Last updated: August 7, 2026, 2:51 AM ET

Private Equity Briefing: Mega-Deals, Secondaries Surge, and Strategic Realignments

Landmark Take-Private and Healthcare Consolidation

Apollo has secured a £5.7bn 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 European take-private marks one of the largest leveraged buyouts in the region this year, underscoring private equity's continued appetite for undervalued listed assets. In healthcare, KKR has agreed to acquire Medicover India, the Indian hospital operations of Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Medicover AB, adding a scaled 24-hospital multi-specialty network to its healthcare portfolio. The deal reflects the growing strategic importance of Indian healthcare infrastructure as private capital seeks exposure to the region's rapidly expanding middle-class demand for medical services.

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 private credit package demonstrates the continued dominance of direct lenders in financing large healthcare transactions, as traditional syndicated loan markets remain constrained. The deal also highlights how private credit firms are increasingly competing with banks for the most attractive financing mandates.

Energy, Power, and Infrastructure Deals

Sunoco has agreed to acquire Court Square-backed Offen Petroleum for $600m, with the target operating a fuel distribution network delivering approximately 2.5 billion gallons annually to roughly 7,000 customers. The acquisition strengthens Sunoco's wholesale fuel distribution footprint at a time when energy infrastructure assets are commanding premium valuations. Meanwhile, LS Power is acquiring the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, with the transaction satisfying a regulatory divestiture commitment tied to Constellation's 2025 acquisition of Calpine. The deal illustrates the ongoing reshuffling of power generation assets as private equity firms position for rising electricity demand from data centers and electrification.

Partners Group is acquiring a majority stake in AVK Power, a provider 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 investment underscores the critical role of power infrastructure in supporting the artificial intelligence-driven data center boom. In a related development, Goldman Sachs Asset Management is lining up data center contractor Divcon for sale, according to sources, highlighting the active deal flow in power engineering services. Veritas Capital is also acquiring 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. The bolt-on strategy reflects the ongoing trend of private equity firms building scale through serial acquisitions in fragmented infrastructure niches.

Secondaries Market Momentum and Fundraising

The secondaries market is experiencing unprecedented momentum, with G Squared securing $2.3bn for its seventh flagship fund in record time, with the vehicle about twice the size of its previous fund and taking half as long to raise. The rapid fundraising demonstrates institutional investors' growing conviction in the secondaries asset class as a source of liquidity and diversification. Pantheon is backing BlackRock BDC's credit continuation vehicle, with the new vehicle housing over $500m of debt positions held by TCPC, with pricing at 95% of gross fair value as of December 2025.

GP-led transactions dominated the secondaries market in the first half of the year, with market volatility only telling part of the story, as fundraising and expansion into new asset classes also drive growth. However, industry participants caution that assessing a quick-flip continuation vehicle on the asset's hold period alone is an imperfect metric, with the burden of proof falling on sponsors to demonstrate value creation potential. Danish pension scheme Industriens Pension is mulling adding more infrastructure secondaries exposure, with the retirement scheme favouring indirect over direct investment and having made commitments to all five infrastructure secondaries vehicles managed by Pantheon.

Venture Capital and Early-Stage Activity

Andreessen Horowitz has expanded its network of venture scouts across Europe to more than 30 individuals, hunting for early-stage deals across the continent. The scout model allows the firm to source proprietary deal flow while maintaining a lean footprint in key European tech hubs. In the fintech space, Lendable is pursuing its superapp vision, with leadership noting the company is "more constrained by capacity than ideas," signaling ambitious product expansion plans despite operational limitations.

Y Combinator's latest cohorts show a growing class of repeat founders, with a dataset of 454 repeat founders revealing interesting insights about serial entrepreneurship patterns. The trend suggests that experienced founders are increasingly viewed as lower-risk bets by early-stage investors. Meanwhile, Queen Mary University of London spinouts are looking to raise, adding to the pipeline of university-derived deep tech opportunities seeking institutional capital.

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 software platforms that benefit from the ongoing digitization of manufacturing operations. In a separate transaction, Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid has acquired autonomous commissioning company PingCx, introducing a new product strategy centered on three integrated offerings—FG Construct, Validate, and Sustain—as the company bolsters its AI-enabled capabilities.

Professional Services and Business Services Consolidation

Broad Sky has grown Smith + Howard fourfold before exiting to TPG, with the deal closing after significant operational improvements. "The business is durable; tax and audit advisory are needed in good and bad times," Broad Sky CEO Tyler Zachem told PE Hub, highlighting the resilience of professional services investments across economic cycles. The successful exit demonstrates the value creation potential in accounting and advisory platforms.

Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading has snapped up Broadbranch Advisors, with the deal closing at the end of July as the platform continues its buy-and-build strategy. Red Bird's Affinia has also 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. MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective has acquired Clean Your Dirty Face, marking the first acquisition for the platform since its launch earlier in 2026, while Tortuga Growth Partners has invested in Advanced eClinical Training out of its Fund I, L.P.

Investor Activity and LP Trends

Italian pension fund ENPAV has released an RFP for private equity co-investment, while South Korean institutions are ramping up domestic commitments, with MMAA looking to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind pool private equity and venture capital funds for 2026. Korea Post Insurance is also targeting 60bn Korean won for domestic blind-pool venture capital funds, reflecting a broader trend of Asian institutional investors supporting local ecosystems.

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 the fund being spared liquidity concerns. The counter-cyclical approach suggests sophisticated LPs are using the current environment to build positions at attractive valuations. Meanwhile, mega-firms are largely defying fundraising and exit headwinds, with OMERS plotting a fivefold increase of its PE portfolio, according to earnings season learnings.

The UK has expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies, potentially easing access to international tech talent for venture-backed startups. In a sign of continued M&A activity, Partners Group is in talks to buy beauty business Aroma-Zone from Eurazeo, while CVC and Veritas Capital vie for Bodycote, the heat treatment and metallurgical services provider. Pleo is facing a culture crisis amid executive exodus and sale speculation, highlighting the operational challenges that can emerge at high-growth fintech companies as they scale.