Last updated: August 7, 2026, 5:34 AM ET

Private Equity Briefing: Mega-Deals, Fundraising Surge, and Secondaries Momentum

Take-Private Wave Accelerates Across Europe

The take-private market is heating up as Apollo landed a £5.7bn recommended offer for easy Jet, valuing the FTSE 100 airline after a fast-moving four-week bidding contest. The deal marks a landmark European take-private and underscores the rising prevalence of "bear hugs" in UK public-to-private transactions. Meanwhile, Bodycote confirmed two competing cash proposals from CVC and Veritas Capital Fund IX, with each valuing the heat treatment specialist at approximately £1.56bn in a Rule 2.4 statement issued to the London Stock Exchange. The competing bids for Bodycote highlight intensifying auction dynamics for UK-listed industrials.

KKR agreed to acquire Integer Holdings in an all-cash transaction valuing the NYSE-listed medical device maker at approximately $5.7bn, a deal that also drew attention to naval and biotech investments in the same week. The Integer carve-out adds to KKR's healthcare portfolio alongside its agreement to acquire Medicover India's 24-hospital network from Nasdaq Stockholm-listed Medicover AB. Nordic Capital struck a deal to acquire BWX Technologies' medical isotopes business in a transaction valued at up to $800m, marking a significant radiopharma bet. Bending Spoons completed its first acquisition since its IPO, striking a $2.25bn deal for Airtable.

Fundraising Momentum Builds Across Flagship Vehicles

Apollo is roughly halfway to its target for Fund XI, which has a target of $22bn-$25bn, having begun raising capital in February. The firm's fundraising progress comes as mega-firms largely defy fundraising headwinds in the latest earnings season, with OMERS plotting a fivefold increase of its PE portfolio. TPG has nabbed the lion's share of a $17bn target for TPG X and its third healthcare fund, both launched in mid-2025 as part of TPG's $94bn Capital platform. G Squared secured $2.3bn for its seventh flagship, about twice the size of its previous vehicle and raised in half the time.

Nextalia raised €1.1bn for its second flagship fund in just five months, pulling commitments from over 200 investors and pushing the Italian platform past €3.4bn. The European investment landscape is also shifting with 144 new funds launched this year, revealing the continent's venture pulse. The EU's €5bn tech superfund is officially open for business, while EQT's €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund made its debut investment with a €450m round into Finnish satellite operator ICEYE at a €10bn valuation.

Secondaries Market Surges on Multiple Fronts

GP-leds 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 drove growth. GIC is preparing to offload around $1bn worth of private equity fund stakes on the secondary market, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, as sovereign wealth funds keep tapping the market. MetLife Investment Management closed its third managed secondary transaction, raising approximately $1.2bn for its Private Equity Partners Fund III with Lexington Partners as lead investor, after having shopped a portfolio with $1.8bn in NAV. Pantheon is backing a BlackRock BDC credit continuation vehicle that will house over $500m of debt positions held by TCPC, with pricing at 95% of gross fair value.

Carlyle's chief executive Harvey Schwartz said that cyclical tailwinds buoying secondaries will persist for the "next several years," with the firm increasingly viewing Alp Invest as more of a corporate finance business. LGT Capital Partners launched its debut credit secondaries strategy, seeking to invest in LP-led, GP-led and opportunistic deals with an emphasis on senior lending. Danish pension fund Industriens Pension is mulling adding more infrastructure secondaries exposure, having made commitments to all five infra secondaries vehicles managed by Pantheon. DraftKings seed investor Ryan Moore has closed on $78.5m for Revenant Ventures' debut VC secondaries fund. The shorter the hold period on a continuation vehicle, the higher the burden of proof, with assessing a quick-flip CV on hold period alone an imperfect metric.

Energy and Infrastructure Deals Dominate M&A

LS Power is acquiring the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, a transaction that satisfies a regulatory divestiture commitment tied to Constellation's 2025 acquisition of Calpine. Partners Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, a Maidenhead-based provider of power systems for data centers and AI infrastructure that has delivered more than 20,000 projects and installed approximately 3.5GW of power across Europe's FLAP-D markets. Sunoco is acquiring Court Square-backed Offen Petroleum for $600m, with the target operating a fuel distribution network delivering approximately 2.5 billion gallons annually to about 7,000 customers. Veritas is acquiring Saber Power Services from Greenbelt, adding a vertically integrated power infrastructure services platform.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is lining up data center contractor Divcon for sale, with Divcon providing building management and electrical power monitoring systems to data centers and other mission-critical facilities. Arlington-backed TRP Infrastructure closed five add-on deals to form a new highway plastics division called Gulf Highway Materials. Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid acquired autonomous commissioning company PingCx, introducing a new product strategy centered on three integrated offerings. Private equity interest in naval investments is surging, with the US Navy budget over $300bn, larger than the GDP of over 75% of the world's countries.

Healthcare and Life Sciences Deals Accelerate

Tortuga Growth Partners invested in Advanced eClinical Training out of its Fund I, adding a clinical training platform to its portfolio. Ares Management is leading a $2.2bn private credit package to finance Med Impact Holdings' planned acquisition of Puerto Rico-based Medical Card System, according to Bloomberg. Sheridan Capital Partners acquired Carolina Components Group, a provider of custom-engineered bioprocessing assemblies, with partner Sean De... noting strong anticipated interest when the firm goes to sell. Veritas is also acquiring environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill, which had acquired the firm in 2021 from LLCP.

