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Battery Ventures’ Jesse Feldman is feeling 'pretty optimistic;' Bregal Sagemount backs environmental insurer

Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here with the Wire.

I’ve just come back from a long weekend relaxing in Stonington, a charming village on the coast of Connecticut. Yesterday, the town celebrated the annual Blessing of the Fleet, which honors people in the fishing industry.

The event reminded me of PE Hub reporter Obey Martin Manayiti’s recent feature on private equity’s growing appetite for seafood, also known as aquaculture.

“There is a continual increase of seafood taking up the center plate,” Howard Tang, the CEO of Peritus Capital, told Obey. “Terrestrial proteins is a mature industry; whereas aquaculture has a lot of growth ahead of it based on the increasing demand.”

Today, Obey looked into a different industry: environmental insurance. Bregal Sagemount announced an investment in that sector earlier this month. 

Also today, we’re featuring PE Hub Europe editor Craig McGlashan’s interview with Jesse Feldman, general partner at Battery Ventures, who shares his outlook for H2.

Environmental insurance

Demand for environmental insurance is growing, but awareness of the need for it is lacking. That dynamic led Bregal Sagemount to make a minority investment in United Commercial Program Managers in a deal announced earlier in July.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire to read Obey’s Deep Dive on the deal.

“Pretty optimistic”

A difficult environment for private equity dealmaking could lift in the second half of the year as the outlook for business performance improves and macro uncertainties clear, Jesse Feldman, general partner at Battery Ventures, told PE Hub Europe’s Craig McGlashan.

Upgrade to the full Wire to read more about the interview.

I’d love to hear your outlook for dealmaking in H2. You can reach me at mk.flynn@pei.group.

That’s all for today. Craig will be back with more tomorrow.

Happy dealmaking,

MK

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

"Private equity firm Vistria Group is near a deal to buy Soliant for roughly $2.5bn, about four years after middle market buyout fund Olympus Partners bought the business, which connects professionals such as nurses, therapists and educators with hospitals and schools." (Financial Times)

Since Marcel van Poecke joined Carlyle in 2013, "the veteran Dutch investor has turned London-based Carlyle International Energy Partners into an unusual outpost of the buyout world by snapping up unloved oil and gas assets across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America." (Financial Times)

"ArcLight Capital Partners, a major private equity buyer of power assets, launched a new unit with initial capital of $500 million to acquire and upgrade wind and solar projects that will help meet surging electricity demand from data centers." (Bloomberg)

"Vital Energy and Northern Oil and Gas will jointly acquire U.S. shale assets from private equity-owned Point Energy Partners for $1.1 billion, the companies said on Sunday." (Reuters)

"Thoma Bravo raised $2.7 billion in a sale of about half of its shares in Nasdaq Inc. as it sells down the stake it acquired as part of a transaction last year." (Bloomberg)

"Arcmont Asset Management is planning to raise over €12 billion ($13 billion) for a new European direct-lending fund, people with knowledge of the matter said." (Bloomberg)

"BMS Group, the London-based independent specialist re/insurance broker, has entered into an agreement to acquire David Roberts & Partners from private equity firm Inflexion." (Insurance Journal)

They said it

“The risk/reward curve is starting to get to a place where there’s more overlap and that will lead to more activity.”

— Jesse Feldman, general partner at Battery Ventures, on his outlook for H2