Private Equity

A 139-year-old brand surviving multiple ownership changes is proof the product is durable; the fact that Seidler Equity wants out now says more about PE fund cycles than about baseball. Seidler is exploring a sale of its stake in Rawlings, the official ball supplier to Major League Baseball, as the firm looks to return capital to its own limited partners on a normal holding-period timeline. Sports equipment makers with sole-supplier contracts are attractive because the revenue is contracted and sticky, but they're a tough sell to public markets, which means the buyer is almost certainly another PE shop or a strategic. Worth watching whether this becomes a bellwether for other legacy sports-gear assets sitting in ageing PE portfolios.

Jersey Mike's, the US sandwich chain backed by Blackstone, has filed for an IPO after reporting 50 percent same-store sales growth over recent years, and the timing is a deliberate read of the market window. Blackstone is sitting on a position it needs to monetise, and a business that can show genuine unit economics growth across a tight consumer spending environment is exactly the narrative that commands a premium multiple right now. The complication is the macro: US consumer spending is thinning and food costs remain elevated, with hamburger prices up 14 percent year-on-year according to Wells Fargo data. If the IPO prices in July before Q3 consumer data lands, Blackstone extracts value before the environment deteriorates further. If it slips, the same-store sales story needs defending at a moment when spending power is visibly eroding.

A target company's shares rising on a rejected bid usually means the market thinks a higher offer is coming, not that the board made the right call. Edgewell, which owns Schick and Wilkinson Sword, has been trading at a discount to Gillette-owner P&G for years on weaker brand investment and slower e-commerce execution. Whoever made the approach clearly saw the same gap. The board rejection either reflects a valuation disagreement of a few turns of EBITDA, or a genuine belief that the business is worth running independently, and the market is backing the former. Watch for a revised offer or a competing bid; the sector has seen enough consolidation logic in personal care to assume this does not end at the first no.

EasyJet's board has rejected a third takeover approach from US private credit firm Castlelake, valuing the airline at approximately £4.7 billion, describing the offer as 'highly opportunistic'. Castlelake is now going over the board's head, urging shareholders directly to back the deal. At £4.7bn, Castlelake is essentially arguing that easyJet's listed valuation is structurally impaired by short-term cycle noise and that the private market can extract more value through a take-private than public markets will allow. EasyJet's board clearly disagrees, but the fact that Castlelake is persisting to a third bid suggests they have run the numbers on shareholder frustration and think the register is receptive. Watch the institutional shareholder response over the next two weeks: if major holders break from the board, this gets interesting fast.

Volkswagen's decision to run a sealed-bid process for its engines business, reported at a $10 billion price target, is an admission that EQT had assembled enough shareholder support to make an open auction structurally unfair. Lone Star has emerged as frontrunner for the Continental industrial unit in a parallel process, suggesting that financial sponsors are the dominant buyers of large European industrial carve-outs right now, with industrial acquirers largely absent. The underlying asset, which covers shipping engines and heat pumps rather than purely automotive powertrains, is a more resilient business than a pure-ICE play, which explains the interest. The broader strategic question for European carmakers is whether asset sales generate enough capital to fund the electrification transition or simply slow the bleeding. Analysts are already arguing that a defence-sector pivot, widely floated as a diversification story for OEMs, will not move the needle at the scale these companies need. Proceeds from the VW and Continental sales will be a cleaner indicator of genuine restructuring intent than any adjacency announcement.

Apollo and Bain Capital have advanced to the front of the pack in the auction for Continental's ContiTech industrial unit, with a valuation range of roughly 3.5 billion to more than 4 billion euros and an expected debt package of approximately 2.5 billion euros, as PE Insights coverage of the process confirms. That leverage ratio, around 60-70% debt financing on the asset, is the signal: lenders are comfortable putting significant debt behind a European industrial carve-out with exposure to automotive end markets, which suggests either that ContiTech's non-auto revenue base, including conveyor belts and air springs for mining and logistics, is providing sufficient diversification, or that credit markets have more appetite for European industrial LBOs than the macro headlines imply. Advent and CVC are pursuing a joint bid, which typically signals either a desire to share integration risk or a gap between what either firm can deploy solo and what the seller is asking. Continental's logic is straightforward: a focused tire business commands a cleaner narrative and potentially a higher multiple than a sprawling automotive and industrial conglomerate navigating Chinese competition and EV transition simultaneously. The VW engines sale running in parallel, at around $10 billion and using sealed bids to manage conflicts among a bidder set that overlaps heavily with the Continental process, suggests European automotive asset disposals are creating a buyer-friendly dynamic where PE firms can pick their preferred entry points.

