Private Equity 3 Days

Last updated: August 7, 2026, 11:42 PM ET

Mega-Deals & Takeovers

Apollo secured a recommended £5.7bn cash offer for easy Jet, ending a four-week bidding contest for the FTSE 100 airline. Separately, Bodycote confirmed competing £1.56bn cash proposals from CVC and Veritas Capital. In the U.S., Clearlake co-founder Jose Feliciano nears a record $3.9bn deal for the San Diego Padres, the most expensive MLB franchise sale. Partners Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, which has installed ~3.5GW of power for data centers across Europe's FLAP-D markets. The firm is also in talks to buy beauty brand Aroma-Zone from Eurazeo. KKR took control of Medicover India, a 24-hospital multi-specialty network. Bain Capital acquired bubble-tea chain Gong cha from TA Associates. Thoma Bravo is selling Command Alkon to FP, while Clearlake partners with OpenAI.

Private Credit & Secondaries

Pantheon bought $523m of BlackRock TCP Capital's private credit book via a landmark BDC continuation vehicle, pricing at 95% of gross fair value as of Dec 2025. GIC is preparing to offload ~$1bn of PE fund stakes on the secondary market. Ares Management is leading a $2.2bn direct loan to finance Med Impact's acquisition of Medical Card System. G Squared closed a $2.3bn venture secondaries fund VII, roughly twice the size of its predecessor, in record time. Carlyle increasingly views Alp Invest as a corporate finance business, with CEO Harvey Schwartz saying cyclical tailwinds will persist for years. GP-leds dominated H1 secondaries figures, with fundraising and new asset classes driving growth. Infrastructure single-asset secondaries are blooming, but entry valuations remain critical. Revenant Ventures, a VC secondaries fund founded by Draft Kings seed investor Ryan Moore, has closed on $78.5m.

Fundraising & Institutional Mandates

Nextalia raised €1.1bn for its second flagship fund in just five months, pushing its Italian platform past €3.4bn. TPG has nabbed the lion’s share of a $17bn target for TPG X and its third healthcare fund. EQT launched a €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund, debuting with a €450m cheque into satellite operator ICEYE at a €10bn valuation. Allianz posted record operating profit in Q2, driven by €39bn of asset management net inflows; PIMCO and AGI pushed third-party AuM to a record €2.16tn. Mega-firms are largely defying fundraising headwinds, according to earnings season learnings. New Jersey sees opportunity in the slow exit market, with CIO Shoaib Khan evaluating re-ups and new opportunities equally. ENPAV, an Italian pension fund, released an RFP for PE co-investment. MMAA seeks to commit 300bn Korean won to domestic blind-pool PE/VC funds. Korea Post Insurance targets 60bn Korean won for domestic blind-pool VC funds. Boston Retirement Systems issued an RFP for up to a $85m PE mandate.

Healthcare & Pharma

Eir Partners invested in Claims Bridge and supported the add-on of Dialysis PPO, scaling the platform organically and through M&A. Accel-KKR, Bain, and Knox Lane are betting on clinical workforce services, while Nordic Capital inked a radiopharmaceuticals deal for BWXT’s nuclear medicine business. PE firms are targeting tech-driven healthcare workforce services, with eight notable deals from Accel-KKR, Bain, Knox Lane, LLR Partners and others. Tortuga Growth Partners invested in Advanced eClinical Training out of its Fund I. Veritas is acquiring environmental consultant Trinity Consultants from Oak Hill, which bought it in 2021. GSAM is lining up data center contractor Divcon for sale, while Broad Sky closed the sale of Smith + Howard to TPG. Broad Sky grew Smith + Howard 4x before the exit.

Energy, Infrastructure & Industrials

Sunoco agreed to acquire Court Square-backed Offen Petroleum for $600m; the target delivers ~2.5bn gallons of fuel annually. LS Power is acquiring the Brazos Valley gas-fired power plant from Constellation, satisfying a regulatory divestiture commitment. Veritas is acquiring Greenbelt-backed Saber Power Services, a vertically integrated power infrastructure platform. Partners Group (already linked above for AVK Power) also appears here; we need a unique link for that URL? Actually we already used that URL for Partners Group acquiring AVK Power. We must not repeat. So we skip second mention. But we have other power deals: Arlington-backed TRP closed five add-on deals to form a new highway plastics division. ContextLogic (PE-backed) is acquiring chemicals manufacturer gChem from Eagle Tree for $850m. Industriens Pension is considering adding more infrastructure secondaries exposure, favoring indirect investments.

Technology & AI

Verdane made a majority investment in Factbird, a Danish IoT and recurring software company for manufacturing intelligence. Moove raised $250M to scale autonomous vehicle fleet management and plans to own Waymo robotaxis. WindBorne Systems raised a $37M Series B for AI weather forecasting and balloons. Wordsmith, a legaltech startup, raised a $14m Series B extension from Index and FT Ventures. MagicSchool AI, founded by an educator, raised $63M from VCs. Lendable is chasing the superapp dream, constrained more by capacity than ideas. Njord Partners co-founder Arvid Trolle says AI is now a ‘key part’ of operational improvements, with resilience in the value segment. Advent agreed to acquire FNZ Bank, a German wealth management banking provider. AI strategy may destroy exit value if not integrated carefully, argues tech adviser Itay Sagie. Robinhood will list a fund allowing retail investors to back Y Combinator startups. Y Combinator repeat founders are on the rise; a dataset of 454 repeat founders shows interesting trends.

Europe Venture & Startup Ecosystem

Wise Equity signed an agreement to acquire E-Pharma Trento, with potential bolt-on acquisitions to add new technologies. Carlyle is picking up a minority stake in Prime Capital Financial from Abry Partners, exiting after three years. RedBird’s Affinia added Wilson Partners in a UK accounting tie-up. Copley Equity-backed FMG Leading snapped up Broadbranch Advisors in a July deal. MPK Equity-backed Gorgeous Collective acquired Clean Your Dirty Face, its first deal since launch. Nexa Equity-backed Facility Grid acquired Ping Cx, introducing a new product strategy. KKR-backed FGS scooped up government affairs firm Rich Feuer Anderson. Oxylabs hit a $3.6bn valuation after a decade of turning down VCs. Moss, a fintech startup, became Europe’s newest unicorn with a €30m Series C. Pleo faces a culture crisis with executive exodus and sale speculation. QMUL spinouts are looking to raise capital. Lightspeed found a new hire via Instagram DM. A16z has 30+ venture scouts hunting for deals across Europe. Europe’s top 50 equity investors in H1 2026 have been ranked. Junior VCs to watch in Europe are named by partners. Yann LeCun joined a new VC firm, Ventures, with 244 LPs. UK expanded talent visa to more than 100 companies. Paris spots to meet founders and VCs are highlighted. Startup slang like 'sweaty' and 'cracked' is decoded. 144 new funds this year reveal Europe's investment market pulse. Bear hugs are on the rise in UK take-privates. Music market is ‘exceptionally active’ with AI potential for administration and licensing. AI impact on physical environments is discussed. Side Letter notes Apollo downplaying M&A amid PE consolidation. Side Letter on the shorter hold period burden in continuation vehicles. Carlyle realisations drove a strong earnings quarter, with US buyout distributing at double the industry rate. Hamilton Lane says evergreen hesitancy is only temporary. Active startup investors kept up the pace in July, with Khosla and YC leading. Biggest funding rounds this week saw three $1B+ rounds. Bernard Arnault installed Aymeric Le Clere as CEO of Financière Agache, the €3.1bn holding vehicle for LVMH control.