Private Equity 3 Days

Last updated: August 7, 2026, 3:47 PM ET

Mega-Deals and Take-Privates

Apollo secured a recommended cash offer for easy Jet valuing the FTSE 100 airline at approximately £5.7bn, ending a fast-moving four-week bidding contest. The European buyout giant landed the landmark take-private as “bear hugs” rise in UK public-to-private transactions. In a separate contested process, Bodycote confirmed competing cash proposals from CVC and Veritas Capital Fund IX, each valuing the heat treatment specialist at £1.56bn. Clearlake Capital co-founder José Feliciano is nearing a record $3.9bn deal for the San Diego Padres, the most expensive franchise sale in MLB history. Meanwhile, KKR has agreed to acquire Medicover India, a 24-hospital multi-specialty network, adding scaled healthcare operations to its portfolio.

Healthcare and Pharma

Pantheon agreed to buy a $523m slab of BlackRock TCP Capital’s private credit book in a landmark BDC continuation vehicle priced at 95% of gross fair value. Nordic Capital is inking a radiopharmaceuticals deal to take private BWXT’s nuclear medicine business in an $800m transaction. Ares Management is leading a $2.2bn direct loan to finance Med Impact Holdings’ acquisition of Medical Card System, a Puerto Rican insurer. TPG is nearing a $17bn target for its third healthcare fund, part of the firm’s $94bn Capital platform. Tortuga Growth Partners invested in Advanced eClinical Training out of its Fund I, L.P. Clinical workforce services continue to attract private equity interest from Accel-KKR, Bain and Knox Lane, with eight deals tracked in the sector.

Infrastructure, Energy and Power

Partners Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, a provider of power systems for data centers that has delivered over 20,000 projects and installed roughly 3.5GW across Europe’s FLAP-D markets. LS Power is set to acquire the Brazos Valley gas-fired plant from Constellation, satisfying a regulatory divestiture from Constellation’s Calpine acquisition. Sunoco agreed to acquire Offen Petroleum for $600m from Court Square, a fuel distributor delivering 2.5 billion gallons annually to 7,000 customers. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is teeing up Divcon Controls for sale, a provider of building management and power monitoring systems for data centers. Veritas Capital will acquire Saber Power Services from Greenbelt, a vertically integrated power infrastructure platform. Arlington-backed TRP Infrastructure closed five add-on deals to form Gulf Highway Materials, a new highway plastics division. The single-asset secondaries market within infrastructure is blooming, with discipline and entry valuations remaining critical for buyers, notes Stafford’s William.

Technology and AI

EQT’s €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund made its debut with a €450m round into ICEYE, valuing the Finnish satellite imaging company at €10bn. Moove raised $250M to scale autonomous vehicle fleet management and plans to eventually own Waymo robotaxis. Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon to Francisco Partners, a software provider for heavy building materials. Legaltech Wordsmith raised a $14m Series B extension from Index Ventures and FT Ventures. Wind Borne Systems raised a $37m Series B for its AI-powered weather balloons. AI is now a “natural part” of operations for Njord Partners, whose co-founder Arvid Trolle sees resilience in the value segment. Reed Smith’s Josh Love says music is an “exceptionally active” market as PE firms like Blackstone and EQT partner with AI businesses. Robinhood plans to list a fund that lets retail investors back Y Combinator startups.

Venture Capital and Startups

July saw no summer doldrums for active startup investors, with Khosla and YC topping the ranks. Y Combinator’s class of repeat founders is growing, with a dataset of 454 repeat founders revealing interesting insights. A16z has 30+ venture scouts hunting deals across Europe. Lightspeed hired a new team member via Instagram DM, a strategy tied to their social media presence. Yann LeCun has joined a new VC firm, Ventures. Fintech Moss became Europe’s newest unicorn with a €30m Series C. Oxylabs hit a $3.6bn valuation after a decade of turning down VCs. Magic School AI, an edtech startup founded by an educator, raised $63M from VCs. Lendable is chasing the superapp dream, constrained more by capacity than ideas. Pleo faces a culture crisis with executive exodus and sale speculation. QMUL spinouts are looking to raise. The top junior VCs in Europe have been identified by partners. Europe’s 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026 are listed.

Secondaries and Fundraising

GIC is preparing to offload around $1bn of private equity fund stakes on the secondary market. G Squared closed its seventh flagship fund at $2.3bn in record time, about twice the size of its predecessor. Carlyle’s Harvey Schwartz says cyclical tailwinds for secondaries will persist for “the next several years.” GP-leds dominated the secondaries market in H1, driven by fundraising and expansion into new asset classes. Nextalia raised €1.1bn for its second flagship fund in five months, pushing the Italian platform past €3.4bn. Revenant Ventures, a VC secondaries fund from Draft Kings’ seed investor, closed on $78.5m. Hamilton Lane says evergreen hesitancy is only temporary as some investors “house capital” before redeeming into SMAs. Industriens Pension is mulling adding more infra secondaries and has committed to all five Pantheon vehicles. The shorter the hold period, the higher the burden for quick-flip continuation vehicles, warns PE International.

Other Notable Moves

Bernard Arnault named Aymeric Le Clere chairman and CEO of Financière Agache, the €3.1bn holding vehicle anchoring LVMH control. Carlyle picked up a minority stake in Prime Capital Financial from Abry Partners, exiting the $50bn AUM wealth platform after three years. Bain Capital is acquiring Gong cha from TA Associates, the global tea beverage chain. KKR-backed FGS acquired government affairs firm Rich Feuer Anderson. Partners Group is in talks to buy beauty brand Aroma-Zone from Eurazeo. Veritas Capital also agreed to acquire Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill, an environmental consultancy. PE-backed Context Logic is buying chemicals manufacturer gChem from Eagle Tree for $850m. Allianz posted record Q2 operating profit driven by €39bn asset management inflows, with PIMCO and AGI pushing third-party AuM to a record €2.16tn. Broad Sky grew Smith + Howard 4x before exiting to TPG. Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading acquired Broadbranch Advisors. MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective acquired Clean Your Dirty Face. Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid acquired PingCx to boost AI commissioning. Red Bird’s Affinia added Wilson Partners in a UK accounting tie-up. Verdane made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT manufacturing intelligence firm. The UK has expanded its talent visa to more than 100 companies. Italian pension fund ENPAV released an RFP for private equity co-investment. MMAA seeks to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind-pool PE/VC funds. Korea Post Insurance looks to commit 60bn Korean won to domestic blind-pool VC funds. Boston Retirement Systems issued an RFP for up to $85m private equity mandate. New Jersey sees opportunity in the slow exit market, with CIO Shoaib Khan evaluating re-ups and new opportunities equally. Mega-firms are defying fundraising headwinds, as seen in earnings from Carlyle and others. Over 127,000 tech workers were laid off in 2025, with layoffs continuing into 2026. Your AI strategy may be destroying your exit value, warns tech adviser Itay Sagie. Decoding the language of founder praise: sweaty, insane, cracked. There are 144 new funds this year revealing Europe’s investment market pulse. Seven spots to meet founders and VCs in Paris. AI is impacting physical environments, requiring bravery to change processes. Apollo downplays M&A amid PE consolidation in a recent side letter.