The month of May is officially here and I’m looking forward to warmer days ahead here in Massachusetts. Private-equity has received its share of attention on its investments in the health-care sector and not all of it is welcome. In today’s news our own Laura Cooper and The Wall Street Journal’s Brian Spegele reported that a dispute between Rhode Island’s attorney general and Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. over a proposed ownership transfer of hospitals in the state has prompted the Leonard Green-backed hospital operator to withdraw the deal.

Also, The Wall Street Journal’s Miriam Gottfried offers a look inside the mind of Marc Rowan as he takes over the leadership reins at Apollo Global Management, and Luis Garcia reports on one private-equity backed company that is exploring the potential for a deal with a special purpose acquisition company.

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

A private-equity-backed hospital chain said it could be forced to shut down two Rhode Island hospitals after a dispute over a state review into the company’s operations and finances, Laura Cooper and Brian Spegele report for The Wall Street Journal. The conflict between Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., whose biggest shareholder is Leonard Green & Partners, and the state is one of several disagreements involving state and local governments and hospital chains owned by private-equity firms.

Apollo Global Management Inc. made its name scoring double-digit returns on debt-laden buyouts. Under new Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan, the firm’s future will become increasingly about finding ways to eke out a few percentage points more than corporate and government bonds pay, Miriam Gottfried writes for The Wall Street Journal.

Private equity-backed Streamline Innovations Inc. is seeking to raise capital, potentially by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, as the natural gas-treatment provider looks to expand in the growing carbon-capture market, Luis Garcia reports for WSJ Pro Private Equity. San Antonio, Texas-based Streamline has hired Citigroup Inc. to help find a potential SPAC deal, said David Sisk, the company’s chief executive and co-founder.

Dell Technologies Inc., is close to a deal to sell its Boomi cloud business to private-equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG, the Journal’s Miriam Gottfried reports, citing people familiar with the matter, part of a larger reordering of the PC and data-storage giant’s business. The transaction, which could be announced later Sunday, values the Chesterbrook, Pa., cloud-based integration platform at $4 billion including debt, the people said.

Providence Equity Partners-backed Tempo Music Investments has been quietly buying up music rights from groups such as the Jonas Brothers and Florida Georgia Line as well as performers such as Wiz Khalifa and some top producers, Anne Steele writes in The Wall Street Journal. Tempo, which has about $1 billion in ready money, according to people familiar with the matter, is partnering with industry heavyweight Warner Music Group Corp. amid a flood of money flowing into deals for rights to the song catalogs of superstar musicians.

Apollo Global Management Inc. is investing $600 million into the acquisition of chemicals producer W.R. Grace & Co. by Standard Industries Holdings Inc. The all-cash deal for Grace is valued at about $7 billion. The New York private-equity firm is backing the transaction through its $10 billion Hybrid Value strategy, which makes structured credit and equity investments.

Leeds Equity Partners is backing derivatives database company OptionMetrics LLC. The New York company’s IvyDB databases and related analytics are used by portfolio managers, traders and quantitative researchers at corporate and academic institutions to model trades and for other purposes, according to a news release. Leeds is investing in the founder-led company through its Leeds Equity Partners VII LP fund.

Hyperion Capital Partners in Los Angeles has acquired family-owned United Cabinet Co., which operates as Kabinart. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company makes custom residential cabinets and sells its wares through third-party dealers across the eastern half of the U.S.

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

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. plans to restate some past results and push back its first quarter earnings report after the Securities and Exchange Commission weighed in on accounting treatment of deals involving blank check companies, Doug Cameron reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The space tourism company delayed its first quarter report by a week to May 10 and plans to restate earnings for the last two years to recognize non-cash charges linked to warrants held by Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings, the SPAC it merged with ahead of its October 2019 IPO. Virgin Galactic shares lost 1% in after hours trading.

A blank-check company backed by Alec Gores’s Gores Group is acquiring hospitality company Sonder Holdings Inc., Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal with Gores Metropoulos II Inc. gives Sonder a pro forma enterprise value of $2.2 billion and more than $700 million of net cash at closing. The deal includes $650 million raised by the special purpose acquisition company’s initial public offering and a $200 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction, the companies said. Sonder operates more than 300 properties across 35 markets in eight countries.

