Commentary

Essential services are having a moment – and investors are paying attention

Oft overlooked things like HVAC, plumbing, pest control and landscaping add up to a $650bn market with consistent annual growth, write Keith Campbell and Josh Portz of West Monroe.

Providence Equity adds live music logistics provider GCL to its roster; JC Flowers to take debt collection agency public

Highlighting a deal from Wednesday in the freight and logistics market involving a company we reported was for sale in April; a weekly round-up of PE Hub’s ongoing companies-for-sale coverage, highlighting the logistics and industrials market as safe bets for 2025 exits; an IPO announcement involving a consumer credit collections agency.

Thoma Bravo ‘fired up about Europe,’ says founder Orlando Bravo; Ardian agrees majority stake in MasterGrid; CVC’s Genetic sale enterprise value

MasterGrid is a provider of maintenance services and manufacturer of equipment for critical electrical infrastructure.

The GP-led herd is missing the real opportunity

The market’s overreliance on single-asset deals has boxed out many of the situations that need liquidity most, writes Chris Lawrence of Labyrinth Capital Partners.

Sterling draws on operational savvy in sale of West Star Aviation to Greenbriar; PE firms still like pest control

Greenbriar Equity Group acquires West Star Aviation from the Sterling Group; why we’ve seen deals in the pest control services subsector over the past year; insights on the consumer sector from a panel last week at the ONE Houlihan Lokey Global Conference in New York.

Dealmakers keen on defense and industrial tech, says Lincoln International; Operational improvements key under tariff uncertainty

The importance of operational value-add as a key driver of PE returns is clear, according to Alvarez & Marsal's Steffen Kroner.

Investcorp nets 4x return on Resa Power; Blackstone to take TXNM Energy private in $11.5bn deal

Blackstone Infrastructure Partners’ announced acquisition of the largest New Mexico regulated utility provider; a recent exit by Investcorp of a power services company that we scooped was for sale earlier this year; another power services deal involving a Gryphon Investors portfolio company which announced an add-on of a Birmingham, Alabama electrical engineering firm.

Private equity ‘loves’ VMS sector; Tariffs a near-term threat to wealth management, says Lincoln International

Apax Partners has agreed to buy the Treasury and Capital Markets business unit of Finastra.