Private Equity 3d Briefing
×Last updated: March 18, 2026, 3:30 AM ET
Dealmaking Activity & Portfolio Transactions
The exit environment for private equity remains strained, with even assets acquired during less frothy market periods proving difficult to sell privateequityinternational.com, complicating the ability of managers to return capital to limited partners. This backdrop contrasts with a steady stream of acquisitions across sectors, including infrastructure, healthcare, and industrials. TPG launched One Aged Care pe-insights.com to target demand in Singapore and Malaysia's elder care sector, while TPG also created Velotic pehub.com, an industrial software firm led by former PTC CEO James Heppelmann as executive chairman. In infrastructure services, Oaktree-backed Aecon Utilities acquired pehub.com Duna Services and a stake in KNX Utility Services for $60 million plus potential contingent proceeds, and Fort Point-backed VisuSewer purchased pehub.com United Survey to expand critical wastewater infrastructure capabilities.
Major European exits are reportedly underway, as Advent and Cinven explore a €25 billion divestiture pe-insights.com of TK Elevator, with Kone entering takeover discussions. Elsewhere in Europe, Nordic Capital agreed to acquire pehub.com a majority stake in trade surveillance business Trading Hub from existing investor Summit Partners, and Norvestor is pursuing a $225 million cash offer pehub.com for Oslo-listed payroll provider Zalaris, which equates to €197 million pehub.com. In North America, Warburg Pincus is considering pe-insights.com options for subprime auto lender Exeter Finance in a deal potentially valued around $3 billion, while HIG Capital is testing the market pehub.com for industrial services company JT Thorpe, whose revenue stream is tied to industrial system outages.
The M&A pipeline saw several platform expansions, including Audax acquiring property management firm Akam pehub.com from Nautic Partners, and Knox Lane-backed Ruppert Landscape acquiring pehub.com Landscapes Unlimited to boost its commercial landscaping footprint. In the manufacturing space, Gryphon-backed Mechanix Wear purchased pehub.com PPE manufacturer Otex, and PE-backed Technimark snapped up pehub.com Rage Custom Plastics for specialized injection-molded components. Further platform building included Sagard-backed Norbec acquiring pehub.com Canadian Curtis, a designer of prefabricated cold rooms, and LFM absorbing manufacturer PowerBuilt pehub.com into its American Automation Group.
Investor Relations & Capital Management
Institutional investors are adjusting mandates amid market uncertainty, evidenced by the Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System exiting privateequityinternational.com its exposure to Clearlake due to perceived conflicts of interest arising from Clearlake’s planned acquisition of Pathway Capital Management. Similarly, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is exploring pe-insights.com a $1.5 billion sale of its Asia-focused private equity fund stakes, marking a second instance in four years where a major LP, Maine, has outlined plans secondariesinvestor.com to cut its PE target and potentially utilize secondaries markets. The trend of senior departures continued at Australia’s Future Fund privateequityinternational.com, where joint managing directors for private equity and real assets, David Bluff and Tammi Fisher, resigned amid internal leadership changes.
Fundraising shows pockets of strength, particularly in infrastructure and specific geographic mandates. I Squared Capital is nearing $10 billion pe-insights.com in commitments for its newest flagship infrastructure fund, signaling strong LP appetite for that asset class. Meanwhile, Triton sees its €5.5 billion fundraise privateequityinternational.com as a direct beneficiary of Europe’s autonomy agenda, positioning investments at the intersection of energy and sovereignty goals. Geographically, Hong Kong’s Gaw Capital is launching a new growth fund privateequityinternational.com targeting Gulf capital that might be redirected domestically rather than invested in US or European assets due to perceived retrenchment in those markets.
Awards, Strategy, & Thematic Focus
PE Hub announced its Deal of the Year winners pehub.com, with Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman taking the top honor pehub.com for the $7.2 billion Medline IPO. In the mid-cap category, Kinderhook Industries won for the VAI sale to RealTruck pehub.com, while Oakley Capital earned the European Mid-Cap award pehub.com for the sale of legal database vLex to Clio. On the small-cap side, JC Flowers secured the Small-Cap Europe award pehub.com for selling HRK Lunis to Seven2. Separately, Capza partner Antoine Druais discussed pehub.com a strategy focused on becoming a "multi-specialist" rather than a generalist.
The acceleration of AI investment is drawing significant attention from large-cap players, with TPG, Bain, Brookfield, and Advent in talks pe-insights.com with OpenAI regarding a potential $10 billion enterprise AI venture. However, this intense focus on AI raises concerns about wealth concentration, as investor Rana el Kaliouby warned that if women are excluded from AI funding and leadership roles, the consequences for the wealth gap will be severe techcrunch.com. In contrast to the hype, accelerators are noting that many pitches are superficial; for instance, Google and Accel found about 70% of Indian AI pitches techcrunch.com were "wrappers" when reviewing over 4,000 applications for their Atoms cohort.
European Venture & Sector Deep Dives
European startups are seeing specialized injections of capital, particularly in defensive and infrastructure-related technology. The conflict in Iran has placed Europe’s air defence technology startups sifted.eu under intense scrutiny, as experts note the "impossible to ignore" gap in current capabilities. In the fintech sphere, European firms face a growing internal sovereignty challenge that is becoming increasingly difficult to disregard pehub.com. Meanwhile, Dutch fintech Upvest secured a $125 million raise sifted.eu backed by major players Tencent and Sapphire Ventures. In the UK, digital health marketplace Healf topped Sifted’s third UK and Ireland leaderboard sifted.eu, while Alma CEO Louis Chatriot spoke candidly about making "hard choices" and dismissing startup hype as "bullshit" sifted.eu.
In sector-specific activity, L Catterton plans to deploy $313 million pe-insights.com across five Japanese consumer businesses as part of an intensified regional strategy. In the US, NewMile and Haywood Lane backed pehub.com Wilkerson Crane Rental to fund fleet and geographic expansion, and New Heritage-backed Icelandirect acquired pehub.com supplement manufacturer Soma Labs. On the exit front, Seaport successfully exited tech company Exacom pehub.com to Motorola Solutions. Furthermore, the market for smaller deals, defined as those between $100 million and $300 million, remains well below the peak levels seen in 2021, though collectively these transactions still account for a significant sum news.crunchbase.com.