Private Equity 24-Hour Briefing
×Last updated: November 2, 2026, 3:40 PM ET
Mega-Deals & Control Transactions
Stonepeak has completed its acquisition peinsights.substack.com of a 65% controlling stake in Castrol from bp, a transaction valued at roughly $8bn, with bp banking around $6bn. Stonepeak also completed its buyout peinsights.substack.com of Estia Health, one of Australia's largest aged care operators, after Bain Capital exited the position.
Blackstone Credit & Insurance has led a $3.1bn investor group peinsights.substack.com of four leading Canadian institutions into Mitsubishi's stake in LNG Canada, marking a significant cross-border energy infrastructure commitment.
Fund Closes & Fundraising
AE Industrial Partners closed an $850m peinsights.substack.com continuation vehicle for Blue Raven, led by Lexington, underscoring continued demand for single-asset secondary structures. Creandum raised $750m sifted.eu for its largest-ever fund to back AI-driven startups, while Missile defence startup Hypersonica raised €100m sifted.eu from Lightspeed and General Catalyst.
Apollo launched European Credit Company peinsights.substack.com, a standalone lending platform with $11.5bn of capacity. Ares plans to launch pei-secondariesinvestor.com an infrastructure secondaries fund focused on GP-led transactions, and Blue Owl Capital is nearing a first close pei-secondariesinvestor.com on its credit secondaries fund.
Venture Funding Concentration
Record venture funding in 2026 has been increasingly concentrated news.crunchbase.com in massive AI rounds, even as the number of individual deals shrinks, a divide that defines the year's headline figures. Separately, the PEI Secondaries Investor Advisory Survey 2026 pei-secondariesinvestor.com highlights the advisers guiding the secondaries market's rapid expansion.
Infrastructure, Nature & Strategic Stakes
Apollo took a minority stake peinsights.substack.com in Mubadala Capital, one of the week's notable strategic moves. I Squared Capital and ADIA backed Avolon's peinsights.substack.com new aircraft leasing platform with a $1.4bn seed portfolio. Eurazeo has been appointed to manage peinsights.substack.com a $40m nature allocation backed by Bank of America and King Charles' Sustainable Markets Initiative. Lazard completed its acquisition peinsights.substack.com of Campbell Lutyens and launched Lazard CL.
Europe's Growth Landscape
London was named the best global hub sifted.eu for launching an AI company, while a Bulgarian satellite company, Enduro Sat, has become a unicorn sifted.eu, putting Sofia on the investment map. Sifted also profiled fifteen photonics startups sifted.eu that VCs are watching closely.
Coming Up
Tech Crunch's Founder Summit takes place techcrunch.com on November 4 in Boston, focused on founders building outside Silicon Valley.