Know What's Happening in Private Equity
Know What's Happening in Private Equity
Lead Edge Capital launches AI‑driven secondary market fund
Lead Edge Capital announced the launch of its seventh flagship fund, targeting secondary market investments across fund‑level and direct‑secondaries. The new vehicle will use artificial‑intelligence analytics to enhance deal sourcing, pricing accuracy, and risk assessment.
Banijay Entertainment and All3Media, both backed by private equity, announced a definitive merger that will combine their production assets under a single entity. The deal creates one of the world’s largest independent television and digital content houses, spanning scripted, unscripted and factual programming. While financial terms were not disclosed, the merger signals a strategic push to scale operations and broaden global distribution networks. Integration is expected to begin later this year, pending regulatory clearance.
U.S. sponsored loan issuance reached $148.7 bn YTD through February 2026, a 26% decline compared with the same period last year. Refinancing activity accounted for $82.3 bn, or 55% of total volume, while new money contributed $66.4 bn (45%). The slowdown reflects tighter...
Apollo’s third flagship fund, Apollo S3, is focusing on expanding its secondaries platform primarily through organic growth, while remaining open to selective acquisitions, said co‑head Steve Lessar at PEI’s NEXUS conference. The fund’s strategy reflects confidence in the deepening liquidity...
Hunter Point CEO Avi Kalichstein told Private Equity International that Japan’s general‑partner (GP) ecosystem, though still nascent, is gaining momentum. He highlighted a growing talent pipeline and an increasing appetite for partnership among Japanese firms. Kalichstein believes these dynamics will...
Afrimat posted a strong interim 2026 rebound after a 90% profit plunge in 2025, with revenue rising 29.9% to R5.3 billion and operating profit up 29.8% to R380 million. Earnings per share jumped 92.3% to 101.9 cents, pushing the stock to a 20‑times...
KBRA released its latest Direct Lending Default Index data covering the trailing twelve months through March 3, 2026. The chart shows a 12% increase in defaults compared with the prior year, reflecting heightened stress in the private credit market. The index, which...
Private equity markets in Europe are confronting a slowdown in exits, raising concerns that policymakers could step in to support liquidity. In the United Kingdom, large distribution‑capital firms are increasingly deploying capital directly, altering the structure of private‑market investing. Meanwhile,...
Private equity’s expansion into health‑care has sparked a policy debate, but dentistry reveals a more nuanced picture. A recent study with the American Dental Association found that PE‑owned dental practices did not secure higher negotiated insurer rates. Instead, they raised...
Case Study: Effective Vendor Financing in Business Acquisitions This topic was highlighted by a question from Tomo, a follower intrigued by the mechanics behind vendor take-back notes. Challenge: When purchasing a business with vendor financing, one of the key concerns for both...
In this episode of M&A Talk, host Jacob Oros interviews serial entrepreneur Travis Jameson, who has founded and exited a dozen businesses across tech, e‑commerce, SaaS, and health products. Jameson shares his core lesson for building a sellable company: make...
Paramount announced a $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, paying $31 per share—a 150% premium to the pre‑talk price. The deal includes a $7 billion regulatory fee and a $2.8 billion breakup fee for Netflix, which withdrew its bid. Combining Paramount, CBS,...
Tim Whittaker of the European Investment Partners Association (EIPA) argues that while infrastructure is often marketed as a defensive asset class, current valuation practices smooth out volatility and conceal true risk. He calls on regulators to require private market investors...
CapMan announced the launch of its third Nordic infrastructure fund, targeting €750 million in commitments. The new vehicle represents a roughly 90% increase over the firm’s previous €400 million fund. It will focus on renewable energy, transport, and digital infrastructure projects across...
Maven Capital Partners, a UK alternative investment firm, announced a leadership transition. Long‑time executive Ewan MacKinnon has been named managing partner, succeeding founder Bill Nixon. Nixon will step back from day‑to‑day operations and assume an advisory capacity as part of...
Madrid‑based Qualitas Funds, a fund‑of‑funds specialist owned by Ridgepost Capital, has launched its first dedicated secondary‑market vehicle with a €100 million hard cap. The new vehicle aims to acquire stakes in existing private‑equity funds, providing liquidity to limited partners and expanding...
Benefit Street Partners argues that private credit is entering its third act, defined by greater scale, operational flexibility, and industry consolidation. Institutional investors are allocating more capital to alternative credit for its excess returns and diversification benefits. However, they are...
The Malaysian grocery landscape just changed forever. 🚨 Thai retail giant CP Axtra (the power behind Lotus’s) is officially acquiring 100% of The Food Purveyor for RM1.66 billion. 💰 By Q4 2026, the group will control 120 stores nationwide, blending the scale...
Major narrative violation but a private equity-owned SaaS company, financed by *gasp* private credit, is rapidly building out its AI capabilities. https://t.co/DOGvFQyXdN
M&A‑focused activist campaigns surged in late 2025 and are projected to intensify throughout 2026. Activists are zeroing in on cash‑rich small‑ and mid‑cap public companies, especially those overlooked by the AI boom but with solid fundamentals. They are increasingly partnering...
On March 2, 2026, The Lead Left published its latest Covenant Trends report, highlighting the “Accordion Inside Maturity” covenant pattern. The release includes a detailed chart and a downloadable Excel file (66.8 KB) containing the underlying data. The dataset is intended...
The latest PitchBook data shows median enterprise‑value‑to‑revenue (EV/revenue) multiples for North American and European private‑equity buyouts of $2.5 billion or more climbed to 5.5 times in 2025, up from 4.7 times in 2015. After hitting a trough in 2023, valuations rebounded to levels...