Although the blank check company boom has slowed in the U.S., it may be heating up across the Atlantic. As Emily Nicolle writes for sister publication Financial News, the UK’s financial watchdog has proposed removing a key barrier that would bring it in line with rival financial centers. The Financial Conduct Authority has launched a consultation on special purpose acquisition companies following a sweeping review into the UK’s listing authority by Lord Hill, which could lift a requirement for blank check companies to suspend shares once an acquisition target is found, it said in a April 30 statement.

KKR & Co. and Carlyle Group Inc. have agreed to sell the main brands of vitamins maker Bountiful Co. to Nestlé SA for $5.75 billion, in the Swiss food giant’s latest move to capitalize on growing demand for minerals and nutritional supplements, Nick Kostov reports for The Wall Street Journal. The world’s biggest packaged-food company said Friday the deal would add brands including Nature’s Bounty, Solgar, Osteo Bi-Flex and Puritan’s Pride to its offering. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Nestlé was in talks to buy the company, which is majority-owned by KKR & Co.

Darktrace PLC, a cybersecurity company backed by Insight Partners and KKR & Co., saw its shares soar in their trading debut Friday in London, after the company pared back its IPO price, Barbara Kollmeyer and Joe Hoppe report for Dow Jones Newswires. The stock climbed 40% in a conditional trading to 351 pence from an offer price of 250 pence, according to an April 30 filing. The IPO price gave it a market capitalization of £1.7 billion  ($2.3 billion). The Cambridge, England-based company had initially hoped to reach a £3 billion market capitalization through the offering. KKR initially backed the company through its growth investment strategy, while Insight led a $75 million Series D investment in July 2017.

KKR shed part of its 12.8% stake in Fiserv but remains the financial-services technology company’s largest shareholder, Colin Kellaher writes for Dow Jones Newswires. A secondary offering of 20 million Fiserv shares held by KKR is priced at $118.30, below Thursday’s closing price of $122.26. KKR, which acquired its stake as part of Fiserv’s $22 billion acquisition of First Data in 2019, will still hold a 9.8% interest, or roughly 9.3% if the underwriters exercise their option to buy another 3 million shares. Fiserv says it is buying back 5 million of the shares being sold in the offering. 

Bain Capital has raised $11.8 billion for its latest flagship buyout fund, surpassing its target and notching significant participation by people affiliated with the firm, a spokeswoman confirmed with WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Ted Bunker. The multistrategy investment manager in Boston collected about $1.8 billion for the vehicle, Bain Capital Fund XIII LP, from current and former employees, the spokeswoman said. Reuters reported on the fundraising earlier Friday.

Operations-focused MiddleGround Capital has collected $736 million in commitments for several new funds, including more than $550 million for its flagship, MiddleGround Partners II LP. The other vehicles include MiddleGround Fund II-X to make co-investments alongside the flagship fund, and the firm’s Mobility Opportunity Fund LP, which is focused on investing in automotive industry transition plays such as vehicle electrification and autonomous driving. The Lexington, Ky. firm raised $459.5 million for its inaugural fund, which closed to new investors in August 2019.

McKinley Capital Management, a global investment firm based in Anchorage, Alaska, has rounded up at least $117 million so far for the Na'-Nuk Investment Fund, LP, a regulatory filing indicates. The fund, which is anchored by a $100 million commitment from the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., targets investments in small and medium sized businesses in Alaska as well as its emerging private equity and venture managers, according to the firm’s website. The fund’s individual investments are expected to range from $2 million to $20 million, the website stated.

Two rival investor groups still are vying for ownership of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. even as the car-rental company is poised to leave bankruptcy within months, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy’s Peg Brickley and Becky Yerak write, citing a lawyer for the company. Hertz, one of the largest companies to file for chapter 11 during the coronavirus pandemic, is planning to run an auction process after two groups of private-equity firms and hedge funds submitted competing bids for the business. 

Lazard Ltd.’s assets under management rose 37% to $265 billion at the end of the first quarter compared with the year-earlier period, and increased 2% from the end of December. The New York investment bank said operating revenue from its asset-management business climbed 22% to $328 million in the just-ended quarter compared with the year-earlier period.

Private-equity firms should be banned from owning nursing homes, the Roosevelt Institute, a New York think tank, said in a report released Friday, Eleanor Laise writes for sister publication MarketWatch. The report urges Congress to enact a ban on such investments and force current private-equity owners to divest the assets, saying the firms focus on extracting profits to the detriment of patient care.

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