Good day Pro Private Equity readers! By the time you read this I will hopefully be chilling my heels by a lake, listening to the rain fall and resisting the temptation to check my email. It may be harder to do this year, given the relentless pace of deal, exit and fundraising activity gripping the private-equity world. And it’s not just here in North America. As Maria Armental writes in this morning’s newsletter, Europe’s private-equity market is on track for a record-breaking year in 2021. Meanwhile, Luis Garcia has news of a fresh round of funding for Generate Capital, which invests in sustainable infrastructure.

Finally, this week we begin accepting nominations for our annual Women to Watch list that will come out in October. The process of compiling this list gets more challenging each year and is always an incredibly humbling experience, given the breadth and depth of female talent out there. Details and a link to the nomination form are included in the newsletter below and we will be accepting nominations until August 13.

That’s it for me (hopefully) for this week. Read on for more news...

Low interest rates and soaring stock markets are expected to fuel a record-setting year for private-equity deals in Europe amid a rebound marked by a whirlwind of transactions involving mid-sized companies, Maria Armental reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. Some 1,800 deals in Europe totaling €169.6 billion (equivalent to about $200.3 billion) closed in the just-ended quarter, marking the second consecutive quarter with a record-setting deal pace, albeit the volume was lower than the first quarter, according to research firm PitchBook Data Inc. “The market has never been more favorable for private equity,” said Dominick Mondesir, a PitchBook senior analyst.

Generate Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm focused on sustainable infrastructure deals, has rounded up $2 billion of fresh funding to back new deals and infrastructure projects, WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Luis Garcia reports. Unlike many infrastructure firms, Generate does not raise traditional funds but instead allows large investors to buy stakes in the firm and then uses the money to deploy into infrastructure projects.

Since 2015, WSJ Pro and sister publication The Private Equity Analyst have published our annual Women to Watch list in recognition of the outstanding achievements of female dealmakers, fundraising professionals and limited partners across the private-equity and venture capital industries. We are accepting nominations for this year’s list until August 13, 2021. Please click on the link below to submit your nomination! We will announce this year’s list in early October.

Submit your nomination here.

Hedge-fund billionaire William Ackman is dropping plans to use his SPAC to invest in Universal Music Group, saying the Securities and Exchange Commission wasn’t convinced the deal met the rules for such vehicles. Mr. Ackman said his investment firm, Pershing Square Holdings Ltd., would instead take a stake in Universal and become a long-term investor in the company. The U-turn is a setback for Mr. Ackman, who crafted a first-of-its-kind pact that set it apart from a wave of other deals orchestrated recently by special-purpose acquisition companies.

L Catterton is acquiring a majority stake in Italian fashion company Etro SPA, investing alongside company founder Gerolamo Etro and his family. Based in Milan, Italy, Etro makes and sells men’s and women’s clothing and accessories. Reuters said the deal values the company at about €500 million (or roughly $590.3 million), citing people familiar with the matter.

Atlas Holdings likely starts this week awaiting word from paper producer Verso Corp. on its response to a $20-per-share buyout offer that the Greenwich, Conn.-based private-equity firm made for the company on July 11, after first investing in publicly traded Verso in 2017. At the time of the bid, Atlas said it had acquired a roughly 9.1% stake in the Miamisburg, Ohio-based company for about $38.7 million. Verso shares, which closed at $17,25 on July 9, rose to end regular trading Friday at $19.58.

Core Industrial Partners-backed Fathom Digital Manufacturing Corp. has agreed to combine with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public in a deal that values the three-dimensional printing company at about $1.4 billion, Amrith Ramkumar reports for The Wall Street Journal. The SPAC, Altimar Acquisition Corp. II, is backed by HPS Investment Partners, the firm behind the SPAC that brought the combined Dyal Capital Partners and Owl Rock Capital Partners public as Blue Owl Capital Inc. Hartland, Wis.-based Fathom is the second 3-D printing company HPS has brought public through a SPAC, after Desktop Metal Inc.

KKR & Co. said it has agreed to launch a digital infrastructure company in Colombia alongside Telefónica Colombia, a subsidiary of Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica. As part of the deal, KKR will acquire a majority stake in Telefónica’s existing fiber optic network in Colombia. Upon closing the transaction, the network will become open access and available for all internet service providers in Colombia to use, with the goal of expanding fiber optic internet coverage to at least 4.3 million homes by the end of 2024, according to a press release.

