Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here with today’s Wire. E-commerce, which has been soaring since the start of the pandemic, is continuing to drive private equity-backed deals, including two announced this morning. High-growth market. Thomas H. Lee Partners is making a majority investment in inriver, which develops software designed to help companies deliver revenue-driving product information management, or PIM, across customer touchpoints. The total deal value is approximately $400 million, sources familiar with the deal told PE Hub. Verdane, the European specialist growth equity investor is retaining a significant stake in the target. The transaction includes a significant primary capital investment to support inriver’s product development roadmap and significantly expand its presence in North America and Europe, to meet the demands of a high-growth market, THL said. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, with its North American headquarters in Chicago, inriver seeks to help manufacturers, distributors, and retailers manage, distribute, and optimize vast amounts of product information at scale to drive revenue, according to the company. Smooth operations. Along with the surge in e-commerce, the need for warehouses has risen. One company that aims to help warehouses run more smoothly is Allmark Door. Headquartered in Springfield, New Jersey and founded in 1993, Allmark provides installation, maintenance and replacement services for industrial doors and loading docks. Earlier this morning, LLR Partners said it has invested in the company. PE Hub’s Obey Martin Manayiti spoke with Katie Lankalis, a vice president at LLR, together with Tom Woodruff, the new chief executive of Allmark, to learn more about the company and why the Philadelphia PE firm is backing it. “Some of the trends that we were looking at include the growth in e-commerce and the increasing volume of goods that are getting shipped across the country and the proliferation of distribution centers that are being built out,” Lankalis said. For more, read the full story. Uphill battle. “An unintended consequence of the SEC’s proposed tighter regulation of private equity could be increasing the cost burden on smaller funds, which would impact the growing community of diverse managers that have been making inroads in the industry,” Buyouts’ Gregg Gethard writes. Read the full story. That’s all for now. Until tomorrow, MK Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ... |