The private equity giant is actively seeking to acquire or partner with a Japanese life insurer to tap the country's ¥900 trillion in life insurance reserves. Apollo already has eight reinsurance deals worth $19 billion with Japanese carriers through subsidiary Athene, but wants permanent capital access similar to its US model. Japan's regulators favour domestic control of core insurers, making outright acquisition politically sensitive. KKR, Blackstone and Carlyle are pursuing similar strategies, intensifying competition for Japan's yield-hungry insurance capital as Bank of Japan policy normalises.

The sports investment firm's CEO used Bloomberg TV to highlight FIFA's commercial scale as evidence of how professionalised the global sports economy has become. Bruin has deployed $3 billion across 30+ companies targeting 'second-level enablers' rather than rights owners themselves, recently raising a $1 billion fund led by Josh Harris's 26North. Pyne's emphasis on FIFA's numbers reflects institutional appetite for sports as an asset class, with stable media rights, global pricing power and under-monetised digital opportunities. The former NASCAR COO and IMG Sports president is positioning sports infrastructure and services as less cyclical than direct rights ownership.

The $90 billion quant giant has lengthened withdrawal periods to as long as four years in its flagship multi-strategy funds, making it harder for investors to pull capital quickly. The move follows the firm's 9.6 percent return in 2023 and comes as large hedge funds tighten liquidity terms to match increasingly complex, less liquid strategies. D.E. Shaw paid a $10 million SEC penalty last year for using employment agreements that impeded whistleblower complaints. Extended lock-ups give managers more stable capital but reduce investor flexibility, especially concerning given recent governance issues.

Pershing Square is selling its 4.5 percent stake in Universal Music Group just days after UMG's board rejected Ackman's $65 billion takeover bid. The exit crystallizes roughly $600 million in profits since Pershing's 2021 entry but abandons Ackman's plan to migrate UMG to a U.S. Listing at a 25x earnings multiple. UMG's board called the proposal, which valued shares at €30.40 versus current levels around €17, fundamentally undervalued despite the 78 percent premium. The failed activist campaign illustrates the limits of financial engineering against concentrated European ownership structures.

Larry Ellison is telling credit analysts he'll "do whatever it takes" to reduce leverage at a combined Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery, backing his $108 billion hostile bid with personal guarantees worth $40.4 billion. The Oracle founder faces the prospect of liquidating significant Oracle holdings if his son David's media empire hits trouble, as Bloomberg reports detail. With projected debt hitting 6.8x EBITDA, Ellison is betting his fortune on proving synergies can actually materialize in media consolidation. When billionaires pledge their wealth, someone usually gets hurt.

Google is negotiating omnibus licensing agreements with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to give their portfolio companies access to Gemini AI models, treating private equity as a distribution channel for enterprise AI. The approach contrasts with OpenAI and Anthropic, which are building dedicated consultancy entities that embed engineers in portfolio companies. Google's strategy focuses on platform licensing rather than services, leveraging a $750 million partner fund and existing consulting relationships with Accenture, Deloitte, and others. Blackstone already has stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, and CoreWeave, positioning itself as a distribution hub for multiple AI labs rather than committing to any single provider. The race to capture PE-controlled mid-market companies reflects AI's shift from one-off pilots to portfolio-wide deployments.

Elliott has built a sizeable position in Bio-Rad Laboratories, betting it can unlock value from a company that's down 70% from pandemic highs and trading like a broken growth story. The activist's interest makes sense: Bio-Rad has strong technology assets and a meaningful stake in German lab equipment maker Sartorius, where Elliott already holds shares. Bio-Rad's shares are down 18% this year alone, giving Elliott plenty of room to argue for portfolio changes, cost cuts, or strategic alternatives.

