Private Equity 8 Hours

Last updated: August 11, 2026, 11:48 AM ET

Mega-Deals and Sports Investments

TPG has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in South Korea's Lotte Rental, the country's largest car-rental operator, in a deal valued at roughly $925m. Meanwhile, Yankee Global Enterprises secured $2.6bn from Apollo's sports platform, with the capital earmarked for franchise growth and debt refinancing. Apollo's sports investment arm provided the full amount to the New York Yankees' parent company.

M&A Activity Across Sectors

BNP Group acquired cost management firm US Cost Incorporated, backed by Godspeed. PrimeSource Brands added Starborn Industries to its specialty building products portfolio. Keltec snapped up AJF Filtration, while Big Top Manufacturing scooped up Coast to Coast Contracting. Airo acquired Legrande's Enterprises in the HVAC space, and Paradigm received an investment from Quad-C. Fisher Management Partners was backed by Trinity Hunt, while HIG Capital completed its acquisition of UK engineering firm Phoenix ME. New Heritage invested in locomotive parts manufacturer Power Rail. Private equity is also increasingly active in the growing European HVAC market.

Secondaries and Continuation Vehicles

Exponent's single-asset continuation vehicle for H&MV Engineering closed at about $867m (€750m), co-led by Apollo, Pantheon, and SQ Capital. The transaction values the engineering services company at €1.4bn. Ardian co-CEO Mark Benedetti noted that European assets and secondaries present the most mispricing opportunities, as more family-owned firms seek international expansion partners.

AI Infrastructure Buildout

Apollo, Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR are lining up behind NVIDIA to mobilize over $500bn for AI compute infrastructure, effectively turning compute into an investable asset class. A broader consortium including Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs aims to finance full-stack AI infrastructure. Separately, sovereign wealth funds are leading the charge in AI investing, with private equity talent increasingly drawn to Spain.

Venture Capital and Innovation

Tony Blair's son is seeking $200m for a new defense startup, according to reports. Monashees, one of Latin America's oldest VC firms, has opened a San Francisco office to bridge the region's startup ecosystem with Silicon Valley. A Crunchbase analysis argues that AI is a business change, not merely a technology layer, requiring team and workflow redesign. Trends from South Summit 2026 highlight three forces shaping European tech's future.

Institutional Mandates

The Plymouth County Retirement Association has issued an RFP for a North American private equity manager, signaling continued demand from institutional allocators.