Private Equity 24 Hours

Last updated: September 7, 2026, 2:08 PM ET

Deals & Exits

A Toscafund-led consortium has agreed to take Spire Healthcare private for £1.03bn, ending the private-hospital operator's decade on the London market. In Australia, Warburg Pincus saw an unsolicited A$1.9bn bid for Ingenia Communities rebuffed, with the land-lease operator's board defending its existing Peet deal. Dutch firm Waterland is preparing a rival offer for Gamma Communications that would top the £1.08bn takeover already agreed with Epiris.

Growth & Venture

MBK Partners has agreed to take a minority stake in AXIS-Y, the vegan K-beauty brand, in a deal valuing the business at roughly 430bn won ($320m). Jack & Jill, the baby-care brand, has raised £30m in a round led by Air Street Capital. Meanwhile, the UK government is seeking a fund manager for a £150m northern scaleup fund aimed at boosting regional growth.

Consumer & Fitness

L Catterton is close to acquiring a controlling stake in Hyrox, the fitness competition sensation, in a deal valuing the brand at roughly €600m. In South Korea, KKR-backed fashion platform Musinsa is preparing a Kospi listing at $6bn, though a tax probe clouds the timing.

Sector Plays

EQT is betting on long-term insurance broking trends with its acquisition of McGill and Partners for $2bn. In a separate transaction, Altor has exited Flex IT, the circular IT services provider serving 13,000 customers across 35 countries, to Eurazeo, which is combining it with T1A Group.

Fundraising & Talent

Claret Capital has raised €575m for its fourth debt fund, noting that "less sexy" startups need access to alternative capital. The AI sector saw notable movement as Matt Clifford departed ARIA over conflict-of-interest concerns tied to his Anthropic role, while Deep Mind veteran Thore Graepel has left to pursue an AI reasoning venture. The $12.9bn sale of Hugging Face is both inspiring and dispiriting for Europe, reflecting the region's mixed tech moment.

Sports & Regional Insights

Private equity firms are increasingly teaming up with athletes as ambassadors beyond branding, while institutional capital races into women's sports as the sector becomes big business. Investors seeking returns beyond the padel hype are looking further than core infrastructure. For regional data, the Nordics leaderboard ranks the fastest-growing startups by revenue, while Stockholm offers 17 startup and investor hotspots for those scouting the region.