Private Equity 24 Hours

Last updated: August 6, 2026, 11:50 PM ET

European Take-Private Momentum Builds

Apollo Global Management has secured a recommended cash offer for easy Jet, valuing the FTSE 100 airline at approximately £5.7bn and ending a fast-moving four-week bidding contest. The landmark take-private represents one of the largest European private equity buyouts of the year, underscoring the continued appetite of US sponsors for undervalued European listed assets. The deal comes as private equity firms increasingly target European mid-cap and large-cap companies trading at discounts to their US peers.

Infrastructure and Power Assets Drive Deal Flow

LS Power has agreed to acquire the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, in a transaction that satisfies a regulatory divestiture commitment tied to Constellation's 2025 acquisition of Calpine. The deal highlights how regulatory requirements continue to create secondary-market opportunities for infrastructure investors. Partners Group is acquiring a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, a company that has delivered more than 20,000 projects and installed approximately 3.5GW of power for data centers across Europe's FLAP-D markets. The AVK Power acquisition reflects the surging demand for dedicated power infrastructure to support the rapid expansion of data center capacity. Veritas is set to acquire Greenbelt-backed Saber Power Services, a vertically integrated power infrastructure services platform that helps customers build, modernize and maintain critical electrical systems. Arlington-backed TRP Infrastructure has closed five add-on deals to form a new highway plastics division, with the targets being folded into a new platform called Gulf Highway Materials.

Healthcare and Life Sciences Investments Surge

KKR has agreed to acquire Medicover India, the Indian hospital operations of Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Medicover AB, adding a scaled multi-specialty network to its healthcare portfolio. The deal gives KKR control of a 24-hospital network in one of the world's fastest-growing healthcare markets. Ares Management is leading a $2.2bn direct loan to finance Med Impact Holdings' planned acquisition of Puerto Rico-based Medical Card System, according to Bloomberg. The financing marks one of the largest private credit packages in the healthcare services sector this year, demonstrating the growing role of direct lenders in M&A funding. Tortuga Growth Partners has invested in Advanced eClinical Training, with the investment made out of Tortuga Growth Partners Fund I, L.P.

Secondaries Market Continues to Heat Up

G Squared has secured $2.3bn for its seventh flagship vehicle, which is about twice the size of its previous fund and took half as long to raise. The rapid fundraising underscores the intensifying demand for venture secondaries as limited partners seek liquidity solutions in a constrained exit environment. Pantheon has backed a new credit continuation vehicle from BlackRock's BDC, which will house over $500m of debt positions held by TCPC, with pricing coming in at 95% of gross fair value as of 31 December 2025. The GP-led market's domination in the first half of the year is being driven not only by market volatility but also by fundraising dynamics and expansion into new asset classes. Assessing a quick-flip continuation vehicle on the asset's hold period alone is an imperfect metric, according to industry analysts.

M&A Activity Across Sectors

Sunoco is acquiring Court Square-backed oil transporter Offen Petroleum for $600m, with the target operating a fuel distribution network delivering approximately 2.5 billion gallons annually to approximately 7,000 customers. The acquisition strengthens Sunoco's fuel distribution footprint in the US. Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading has completed its acquisition of Broadbranch Advisors, with the deal closing at the end of July. MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective has acquired Clean Your Dirty Face, marking the first acquisition since the platform's launch earlier in 2026. Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid has acquired autonomous commissioning company Ping Cx, introducing a new product strategy centered on three integrated offerings—FG Construct, Validate, and Sustain. RedBird's Affinia has added Wilson Partners in a UK accounting tie-up, with Wilson Partners advising small and medium-sized enterprises, private individuals and private equity investors across the UK. Veritas has agreed to acquire Greenbelt-backed Saber Power Services, while Partners Group is in talks to buy beauty business Aroma-Zone from Eurazeo, and CVC and Veritas Capital are vying for Bodycote, the heat treatment and metallurgical services provider.

Professional Services Consolidation Continues

Broad Sky has grown Smith + Howard 4x before exiting to TPG, with Broad Sky CEO Tyler Zachem noting that the business is durable because tax and audit advisory are needed in good and bad times. The sale to TPG represents a successful build-and-sell strategy for Broad Sky, which scaled the professional services firm significantly during its hold period. The Smith + Howard deal close was first reported by PE Hub, highlighting the continued consolidation in the accounting and professional services sector.

Venture and Growth Investments

Verdane has made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT and recurring software company providing manufacturing intelligence services. The investment reflects growing private equity interest in industrial technology and software-enabled manufacturing solutions. Y Combinator is seeing a growing class of second-time founders, with an analysis of a dataset of 454 repeat founders who have gone through its cohorts revealing significant insights into the return of the repeat founder.

LP Trends and Fundraising

Italian pension fund ENPAV has released an RFP for private equity co-investment, signaling continued appetite for direct exposure among European institutional investors. MMAA is looking to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind pool private equity and venture capital funds for 2026. Korea Post Insurance is seeking to commit 60bn Korean won to domestic blind-pool venture capital funds for 2026. The Danish retirement scheme Industriens Pension is mulling adding more infrastructure secondaries exposure, favoring indirect over direct investment in secondaries and having made commitments to all five infra secondaries vehicles managed by Pantheon. Mega-firms are largely defying fundraising and exit headwinds, while OMERS is plotting a fivefold increase of its PE portfolio, according to industry analysis. New Jersey sees opportunity in the slow exit market, with CIO Shoaib Khan saying re-ups and new opportunities are being looked at on equal footing, despite being spared liquidity concerns. The UK has expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies, a move that could ease hiring for private equity-backed portfolio companies.

Deal Flow and Market Outlook

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is lining up data center contractor Divcon for sale, according to sources, while the companies-for-sale update also highlights the professional services deal close that PE Hub was first to report. Europe's 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026 have been identified, providing a snapshot of which firms are driving deal activity across the continent. Paris continues to be a hub for founders and VCs, with seven spots identified for meetings in the French capital. The flurry of activity across infrastructure, healthcare, and technology sectors suggests that private equity firms are deploying capital aggressively despite broader market uncertainty. With large-cap take-privates like easy Jet and continued strength in secondaries fundraising, the private equity market is demonstrating resilience and adaptability in a challenging environment.