Ardian made its first foray into the Spanish real estate market, acquiring an office building in Madrid, according to an emailed news release. The building is fully occupied, Ardian said.

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

Richard Branson-backed Virgin Group Acquisition Corp. III lowered the size of its planned initial public offering of shares to $300 million at $10 each from $500 million, Kimberly Chin reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The blank-check company filed for an IPO in March.

Baillie Gifford-backed self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation Inc. plans to go public through a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that values the startup at about $13 billion, a regulatory filing shows. The SPAC, Reinvent Technology Partners Y, is led by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus. Aurora’s current owners, including Sequoia Capital and Baillie Gifford, are expected to retain about 84% of the company’s equity. A related private placement of about $1 billion involves Baillie Gifford and Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global as well as strategic investors such as Volvo AB, Paccar Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., and will support the transaction with the Pittsburgh-based company.

A Berkshire Partners-backed restaurant chain, Portillo’s Hot Dogs LLC, plans an initial public offering of shares later this year, Heather Haddon reports for The Wall Street Journal, citing people close to the company. The chain based in Oak Brook, Ill., is targeting a valuation of $2.5 billion to $3 billion, the people said. Portillo’s operates 68 locations in nine states.

Parallel49 Equity, a private-equity firm focused on midmarket companies in the manufacturing and business services sectors, has agreed to sell Indianapolis, Ind.-based liquified natural gas developer Kinetrex Energy to publicly traded Kinder Morgan Inc. in a $310 million acquisition. Parallel49 Equity invested in Kinetrex in 2016 out of its Parallel49 Equity Fund V LP, which closed with 345 million Canadian dollars ($273.9 million) in 2014.

Castle Creek Biosciences Inc., a clinical-stage cell and gene therapy company whose backers include Paragon Biosciences and Valor Equity Partners, has filed for an initial public offering to expand clinical development of its two lead candidates among other things. Financial terms, such as the number and price of shares, haven’t been set.

NextEquity Partners, a mid-stage venture firm led by senior executives from Apple and Elevation Partners, is seeking $200 million for NextEquity Partners II LLC, according to a regulatory filing. Menlo Park-based NextEquity’s managing directors include Fred Anderson, who is also a co-founder and managing director of Elevation Partners, and Avie Tevanian, who is also a managing director at Elevation.

LongWater Opportunities, a Dallas-based lower midmarket firm focused on U.S. manufacturing deals, has rounded up at least $52 million of the $100 million that the firm is seeking for LWO Fund III LP, according to a regulatory filing.

Tikehau Capital has hired Cécile Cabanis as deputy chief executive of the Paris firm, reporting to co-founders Antoine Flamarion and Mathieu Chabran. She joins from Danone Group where she was an executive vice president.

True Wind Capital Management has hired former GoDaddy Inc. Chief Executive Scott Wagner as head of strategic capital to lead True Wind’s special purpose acquisition company franchise and oversee its operations. Mr. Wagner, who earlier in his career was a partner at KKR & Co., previously was an adviser to True Wind and served on the board of True Wind SPACs.

China sent regulators including state security and police officials to Didi Global Inc.’s ride-hailing business on Friday as part of a cybersecurity investigation, the latest development in a regulatory saga that has gripped China’s tech industry, Liza Lin reports for The Wall Street Journal. In Washington, the Biden administration warned American businesses about increasing risks of operating in Hong Kong as China tightens its grip on the city, causing business conditions to deteriorate and exposing businesses and individuals working for them to restrictive national-security laws. Risks include electronic surveillance without warrants and being compelled to surrender corporate and customer data to the government.

Somerset Capital Partners founder Joes Daemen has given his seat on the Blue Origin LLC space flight planned for Tuesday to his 18-year-old son, Oliver Daemen, Micah Maidenberg reports for The Wall Street Journal. The younger Mr. Daemen plans to study physics and innovation management at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands starting in September, Blue Origin said. The Somerset founder bought the ticket to accompany Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos on his first journey into space for roughly $30 million.

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