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Warburg Pincus to shop Sundyne; Lone Star makes $3bn carveout; Blackstone, I Squared talk energy transition

Good morning, Hubsters. Michael Schoeck here, back with you for the Thursday Wire.

Kicking things off today, I’ve got a scoop on a company for sale from Warburg Pincus, according to my sources. I’ll also update you on the list of 150-plus potential sales I’ve been tracking all year.

Energy transition is the big theme of the day. I take a Deep Dive into I Squared Capital’s investment in Priority Power Management. And Blackstone discusses its energy transmission investments in Europe, part of PE Hub’s H2 Outlook series.

And there’s carveout news this morning, with Lone Star Funds buying thecommercial and residential fire business of Carrier for $3 billion.

Advisory pitch

Warburg Pincus is interviewing investment banks to advise on a strategic review of Sundyne, a manufacturer of pumps and compressors to the energy and petrochemicals market, sources familiar with the matter told me.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire for the full story.

We’ll shift from industrials over to the electric grid with two stories on energy transition investments.

LPs want more energy transition

Blackstone sees a “significant” increase in demand from its limited partners for investing in the energy transition, Juergen Pinker, senior managing director told PE Hub’s Irien Joseph in our latest H2 Outlook piece.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire to read the full interview.

Picks and shovels

Grid instability and increased severe weather remain at the heart of the thesis of I Squared’s energy transition investment strategy. And while the US is a little behind the rest of the world, grid improvements are now taking shape, Gautam Bhandari, managing partner and global chief investment officer of I Squared Capital, told me in an interview.

That confluence of factors was at the core of I Squared’s July 30 announced acquisition of commercial and industrial infrastructure-as-a-service company Priority Power Management from Ara Partners and Oaktree Capital.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire for the full story.

Fire prevention

PE Hub has been tracking a flare up of fire prevention deals in the last few months. This morning HVAC company Carrier announced an agreement to sell its commercial and residential fire business to Lone Star in a $3 billion carveout.

Upgrade to the premium version of the Wire to access more fire safety PE deals.

Slight M&A uptick

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been tracking more than 150 companies that sources have told me are on the market, or coming to the market in a matter of months, potentially attracting PE buyers.

In a sign of how slow dealflow is these days, only 17% of those companies have been announced in deals. But the largest uptick has come since early June.

Here's to seeing more deal announcements! If you’ve got any tips about companies for sale, shoot me a note at Michael.S@pei.group.

That’s a wrap for me today. Stay tuned for Nina Lindholm on the Friday Wire tomorrow, filling in for Obey Martin Manayiti, who’s on vacation through the end of the month.

Cheers,

Michael

Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ...

Also of note (may require subscriptions)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of the world’s largest investors in private equity, has tapped 14-year company vet Caitlin Gubbels to lead its global strategy. Effective October 15, Gubbels will succeed Suyi Kim, CPP Investments’ global head of private equity since 2021.

Private Equity International's latest data-driven 'Number Crunch' column asks: Could Southeast Asia become APAC’s crown jewel?

CVC Secondary Partners, newly rebranded from Glendower Capital, saw a considerable increase in deployment in this year’s first half compared with the same period last year. The firm deployed €900 million in H1 2024, more than double the €400 million it injected into secondaries deals in the first six months of 2023. (Secondaries Investor)

In part four of its five-part series on data centers, Venture Capital Journal focuses on alternative sources of power – including miniature nuclear reactors – being developed to feed data centers' seemingly insatiable appetite for electricity.

Stafford Capital Partners’ $1 billion carbon fund begins deployment. CEO Angus Whiteley says the firm is seeing fewer timberland deal opportunities in Europe due to limited scale and high prices propped up by subsidies. (Agri Investor)

UK Local Government Pension Schemes – a group of 98 defined benefit pension plans for local government employees that collectively hold around £350 billion ($445 billion; €407 billion) of assets – have not historically been big players in private markets generally, and let alone in impact investing. However, developments of the last few years have seen this change, to the extent that LGPS capital now participates in some of the largest impact funds in the market. (New Private Markets)

"Seafood giant StarKist, its parent Dongwon Industries and private equity firm Lion Capital, owner of Bumble Bee Foods, have agreed to pay $200 million to settle U.S. class actions claiming they overcharged consumers and other purchasers of packaged tuna." (Reuters)

"French private equity firm InfraVia Capital Partners is considering a sale of Swiss data center operator Green, according to people with knowledge of the matter. InfraVia is working with advisers on the potential divestment, which could value the company at about €1 billion ($1.1 billion), said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private." (Bloomberg)

They said it

“In the gold rush of the AI buildout, [Priority] are the providers of picks and shovels” to commercial and industrial clients seeking distributed generation power resources, such as renewable energy.

— Alex Katz, managing director at Sixth Street Growth on Sixth Street and Insight Partners’ growth investment in Kiteworks