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PE firms invest in energy management; Deal of the Year nominations due today

Good morning, dealmakers. MK Flynn here with today’s Wire.

Today marks the last day to nominate transactions for our Deal of the Year awards. (See details, below).

We’re featuring a roundup of deals involving energy management and efficiency today.

Energy-as-a-Service. Companies and consumers throughout North America and Europe are struggling to keep their energy expenses down, and private equity firms are investing in tools and services aimed at energy efficiency and management.

PE Hub Europe’s Nina Lindholm rounded up half a dozen energy management deals, including two with acquisition targets based in the US.

Priority Power, backed by Oaktree Capital Management and Ara Partners, acquired Texas-based AB Power Advisors, a consulting business that targets the US power industry. Priority Power is a provider of clean energy optimization and infrastructure services. AB Power Advisors’ service offering includes strategic energy management, regulatory advisory, support and offtake origination.

Partners Group took a majority equity stake in Shelton, Connecticut-based Budderfly, an Energy-as-a-Service provider. The purchase price was more than $500 million. Budderfly offers EaaS solutions for the measurement, reduction and management of energy demand and consumption. Budderfly has more than 2,750 customer sites across 49 states.

According to the news release on the deal, Partners Group “aims to transform Budderfly into a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure platform by investing to expand its customer base and solutions offering.”

People moves. Clinical ink, a global life science technology company, today announced that healthcare industry veteran Dr. Jonathan Goldman has joined the company as CEO, succeeding Ed Seguine who has led Clinical ink since nearly fourteen years ago.

Last chance. Today is the deadline for Buyouts’ and PE Hub’s Deal of the Year awards nominations. Get your submissions in so our crack edit squad can start vetting!

Visit here for more information about the application process.

And reach out to Chris Witkowsky with questions at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com.

That’s it for today. I’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Happy dealmaking,

MK

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, out raising its 14th flagship fund, explored a secondaries sale on some of its older funds with the possibility of generating a meaningful slug of fresh capital into the new pool, but decided to pull back on the process, four sources told Buyouts.

Hamilton Lane, the 12th-largest secondaries fundraiser according to the SI 50, saw more deal opportunities for secondaries last year than it ever has as the firm continues to make headway with fundraising for its latest dedicated program. (Secondaries Investor)

Kern County Employees’ Retirement Association anticipates placing $90 million in re-ups over the next two years as it looks to build out a private asset portfolio that restarted in 2020. (Buyouts)

Greenfield renewable energy projects are not getting the credit they deserve for their contribution to net zero with current ESG standards failing to recognize their additionality, write Jiska Klein and Emma Tinker of Asper Investment Management on Infrastructure Investor.

Alternative asset manager Tikehau Capital has partnered with Societe Generale to launch SG Tikehau Dette Privée, a debt fund that enables private investors to invest in Western European SMEs committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. (Private Debt Investor)

The SEC is looking into how private equity employees use "off-channel communications" like WhatsApp. Apollo, KKR and Carlyle have all disclosed they are under investigation and several hedge funds have also been asked to review their employees’ personal phones for evidence that they talked to clients." (Financial Times)

"Blackstone Inc. became one of the world’s most powerful financial firms by investing on behalf of large institutional investors. To boost growth, it decided to offer its products to individuals. Its new fund was a huge success, becoming the biggest Blackstone had ever raised. Then it became a crisis." (Wall Street Journal)

"Zeekr, the luxury electric vehicle brand of China’s largest private carmaker Geely, announced Monday that investors have committed to investing $750 million in its Series A funding round. Its post-money valuation has shot up to $13 billion." (TechCrunch)