The inaugural private‑markets performance quarterly report highlights how the COVID‑19 pandemic generated a rare dislocation that let investors acquire high‑quality assets at steep discounts. Those opportunistic purchases translated into robust internal‑rate‑of‑return (IRR) outcomes across the 2019‑2024 interval. The report’s rolling...
Nvidia leveraged its 2020 $7 billion acquisition of Mellanox to transform its networking business into a major growth engine. In the most recent fiscal quarter the company reported $11 billion in networking revenue, a 263 % increase year‑over‑year, positioning it as the world’s...
Brookfield Asset Management announced a new private‑placement commercial paper program with a $1 billion ceiling. The unsecured notes will be issued on a short‑term basis to diversify the firm’s funding mix and bolster its balance sheet. Proceeds are slated for general...
Blackstone’s evergreen private‑debt vehicle, BCRED, experienced a $3.7 billion outflow as investors sought liquidity. In response, the fund raised its quarterly redemption limit from 5 % to 7 % of assets. The withdrawals reflect heightened stress in the leveraged loan market and growing...
US BioTek Laboratories, a Shoreline, Washington functional lab specializing in advanced immunological and integrative diagnostics, announced a merger with NutriPath Pathology. The deal is backed by private‑equity firm Pike Street Capital, signaling a strategic consolidation in the clinical diagnostics space....
Supply chain firm Aeromed has secured an investment from private‑equity firm Gemspring. The capital will back Aeromed’s recent acquisitions of HITEK Electronic Materials Ltd., NorcaTec LLC, and Kit Pack Company, Inc., expanding its capabilities across aerospace and defense components. The...
Italian private pension fund Fondo Pensione BNL has issued a request for proposals to allocate roughly €10 million into evergreen private equity vehicles. The RFP focuses on both closed‑end and open‑end funds domiciled within the European Union, reflecting a strategic shift...
Evergreen private equity funds are under increasing pressure to maintain rigorous, real‑time valuations. General partners’ internal marks now feed directly into faster net asset value (NAV) calculations, accelerating reporting cycles. These valuations are bound by heightened legal obligations, requiring strict...
We just released our 2026 Lower-Middle-Market LOI Template. Built from 500+ deals and $1.6B+ in closed (and busted) transactions. It’s designed to reduce retrades, surface deal killers early, and increase close probability. Download it here: https://smblaw.group/services/mergers-and-acquisitions Scroll to the middle of the page to access...
Accounting Today’s 2026 Fastest‑Growing Firms list shows private‑equity‑backed firms dominate, with 23 of the 26 top performers receiving PE investment or platform support. Overall, 41% of the firms posted double‑digit growth, while 42 firms grew more than 20% year‑over‑year. Alan & James...
ArcLight Capital Partners announced the appointment of Gary Lambert as a senior advisor. Lambert previously served as CEO of Competitive Power Ventures, where he led multiple renewable energy transactions. His addition brings deep expertise in power generation financing and M&A....
Moelis & Co managing director Jeff Hammer announced at NEXUS 2026 that continuation vehicles (CVs) have become an established exit route for private equity general partners, alongside traditional M&A and IPO pathways. He attributed this shift to the growing specialization...
David Nowak, president of Brookfield Asset Management’s private‑equity arm, said operational improvements in portfolio companies will separate winners from losers in the sector. He stressed that post‑deal value creation, rather than just deal sourcing, is the decisive factor. Meanwhile, CCMP...
Middle‑market companies often overlook how their brand story shapes early buyer perception. A clear, coherent market narrative—supported by logical brand architecture—helps investors, partners, and customers quickly grasp the business’s value and growth potential. When the story aligns with evidence, it...
At PEI Group’s NEXUS conference, Neal Costello, co‑head of New Mountain Atlas, said the firm’s willingness to accept a high volume of CVs indicates a favorable environment for new private‑equity talent. He explained that New Mountain plans to differentiate by...
The latest Dealogic and Bain & Company chart shows a noticeable uptick in corporate exit activity across the United States and Europe during 2025. This rise signals that the backlog of stalled mergers and acquisitions is finally being cleared. Higher...
The article argues that private‑equity investors should concentrate on the United States rather than diversify internationally. It highlights the US market’s unmatched depth, efficiency, and transparency, noting that U.S. buyouts account for over half of global deal activity. The piece...
Talked to a small-cap private equity GP, and he said that from day one, they've always asked LPs for the flexibility to do both majority and minority investments... They’ve seen many great companies where the owners have clear reasons for not...
No wonder direct lending to software buyouts was so popular. Out of 300+ loans that Blue Owl has made since inception, only one has defaulted. That one loan was to finance Vista Equity's $3.5 billion buyout of Pluralsight in 2021. Blue Owl...
In this episode, James Carver, a CFO with two private‑equity‑backed exits, walks through his career—from trading desks and investment banking to leading finance functions in mid‑market companies—and shares the operational and strategic levers that drove value in each sale. He...
There's an interview with a guy who quit his job and, with no prior experience, raised a $95 million to acquire 13+ "boring" niche businesses. Less than 120 views. Meanwhile, a gentleman grilling a wasabi-marinated A5 wagyu steak has over 7.5...
Achmea Pension & Life, a Dutch insurer, has appointed a new chief investment officer with a private‑credit focus. The hire coincides with a joint venture between Achmea and US private‑markets manager Sixth Street aimed at expanding and diversifying the insurer’s...
In this Family Office Roundtable, Ron and Wendy discuss the massive $124 trillion wealth transfer from baby boomers to the next generation and how family offices are adapting. They focus on AI’s disruptive role, highlighting platforms like Opto that can filter...
Artificial intelligence is gaining traction in private credit as a productivity tool rather than a decision‑making replacement. The technology excels at extracting and structuring data from loan agreements, amendments, and financial statements, cutting down manual document handling. Oxane Partners stresses...
