Last updated: August 7, 2026, 8:37 AM ET

Private Equity Briefing: Mega-Deals, Secondaries Surge, and Sector Shifts

Mega-Deals and Take-Privates Dominate Headlines

The past 72 hours have delivered some of the most significant private equity transactions of the year, with Apollo securing a recommended cash offer for easyJet valuing the FTSE 100 airline at approximately £5.7bn. The deal ends a fast-moving four-week bidding contest, marking one of Europe's largest take-privates of 2026. The transaction highlights how bear hugs are on the rise in UK take-privates, as acquirers increasingly bypass management to appeal directly to shareholders.

In another mega-deal, KKR has agreed to take Integer Holdings private for $5.7bn, adding a medical device manufacturer to its healthcare portfolio. The transaction underscores KKR's aggressive deployment strategy across multiple sectors, following its agreement to acquire Medicover India's 24-hospital network, which adds a scaled multi-specialty network to its healthcare holdings.

The bidding war for Bodycote has intensified with competing £1.56bn cash proposals from CVC and Veritas Capital, confirmed in a Rule 2.4 statement to the London Stock Exchange. The heat treatment and metallurgical services provider has attracted significant interest, with CVC and Veritas Capital vying for control of the UK-listed company.

Clearlake co-founder José Feliciano is nearing a record $3.9bn MLB deal for the San Diego Padres, which would mark the most expensive franchise sale in Major League Baseball history. The transaction demonstrates how private equity principals are increasingly deploying personal capital into trophy sports assets.

Healthcare and Life Sciences Investment Surge

Private equity firms are targeting tech push in healthcare workforce services, with Accel-KKR, Bain, Knox Lane, and LLR Partners among the firms transacting in this subsector. The eight deals tracked by PE Hub highlight how technology-enabled staffing and workforce solutions are attracting significant capital.

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. The direct loan demonstrates the growing role of private credit in funding healthcare consolidation.

In radiopharma, Nordic Capital has struck a deal to acquire BWX Technologies' medical business in a transaction valued at up to $800m. The deal represents a significant bet on the emerging radiopharmaceutical sector, which is attracting substantial private equity interest.

Infrastructure, Energy, and Power Deals Accelerate

Partners Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, a Maidenhead-based provider of power systems for data centers and AI infrastructure. AVK has delivered more than 20,000 projects and installed approximately 3.5GW of power for data centers across Europe's FLAP-D markets, making it a critical player in the AI infrastructure buildout.

LS Power is acquiring the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, satisfying a regulatory divestiture commitment tied to Constellation's 2025 acquisition of Calpine. The transaction highlights the continued consolidation and repositioning within the power generation sector.

Sunoco is acquiring Court Square-backed oil transporter 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 deal underscores the strategic value of downstream fuel logistics assets.

Veritas Capital is acquiring Saber Power Services from Greenbelt, a vertically integrated power infrastructure services platform that helps customers build, modernize, and maintain critical electrical systems. This follows Veritas's agreement to acquire environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill, demonstrating the firm's broad industrial services thesis.

Technology and Software Investments

GSAM is teeing up data center contractor Divcon Controls for sale, with the company providing building management and electrical power monitoring systems to data centers and other mission-critical facilities. The sale process comes as data center infrastructure assets command premium valuations.

Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon to Francisco Partners, a software and platform technology provider for the heavy building materials industry. The transaction represents continued secondary buyout activity in vertical software.

Advent and HarbourVest have agreed to acquire FNZ Bank in Germany, an independent wealth management banking and infrastructure provider connecting more than 50,000 financial advisers and 200 asset managers. The deal reflects ongoing consolidation in financial technology infrastructure.

Njord Partners' Arvid Trolle says AI is now a 'natural part' of how the firm operates, with the special situations investor seeing resilience in the value segment including the exit market. The firm views AI as a 'key part' of operational improvements across its portfolio.

Secondaries Market Heats Up

The secondaries market is experiencing unprecedented activity, with Pantheon buying $523m of BlackRock TCP Capital's private credit book in a landmark BDC continuation vehicle. The new vehicle will house over $500m of debt positions held by TCPC, with pricing coming in at 95% of gross fair value as of 31 December 2025.