Consumer and Business Services Deals

Bain Capital is acquiring Gong cha from TA Associates, adding the tea beverage chain serving milk tea, fruit tea and other cold drinks to its consumer portfolio. TSG Consumer took a majority stake in Saltair, valuing the body care brand at the top of its category after three years of strong growth. Axum Capital agreed to acquire beverage brand Barcode, a Los Angeles-based plant-based and hydration drink company. MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective acquired Clean Your Dirty Face, the first acquisition since the platform's launch earlier in 2026. Waterland took a majority stake in Danish industrial services firm Norisol, which posted an operating margin of over 13% in 2025 and expects revenue to exceed DKr1bn in 2026.

Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading snapped up Broadbranch Advisors in a deal that closed at the end of July. RedBird's Affinia added Wilson Partners in a UK accounting tie-up, with Wilson Partners advising SMEs, private individuals and PE investors across the UK. KKR-backed FGS scooped up government affairs firm Rich Feuer Anderson, marking FGS's second acquisition of a bipartisan government affairs firm following its September 2025 purchase of Tarplin, Downs & Young. Wind Point Partners took ECI off H.I.G. Capital's hands in a financial services MSP handover, with ECI serving alternative asset managers and regulated financial firms. Advent and HarbourVest agreed to acquire FNZ Bank in Germany, an independent wealth management banking and infrastructure provider connecting more than 50,000 financial advisers. Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon to Francisco Partners, with Command Alkon providing software and platform technology for the heavy building materials industry. PE-backed ContextLogic is acquiring chemicals manufacturer gChem from Eagle Tree for $850m, making gChem its second operating business following its early 2026 acquisition of US Salt.

Venture and Growth Equity Highlights

A16z has 30+ venture scouts hunting for deals across Europe, expanding its reach into the continent's startup ecosystem. Y Combinator's growing class of repeat founders shows the return of second-timers, with a dataset of 454 repeat founders revealing interesting insights. Moove raised $250M to become the backbone of the robotaxi industry, scaling up autonomous vehicle fleet management with plans to someday own Waymo robotaxis. Robinhood is listing a fund that lets any retail investor back Y Combinator startups through a new financial instrument. WindBorne Systems raised a $37 million Series B to scale its weather balloons and AI forecasts.

Legaltech Wordsmith raised $14m in a Series B extension from Index and FT Ventures. Fintech startup Moss was crowned Europe's newest unicorn with a €30m Series C round. Oxylabs hit a $3.6bn valuation after a decade of turning down VCs, citing "right timing, right partner." A16z backed HappyRobot at a $1.2bn valuation. Verdane made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT and recurring software company providing manufacturing intelligence services. AshGrove backed 10x Banking, which provides cloud-native core banking technology for modernizing legacy infrastructure. Lendable is chasing the superapp dream, with leadership saying "we are more constrained by capacity than ideas." Yann LeCun joined a new VC firm with 244 LPs, adding AI credibility to the fund. Nscale will provide compute to Oxford, UCL and Imperial AI researchers in an exclusive arrangement. Clearlake is partnering with OpenAI as PE firms like Blackstone, TPG and EQT have been active in partnering with AI businesses.

Institutional Investors Deploy Capital

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. Italian pension fund ENPAV released an RFP for private equity co-investment. Korea's MMAA looks to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind pool private equity and venture capital funds for 2026. Korea Post Insurance is seeking 60bn Korean won in domestic blind-pool venture capital funds. Boston Retirement Systems issued an RFP for up to an $85m private equity mandate. The UK expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies, broadening access for startups to hire international talent.

Earnings and Market Dynamics

Allianz posted record operating profit for the second quarter and first half of 2026, with €39bn of net inflows into its asset management arm as PIMCO and AGI pushed third-party AuM to a record €2.16tn. Carlyle's realisations drove a strong earnings quarter, with the US buyout strategy distributing capital at more than double the industry rate. Hamilton Lane says evergreen hesitancy is only temporary, with some investors "housing capital" in evergreens before redeeming to fund a Hamilton Lane SMA. The music industry is an "exceptionally active" market, with Reed Smith's Josh Love noting "we're seeing some of the biggest deals the music industry has ever seen" and AI having enormous potential to improve administration, metadata management, royalty processing and licensing efficiency. Clearlake co-founder Feliciano nears a record $3.9bn MLB deal for the San Diego Padres, the most expensive franchise sale in Major League Baseball history. Global venture funding totaled $65 billion in July, up 100% year over year, with a record 14 billion-dollar rounds. Over 127,000 workers at US-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, with layoffs continuing into 2026.

Portfolio Company News and Culture

Pleo is facing a culture crisis with executive exodus, unhappy staff and sale speculation. Nik Storonsky faces a lawsuit over a €350m superyacht commission. QMUL spinouts are looking to raise new funding rounds. MagicSchool AI's founder built an edtech AI startup with $63M from VCs despite being told "nobody wanted to give a former principal money." An AI strategy may be destroying exit value, argues tech strategic adviser Itay Sagie, as integrating AI into product strategy can inadvertently reduce valuation. Europe's 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026 have been identified, with several Paris spots emerging as key meeting places for founders and VCs. Lightspeed found their newest hire via Instagram DM, with partners Josh Machiz and Claire Zau discussing their growing social media presence and podcast. Njord Partners says AI is now a "natural part" of how the firm operates, with co-founder Arvid Trolle seeing "resilience" in the value segment including the exit market. AI is impacting physical environments, requiring "the bravery to change the process," and the language of founder praise has evolved with terms like "sweaty," "insane," and "cracked."