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Hg won the bid for AuditBoard, plus GSAM’s Shell talks about the Xpress Wellness deal

Good morning dealmakers, thank goodness it’s Friday.

It’s Obey Martin Manayiti here with the newsletter as summer (unofficially) begins.

We’ll start with the news that Hg has agreed to acquire a Los Angeles-based audit, risk, compliance, and ESG software company for more than $3 billion.

Up next, we have a deep dive into Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s acquisition of a provider of urgent care and other healthcare services to rural communities.

And for the trend of the week, we have a listicle featuring six PE-backed deals focusing on snacks, as investors bet on the snacking habits of the American people.

Audit

Hg has agreed to acquire Los Angeles-based AuditBoard, an audit, risk, compliance, and ESG software company, for more than $3 billion. Based in London, Hg targets technology in Europe and the US. Currently, Battery Ventures is AuditBoard’s largest institutional shareholder.

Premium subscribers to the Wire have more on this deal.

Rural urgent care clinics

Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Horizon Inclusive Growth fund has made its first healthcare deal, writes Snehal Shah, senior reporter,New Private Markets.

The newly launched social impact fund acquired Xpress Wellness, a company that manages urgent care clinics in rural communities in the US from Latticework Capital Management, which first invested in Xpress Wellness in 2018.

Premium subscribers to the Wire learn more about what Greg Shell, a partner at GSAM, had to say about this deal.

Snack time

Nobody ever went broke overestimating the snacking habits of the American people, writes PE Hub reporterIris Dorbian.

With snacking being a staple of American diets, PE Hub forecasts more scrumptious deals to come. Iris rounded up six recent deals, and premium subscribers have access to all the deals.

That’s it for today. You can always reach me at obey.m@pei.group for news tips.

In observance of Memorial Day, there will be no Wire on Monday. MK Flynnwill be back with the newsletter on Tuesday.

Have a nice holiday weekend,

Obey

Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

Here’s a concept to ponder when thinking about the challenges facing fundraising GPs in the market today: last year was one of the slowest periods for PE distributions. While that’s not great, it could represent a bottoming out of the slow exit environment. (Buyouts)

In what may be a sign of improving dealmaking conditions, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the world’s biggest investor in private equity, recently upped its performance – with the help of some exits. (Buyouts)

Over on Private Equity International, senior reporter Carmela Mendoza writes that Blackstone’s move implementing employee ownership for portfolio companies of its US private equity control buyouts addresses inequality risk and better returns for LPs.

How is Lexington’s single-asset strategy likely to fare? Not every firm has smashed the lights out when it comes to fundraising for vehicles focusing on concentrated bets. (Secondaries Investor)

Forestry and agriculture fund manager SLM Partners has said the carbon sequestration delivered by its portfolio in 2023 significantly outweighed its carbon emissions. (Agri Investor)

Starwood Capital’s private REIT cash crunch is the latest sign that the storm has not yet passed for retail investor-focused vehicles. (Private Equity Real Estate)

Women-led VC firms are on track to raise just two-thirds of the totals they raised in 2023 and 2022 as the broader venture industry struggles with a fundraising downturn. (Venture Capital Journal)

Hamilton Lane is due to hold the final close on its latest secondaries flagship fund in the coming weeks. Hamilton Lane Secondary Fund VI, which has a target of $5 billion, currently has a size of “over $5 billion”, co-CEO Erik Hirsch said on the firm’s Q4 and fiscal year 2024 earnings call. (Secondaries Investor)

Chicago-based asset manager Entrepreneurial Equity Partners has closed its second fund on $546 million. (Agri Investor)

They said it

“People often don’t get the chance to have chronic conditions treated or the normal opportunities to see physicians or specialists. A lot of our rural citizens, just by the virtue of the zip code they are born in, have a life expectancy three or five years lower than their urban or suburban counterparts.”

— Greg Shell, Goldman Sachs partner and head of the Horizon Inclusive Growth fund on the acquisition of Xpress Wellness.