G Squared has secured $2.3bn for its seventh flagship fund, about twice the size of its previous vehicle, raised in half the time. The rapid fundraising demonstrates strong investor appetite for venture secondaries exposure.

MetLife Investment Management has closed its third private equity fund at $1.2bn with Lexington Partners as lead investor. The insurer had shopped a portfolio of funds and co-investments with a net asset value of $1.8bn, with Lexington closing the managed fund deal.

Singapore's GIC is preparing to offload around $1bn worth of private equity fund stakes on the secondary market, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. The move demonstrates how sovereign wealth funds continue tapping the secondaries market for liquidity.

Carlyle's Harvey Schwartz says 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 than a standalone secondaries unit. Carlyle's realisations drove strong earnings, with the US buyout strategy distributing capital at more than double the industry rate.

GP-leds dominated the secondaries market in H1, with market volatility only telling part of the story, as fundraising and expansion into new asset classes also drive growth. The shorter the hold, the higher the burden when assessing quick-flip continuation vehicles, according to PE International analysis.

LGT Capital Partners has launched its debut credit secondaries strategy, seeking to invest in LP-led, GP-led, and opportunistic deals with an emphasis on senior lending. The launch reflects growing institutional interest in credit secondaries as an asset class.

Fundraising and LP Activity

TPG has nabbed the lion's share of a $17bn target for TPG X and its third healthcare fund, with the two funds launched in mid-2025 part of TPG's $94bn Capital platform for large-scale global private equity investing.

Apollo is roughly halfway to target for Fund XI, with the firm having begun raising capital for its latest flagship, which has a target of $22bn-$25bn, in February. The fundraising progress comes as Apollo downplays M&A amid PE consolidation, a year after acquiring a GP.

Nextalia has raised €1.1bn for its second flagship fund in five months, pulling in commitments from over 200 investors since opening fundraising in February. The Italian platform has now pushed past €3.4bn in total assets under management.

EQT's €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund has made its first investment, co-leading a €450m round into Finnish satellite imaging company ICEYE at a €10bn valuation. The EU's €5bn tech superfund is now officially open for business, representing a significant new source of growth capital for European technology companies.

Mega-firms are largely defying fundraising and exit headwinds, according to PE International's earnings analysis, with OMERS plotting a fivefold increase of its PE portfolio and carry communication causing headaches for some firms.

LP Mandates and Investor Intentions

The New Jersey Division of Investment 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.

Boston Retirement Systems has issued an RFP for up to an $85m private equity mandate, adding to the growing pipeline of institutional commitments. Italian pension fund ENPAV has released an RFP for private equity co-investment. MMAA looks to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind pool funds. Korea Post Insurance targets 60bn Korean won for domestic blind-pool VC funds.

Hamilton Lane says 'evergreen hesitancy is only temporary', with co-chief Erik Hirsch noting some investors have been housing capital in evergreens before redeeming to fund separately managed accounts. Danish pension fund Industriens Pension is mulling adding more infra secondaries exposure, having made commitments to all five infra secondaries vehicles managed by Pantheon.

Consumer, Beverage, and Retail Deals

Bain Capital is acquiring Gong cha from TA Associates, adding the global bubble tea chain to its consumer portfolio. Gong cha serves tea beverages including milk tea, fruit tea, and other cold drinks across multiple international markets.

MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective has acquired Clean Your Dirty Face, marking the first acquisition for the platform since its launch earlier in 2026. Axum Capital has agreed to acquire beverage brand Barcode, a Los Angeles-based plant-based and hydration drink brand.

Financial Services and Business Services

Wind Point Partners has taken ECI off H.I.G. Capital's hands in a financial services MSP handover, acquiring the New York-headquartered managed services provider to alternative asset managers and regulated financial firms.

RedBird's Affinia has 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. Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading has snapped up Broadbranch Advisors, with the deal closing at the end of July.

KKR-backed FGS has scooped up government affairs firm Rich Feuer Anderson, marking FGS's second acquisition of a bipartisan government affairs firm following the September 2025 acquisition of Tarplin, Downs & Young.

Broad Sky has grown Smith + Howard 4x before exiting to TPG, with Broad Sky CEO Tyler Zachem noting the business is durable as tax and audit advisory are needed in good and bad times.

