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The Wire

Private equity deal news and insights from the London newsroom

Jun 26, 2025

 

Inflexion preps eight portcos for North American expansion; Buyouts outperform MSCI Europe index, says Invest Europe

Good morning, Nina Lindholm here with the Europe Wire from the London newsroom.

 

European businesses expanding across the Atlantic is certainly not an uncommon growth story. However, sometimes you need an expert to get you there. This morning, we hear from a veteran of that field: Ben Meyer, partner and head of North America at Inflexion, the latest addition to our Dealmakers to Watch series. He walks us through how he approaches expanding a select group of portcos over to North America.

 

We then delve into some numbers with the help of Invest Europe’s latest Performance Benchmark Report. PE Hub had an early look, so I’ve picked some highlights for you.

 

To finish, we return to our opening topic of add-ons, but ones that don’t extend over continents. Battery Ventures-backed Forterro has agreed to acquire a Danish business intelligence and analytics software company.

 

Adding on

Inflexion’s initiative to expand portfolio companies to North America via add-on acquisitions is making “very meaningful” progress, despite only having launched fully four months ago, Ben Meyer, partner and head of North America, told me as part of our Dealmakers to Watch series.

 

Check out the full piece to learn details about the expansion plans and Meyer’s career up to this point.

 

You can also find out more in the full Wire coverage.

 

Superior returns

Planting our feet firmly in Europe again. European buyouts delivered a net IRR of 14.86 percent to the end of 2024, versus 6.21 percent for the MSCI Europe, representing an outperformance of 865 basis points, according to Invest Europe’s latest ‘The Performance of European Private Equity’ report. The figures span the five years since the report first launched.

 

For my highlights from the report, including IRR details, check out the premium Wire.

 

Analytics add-on

Let’s finish today with a fresh add-on deal. Battery Ventures-backed Forterro has entered a binding agreement to acquire Targit, an Aalborg, Denmark-based business intelligence (BI) and analytics software company.

 

Check out the premium Wire to find out what capabilities Targit adds to Forterro.

 

That’s all from me this morning. Michael Schoeck will be with you later today with the US edition, while Irien Joseph is on Europe duty tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

Nina

 

 

Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Today's must reads

> Inflexion’s Ben Meyer: Writing a North American expansion playbook More...
> Hg rides regtech wave with Cube's mid-market compliance push More...
> Exclusive: Accounting talent shortage leads Unity Partners to acquire Ampleo More...
> Thorough reviews of targets’ AI capabilities ‘critical’ under EU Act More...
> Schwarzman and Gray: Europe in unique position to capture more investment More...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

 

LP-leds rule by volume, but GP-leds are very sizeable: In this podcast, we discuss the evolution of infra secondaries, its best-in-class pricing, the outsized role of continuation funds, new buyer-led technology and more. (Infrastructure Investor)  

 

Carlyle AlpInvest and HarbourVest lead on Norvestor’s €2bn+ CV. One of the assets in the two-company continuation fund is housed within an existing multi-asset CV closed in 2022, Secondaries Investor has learned.

 

How Apollo found impact value amid US political uncertainty: The firm's latest deal would not have been possible without a change in administration, co-head of impact Joanna Reiss tells New Private Markets. 

 

Banks will only become more intertwined with private debt: Lines of credit from banks to credit vehicles have grown at an exponential rate, warranting regulatory attention. (Private Debt Investor)  

 

Clifton Partners closes niche debut fund: The close represents a major milestone for Zain Fancy and his firm Clifton Partners, which was founded in 2011. (Private Funds CFO)

Deals

> Battery Ventures-backed Forterro buys software company Targit More...
> LDC pumps capital into UK’s Harper James More...
> Envestnet to sell open finance and data analytics firm Yodlee to STG More...
> Seven7 invests alongside Altor in acquisition of CCM Hockey More...
> 26North to take controlling stake in audio-video technologies provider AVI-SPL More...
> 26North to take control stake in audio-video technologies provider AVI-SPL More...
People
> Will Keesler joins Watchtower Capital as managing partner More...
> Astorg hires Jérôme Triebel as head of France and Benelux for mid-cap fund More...
> Angeles Equity Partners taps Michael Johnson for operations team More...

They said it

“Where we sit right now… I’ve got a very clear sense across all of those focus portfolio companies as to what the state of play is.”

— Ben Meyer, partner and head of North America, Inflexion, on the firm's add-on plans

 

Today's letter was prepared by Nina Lindholm

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