Happy Friday Pro PE readers! The drama at Pennsylvania’s largest state pension system ratcheted up a notch as six of the 14 members of the board of trustees at the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System called for the ouster of its executive director and chief investment officer, as our own Preeti Singh reports. The move came only a day after state senator Katie Muth filed a lawsuit against the state pension system seeking to force it to hand over documents related to past investment decisions and as the pension system faces a federal investigation over certain of its investments. The debate is expected to continue at the pension’s board meeting today, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, we have a pair of SoftBank stories for you this morning. 

Dive in for more details and have a great weekend...

Six trustees of the largest public pension in Pennsylvania are demanding the ouster of two top staff members, citing years of poor investment performance, high expenses and missteps that led to a federal investigation, WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Preeti Singh writes. The demand for the dismissal of Glen Grell, the executive director, and Jim Grossman, the chief investment officer of Pennsylvania’s $64 billion Public School Employees’ Retirement System, came hours before a scheduled meeting of the board Thursday, which both officials would normally attend. No action was done regarding the letter’s demands at a meeting Thursday, but the meeting is set to continue tomorrow.

SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Didi Chuxing Technology Co., the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth, made its IPO papers public on Thursday, setting the company up to raise billions and begin trading publicly in the U.S. in July, Corrie Driebusch reports in The Wall Street Journal. Didi, which filed under its formal name of Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc., could fetch a valuation upward of $70 billion, people familiar with the matter said, a number that could stretch even higher amid investors’ ravenous appetite for newly public, high-growth companies.

SoftBank's second Vision fund has led a $639 million funding round in European payments startup Klarna Bank AB that values the Stockholm-based company at nearly $46 billion, Dominic Chopping reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The startup is the latest beneficiary of strong demand among investors for payments technology companies.

Platinum Equity has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in SVP-Singer Holdings, Inc., a consumer sewing machine company that owns the popular Singer sewing machine brand, a deal that would make it the company’s third private-equity owner since 2014. Private-equity seller Ares Management Corp. acquired the company in 2018 from fellow private-equity firm Kohlberg & Company, which itself acquired the company in 2014. 

Publicly traded cybersecurity and compliance company Proofpoint Inc. said it did not receive any competing bids to Thoma Bravo’s roughly $12.3 billion proposed acquisition of the company during a go-shop period that ended on June 9, thus paving the way for the deal to move forward.

Hellman & Friedman has closed its acquisition of energy industry data company Enberus at a value of $4.25 billion from Genstar Capital, which remains a minority investor. Genstar initially backed the Austin, Texas-based company in 2018.

Midmarket firm Gemspring Capital Management LLC said it has backed specialty logistics company Transport Investments, Inc., which offers heavy haul, flatbed, specialty and van transportation, as well as logistics brokerage and other services.

Carlyle Group Inc.’s bid to take private Fly Leasing Ltd. in a deal valuing the aerospace company at $2.36 billion took a step toward closing when about 99% of shareholders backed the deal at a special meeting, according to a news release. Carlyle’s credit arm is investing through its Carlyle Aviation Partners unit. The firm has agreed to pay $17.05 per share for Fly, a roughly 29% premium to the stock’s closing share price just before the offer was made public. The company leases its 84 aircraft and seven engines to 37 airlines in 22 countries. Regulatory approvals and other conditions must be met before the deal can close, which is expected before  July 31.

Private-equity firm Rotunda Capital Partners said it has acquired and merged three separate companies to form American Equipment Holdings, a provider of overhead crane and hoist solutions and services. The three companies it merged are American Equipment, Pacific Crane & Hoist and Allied Crane.

Clearhaven Partners,a Boston-based private-equity firm launched in 2019 by former executives from Riverside Partners, has invested in video software company Wowza Media Systems, LLC.

Lower midmarket private-equity firm Fruition Partners said it has backed The Track Family Fund Parks, a Branson, MO-based entertainment center and amusement park operator.

Software-focused private-equity firm K1 Investment Management has invested around $120 million in ComplySci, which provides regulatory and compliance technology and services to the financial services industry.

Serent Capital is joining The Riverside Company as an investment in educational technology provider Modern Campus, which is acquiring Serent portfolio company Digarc, a technology company focused on curriculum management and class scheduling. Serent will own a minority stake in the combined company.

