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Blackstone and GI Partners close deals; EQT reveals Lumos JV plans; DealMax 2024 highlights

Good morning, Hubsters. Michael Schoeck back with you for the Thursday Wire. I’m jetlagged as I just got back from ACG’s DealMax 2024 conference in Las Vegas.

Top deal news this morning are two closings: Blackstone’s of a real-estate deal to take Tricon Residential private in a $3.5 billion transaction, and a corporate carveout involving GI Partners’ purchase of DQE Communications, a broadband service provider, from Duquesne Light Holdings, an electric utility company.

Next up we’ll have a look at my colleague Obey Martin Manayiti’s interview with Nirav Shah, a partner in EQT’s infrastructure group, about the sponsor’s Lumos platform JV with T-Mobile to build fiber-to-the-home networks.

And we’ll wrap up today with talking points from DealMax 2024 overheard by yours truly after a two-day Vegas session.

Take-private

Blackstone’s real estate platform has completed the previously announced take-private acquisition of Tricon Residential, a Toronto-based owner, operator and developer of single-family rental homes.

Read more on the take-private deal by upgrading to the premium version of the Wire.

Broadband telecom carveout

GI Partners announced the closing of its acquisition of DQE Communications, a Pittsburgh-based provider of high-speed internet and data networking for residential and small business customers, from utility Duquesne Light Holdings.

Concurrently with the closing, Michael Sicoli has been appointed as CEO of DQE Communications, effective immediately.

Fiber-to-the-home buildout

Speaking of fiber-optic networks, the technology is “future proof” with a huge tailwind, Nirav Shah, a partner in EQT’s infrastructure advisory team, told PE Hub’s Obey Martin Manayiti after the investor formed a JV with telecom T-Mobile on fiber-to-the-home platform Lumos.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire to read more exclusive insight on the fiber platform.

DealMax highlights

I was fortunate to meet a plethora of PE principals, bankers, lenders and industry consultants at the Association for Corporate Growth’s DealMax 2024, held earlier this week on the Las Vegas strip. They were decidedly upbeat that third and fourth quarter deal activity this year will be much more robust than the level of deals announced over the previous 12 to 18 months.

Premium subscribers to the Wire can read more from the conference, including anecdotes from dealmakers.

AI reigns supreme

AI plays a key role in the PE deals universe and can also optimize internal operations of a PE portfolio company early on in a PE holding cycle, panelists said during a DealMax panel titled ‘The Rise of AI and its Impact on M&A.’

Premium subscribers to the Wire can read more on AI’s role in the M&A context.

That’s it for me today. Stay tuned for the Friday Wire to wrap up the week with Obey Martin Manayiti.

Cheers,

Michael

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

Critics of the SBTi are focusing on the wrong question: While debate flares up about whether the Science Based Targets initiative should allow greater use of offsets, the real question is whether Scope 3 decarbonisation is possible without them. (Infrastructure Investor)

New risk alert tackles marketing rule compliance: Risk alert identifies shortcomings in advisers' P&Ps which "resulted in gaps for preventing violations of the marketing rule, books and records rule, or both." (Private Funds CFO)

Blue Owl’s Zahr outlines private credit growth ambitions: The manager will be looking to originate its own loans, pursue securitized deals and acquire loans from traditional lenders as part of its real estate debt roadmap. (PERE)

KKR’s new mid-market fund on the verge of hitting $4bn target: In a subdued deal environment, mid-market buyouts are drawing more attention. This perhaps explains why KKR has had success with the debut strategy at a time when fundraising is especially challenging. (Buyouts)

They said it

“We see substantial whitespace at the intersection of consumer broadband and fiber infrastructure, where we view fiber infrastructure as a superior, future-proof technology. When you look at the US, only about 45 percent of homes have fiber coverage or access to fiber.”

— Nirav Shah, partner at EQT's infrastructure advisory group, on the need for fiber network investments