Industrial and Manufacturing Investments

Arlington-backed TRP Infrastructure has closed five add-on deals to form a new highway plastics division called Gulf Highway Materials. The deal targets are being folded into the new TRP platform, demonstrating the roll-up strategy in fragmented industrial sectors.

Verdane has made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT and recurring software company providing manufacturing intelligence services. Wynnchurch-backed Trimlite has bought doormaker Barnett Millworks, expanding its geographic footprint into the Southeast market.

Ridgemont has acquired remediation services firm Entact from JFLCO, a national provider of environmental remediation and geotechnical construction services. EIP and OceanSound-backed Convey has acquired Selectron, bringing together two companies providing omnichannel communications and engagement operating systems.

PE-backed ContextLogic is acquiring chemicals manufacturer gChem from EagleTree for $850m, which will become Context Logic's second operating business following its early 2026 acquisition of US Salt.

Venture Capital and Startup Activity

Active startup investors kept up the pace in July, with familiar names topping the ranks in several metrics including most prolific venture dealmakers, most active lead backers, and biggest spenders.

Robinhood is listing a fund that lets anyone back Y Combinator startups, intending to let retail investors participate in early-stage venture returns. Y Combinator's growing class of repeat founders has been analyzed, with a dataset of 454 repeat founders revealing interesting insights about the second-time founder phenomenon.

A16z has expanded its European scout network to 30+ scouts hunting for deals across the continent. Yann LeCun has joined a new VC firm with 244 LPs, bringing the renowned AI researcher's expertise to venture investing.

Moove has raised $250M to become the backbone of the robotaxi industry, scaling up autonomous vehicle fleet management and planning to someday own Waymo robotaxis. WindBorne Systems has raised a $37 million Series B to scale its weather balloons and AI forecasts.

Legaltech Wordsmith has raised a $14m Series B extension from Index and FT Ventures. Fintech startup Moss has been crowned Europe's newest unicorn with a €30m Series C round.

A16z has backed HappyRobot at a $1.2bn valuation. Oxylabs has hit a $3.6bn valuation after a decade of rejecting VCs, citing "right timing, right partner."

MagicSchool AI has raised $63M from VCs, founded by an educator fascinated by Chat GPT's educational potential. An AI strategy may be destroying exit value, argues tech strategic adviser Itay Sagie, who suggests integrating AI can inadvertently reduce valuations.

Music, Media, and Entertainment

The music industry is seeing some of the biggest deals it has ever experienced, according to Reed Smith's Josh Love, who notes AI has enormous potential to improve administration, metadata management, royalty processing, and licensing efficiency. Music is an 'exceptionally active' market, with PE firms like Blackstone, TPG, and EQT also active in partnering with AI businesses.

European Market Developments

The 144 new funds launched this year reveal Europe's investment market pulse. Europe's 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026 demonstrate continued deployment activity. The UK has expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies, supporting the startup ecosystem's access to global talent.

QMUL spinouts are looking to raise funding. Pleo faces a culture crisis amid executive exodus and sale speculation. Lendable is chasing the superapp dream, constrained more by capacity than ideas.

The top junior VCs to watch in Europe have been identified by partners. 7 spots to meet founders and VCs in Paris offer networking opportunities. Lightspeed found their newest hire via Instagram DM, with partners Josh Machiz and Claire Zau discussing their social media strategy.

AI and Technology Trends

AI is impacting physical environments and science sectors, requiring "the bravery to change the process," according to industry leaders. Infrastructure's single assets are shifting from liquidity tools to access strategies, with discipline, alignment, and entry valuations remaining critical.

Clearlake has partnered with OpenAI, while the broader market sees PE firms increasingly partnering with AI businesses. DraftKings' seed investor Ryan Moore has closed on $78.5m for Revenant Ventures' debut fund, a VC secondaries vehicle according to regulatory filings.

Allianz and Asset Management Flows

Allianz posted record operating profit for Q2 and H1 2026, driven by €39bn of net inflows into its asset management arm. PIMCO and AGI pushed third-party AuM to a record €2.16tn, demonstrating the continued strength of institutional asset gathering despite market volatility.