Fruition Partners in Denver is backing Track Family Fun Parks, investing alongside family members who have built up the Branson, Mo. company for decades. The firm aims to acquire similar amusement parks to expand the operation mainly in the South and southeastern 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.

NextNav Holdings LLC is nearing a combination with a special-purpose acquisition company that would take the next-generation GPS firm public and value it at about $1.2 billion, Amrith Ramkumar reports for the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The McLean, Va., company has reached a deal to merge with the SPAC Spartacus Acquisition Corp., the firms said Thursday. Existing NextNav investors include funds managed by Fortress and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. XM Satellite Radio founder Gary Parsons is the chairman of NextNav’s board.

Blackstone Group Inc. was expected to sell some of its shares in digital outsourcing company TaskUs Inc. when the New Braunfels, Texas-based company went public Thursday evening, pricing its shares at $23 each, the midpoint of the expected range, according to a news release. Blackstone acquired a majority stake in the provider of customer support services for technology companies in October 2018 at a valuation of more than $500 million. In a regulatory filing, TaskUs said its IPO would feature 13.2 million shares, including some held by Blackstone. The deal would give the company an initial market value of more than $2 billion. Blackstone would continue to hold a majority interest in TaskUs following the IPO, the filing shows.

Investindustrial has agreed to sell luxury footwear maker Sergio Rossi SPA to Fosun International Ltd.’s fashion group in Shanghai through its Investindustrial V LP fund. The European investment initially backed the company in December 2015. Sergio Rossi generates about €50 million (or roughly $60.9 million) a year in sales and distributes its products through 65 stores, including 50 that are company-owned.

Soteria Flexibles, a manufacturer of flexible plastic packaging backed by Ardian, said it has acquired Redi-Bag Inc., a packaging company backed by Chicago-based lower midmarket firm Traverse Pointe Partners. Traverse initially acquired Redi-Bag in 2017.

Voya Financial Inc.’s investment management group has raised more than $300 million for a new infrastructure debt fund, which has had a first close. The firm has also brought on Tom Emmons and Edward Levin as co-heads of its direct infrastructure debt investment team.

Prostar Capital, a private investment that focuses on investments that contribute to an energy transition to a lower carbon economy, has hired In Ku Kang as an operating partner based in Seoul, Korea. Mr. Kang most recently served as chief executive of Korean city gas business Kyungnam Energy, a portfolio company of the firm.

Toshiba Corp. worked closely with Japanese government officials to block foreign-based shareholders from exercising their rights, using inappropriate threats and language such as “beat them up,” Peter Landers and Megumi Fujikawa report for The Wall Street Journal, citing a company-commissioned report. The report harked back to the days when Japan Inc. was a popular term to describe the perceived tight linkage between big business and government in blocking foreign influence in Japan.

The internet is about to shake up India's stock market, Jacky Wong writes for The Wall Street Journal. A number of Indian internet companies will likely come to the market this or next year. Zomato, the country's answer to DoorDash, has filed to raise $1.1 billion. Walmart-owned e-commerce leader Flipkart, fintech giant Paytm and online learning platform Byju's are also in various stages of considering initial public offerings, according to local media reports.

BlackRock Inc. is pushing more aggressively into private market investments, the firm detailed at an investor presentation on Thursday, Reuters reports. Since interest rates were slashed to near-zero across the globe at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, investors have sought out other sources of yield. BlackRock said alternative investments -- including private equity, real estate, hedge funds and venture capital -- can offer a market-beating edge. Private market investments recorded 18% revenue growth for the company last year, twice the rate of the broader industry.

The biggest U.S. pension funds continued to invest heavily in alternative assets last year, with the 10 most active making $68 billion in fresh commitments to strategies such as private equity, private debt, hedge funds and real estate, according to an emailed report from Alternatives Watch. The New York State Common Retirement Fund topped the list at $14.3 billion, followed by the California State Teachers' Retirement System at $9.4 billion. The $248 billion New York pension aims to allocate 28% of its assets to alternative investments, the report says.

Publicly traded cybersecurity and compliance company Proofpoint Inc. said it did not receive any competing bids to Thoma Bravo’s roughly $12.3 billion proposed acquisition of the company during a go-shop period that ended on June 9, thus paving the way for the deal to move forward.

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