S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of global private equity news stories and more published throughout the week.
Blackstone Inc. reported $88.3 billion in capital inflows for the three months ended June 30, making the second quarter of 2022 the second-best fundraising quarter in the firm's history. But there is more to the story.
"I would say on the fundraising front, it is getting harder out there," Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said on the firm's second-quarter earnings call. That is especially true when it comes to raising capital for Blackstone's private equity strategies, Gray added.
Gray was among a trio of top private equity firm executives who all described a "crowded" private equity fundraising environment on their firm's first-quarter calls. Institutional investors, including public pension funds, are being squeezed as private equity funds proliferate and fund managers return to market with new funds at an accelerating pace.
As Gray's more recent comments on Blackstone's second-quarter earnings call make clear, the pressure has not abated. That has prompted some institutional investors to seek liquidity in the private equity secondaries market, where some large portfolios landed earlier this year.
That may be creating opportunities for another part of Blackstone's sprawling business. The firm is currently raising a new flagship private equity secondaries fund that Gray said was expected to reach $20 billion.
Read more on Blackstone's second-quarter earnings call.
CHART OF THE WEEK: Signs of slowdown in private equity M&A
⮞ With 1,223 deals totaling $219.46 billion through June this year, global private equity M&A activity appears to have fallen off the pace set in 2021.
⮞ Those midyear totals for deal volume and deal value amounted to less than half the full-year totals recorded in 2021.
⮞ Globally, there were 45 transactions worth $1 billion or more in the first half of 2022.
FUNDRAISING AND DEALS
* Internet Brands Inc. closed on a recapitalization valued at more than $12 billion with its existing backers KKR & Co. Inc. and Temasek, as well as a Warburg Pincus-led group of new investors. KKR will retain a majority stake in the online media and software services company.
* Ardian received about $10 billion for its Ardian Secondaries Fund IX, which has a target of $15 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. In addition, Ardian sold its majority stake in Opteven, a mechanical breakdown, assistance and vehicle maintenance insurance and services company, to Apax Partners SAS.
* Warburg Pincus closed the acquisition of express car wash operator El Car Wash LLC from affiliates of Wafra Inc., Audrose Partners and Fireside Investments LLC.
* CVC Capital Partners Ltd.-managed fund CVC Capital Partners VIII LP invested in cardiac bypass and intensive care unit technology company Spectrum Medical Group Ltd.
ELSEWHERE IN THE INDUSTRY
* ArchiMed SAS closed the acquisition of Natus Medical Inc., which provides medical device solutions for brain disorder diagnosis and treatment.
* InfraRed Capital Partners and Northleaf Capital Partners Ltd. signed a NZ$1.7 billion deal to buy passive mobile tower assets of Vodafone New Zealand Ltd.
* The Vistria Group LLC, General Atlantic Service Co. LP and Nautic Partners LLC closed the purchase of PANTHERx Rare LLC, the pharmacy business of Centene Corp.
* Castle Creek Capital LLC and Launchpad Capital closed Castle Creek Launchpad Fund I, a financial technology venture capital fund, with more than $90 million in commitments.
FOCUS ON: RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY
* BlackRock Inc.'s real assets arm acquired Vanguard Renewables LLC, which converts food waste and cow manure into renewable natural gas, from Vision Ridge Partners LLC. BlackRock Real Assets paid $700 million for the company.
* Actis LLP and Mainstream Renewable Power are selling Lekela Power BV to Infinity Group and Africa Finance Corp. in a deal that values the African renewable energy group at $1.5 billion.
* A Foresight Group LLP fund agreed to purchase the 277-MW Kölvallen Vindkraftspark, a proposed wind farm in Sweden, from Arise AB (publ) for about €100 million.