900, representing about 42% of the average salary in the industry, Ben Glickman reports for the Journal, citing New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. But DiNapoli noted that after adjusting for inflation, the 2025 bonus pool fell far short of the 2006 record of $53.7 billion.

Bonaccord Capital Partners is backing commercial real-estate credit provider Prime Finance with a minority investment. Bonaccord is a Ridgepost Capital investment strategy that acquires stakes in fund managers focused on midmarket businesses.

A listed business development company managed by Andalusian Credit Partners in New York has set up a joint venture with Carlyle Group to invest as much as $60 million in midmarket credit assets, with $7.5 million coming from Carlyle, a securities filing shows. The venture, Andalusian Credit Rated JV I, has also issued several notes with initial commitments totaling $140 million.

Rising prices of natural-gas-fired power stations in the U.S. are increasing the attractiveness of solar-energy assets, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports for Dow Jones Newswires, citing Doug Kimmelman, executive chairman of Energy Capital Partners, or ECP, in Summit, N.J. Solar installations that feed the grid during periods of peak demand are particularly valuable because they don’t have any fuel costs, Kimmelman said.

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