India's PE market has split in two: record deal volume but collapsing values as sponsors balk at seller prices. Q1 2026 saw 415 PE deals worth $9.1 billion, down 34% in value despite near-record transaction count, as Grant Thornton data shows. Only two billion-dollar deals closed versus seven in Q4 2025. Average deal size crashed to $21.8 million from $36.3 million as firms chase mid-market targets over growth-stage unicorns. IPO exits fell 78% in value, removing the liquidity premium that justified lofty entry multiples.

Even top-tier sponsors are paying up in today's credit markets. Pacific Equity Partners, Australia's A$19 billion private equity giant, had to enhance pricing and protections on two portfolio company loans to clear syndication. The move signals a power shift toward lenders as Australian private debt yields push toward 5.75% all-in for leveraged transactions. PEP's Fund VII closed at A$3.2 billion hard cap last year and has deployed rapidly into large deals, but financing those buyouts now requires higher interest margins and tighter covenants than sponsors expected six months ago.

Infrastructure investor I Squared Capital has trumped Pacific Equity Partners with a $1.45 per share offer for the Australian out-of-home advertising company, valuing it at A$766 million versus PEP's A$747 million bid. Both offers represent steep premiums to oOh!Media's 43 percent decline over the past year following the loss of Auckland Transport contracts and advertising market pressures. I Squared's interest signals infrastructure funds view digital billboards as yield-generating assets rather than traditional media plays. Shares trade below both bids, reflecting execution skepticism after recent Australian PE deals stalled despite big premiums.

Google is negotiating omnibus agreements with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to distribute AI models across their portfolio companies, turning private equity into the most powerful distribution channel for enterprise AI. The deals would standardise access to Gemini and other Google models across hundreds of mid-market companies, bypassing traditional enterprise sales cycles. Blackstone launched a dedicated AI division while Anthropic closed a $1.5 billion joint venture with PE partners to provide competing AI tooling. With Blackstone and KKR managing over $2 trillion combined, these partnerships could determine which AI models become the default for middle America's businesses.

Major PE firms used the Milken Institute conference to position AI as the solution to overvalued software investments made during the 2020-2022 remote-work boom, with Ares, Blackstone, and Blue Owl deploying proprietary scorecards to reassure investors about portfolio protection. Private credit firms face concentrated exposure to PE-backed software companies just as AI threatens to cannibalise their revenue streams, triggering redemption pressure at retail-focused business development companies. IBM's $4.5 billion in productivity gains from AI across 400 workflows serves as the proof-of-concept PE firms cite for portfolio-wide deployment. The narrative masks deeper anxiety about whether AI will enhance software company value or destroy it entirely.

The defense tech company raised $2.5 billion at a $30.5 billion valuation, with Peter Thiel's firm leading the round in its largest-ever single investment. Anduril's 2024 revenue hit $1 billion, doubling year-over-year, while securing $1.5 billion in defense contracts including the $22 billion IVAS AR headset program. The round was oversubscribed 8-10x, reflecting investor conviction that AI-powered defense systems will capture share from legacy contractors like Lockheed and Raytheon. Founders Fund's billion-dollar bet signals belief that Anduril can scale production at its Arsenal-1 facility to meet Pentagon demand for autonomous systems.

Stockholm-based EQT closed its latest European real estate fund above target while competitors struggle to raise capital in a high-rate environment. The €3.1 billion raise builds on EQT's acquisition of US manager EQT Exeter, which delivered a €2.1 billion logistics fund that hit its hard cap shortly after the deal closed as industry reports confirm. EQT's success contrasts sharply with broader real estate fundraising challenges, as limited partners reduce allocations amid rising borrowing costs and compressed cap rates. The logistics focus proves prescient: e-commerce and supply chain reshoring drive demand for European warehouse assets even as office and retail struggle. This oversubscription signals that scale and track record still command premium pricing when most real estate managers face funding headwinds.