Good morning, {{First Name}}! Buyouts are pushing back toward $2T, but add-ons are still doing plenty of the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, discounted BDCs are discovering that capital access can be a competitive advantage, and Victory Capital is making a $7B bet on asset management scale.
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MICROSURVEY
Capital Deployment Sentiment
How do you expect your organization’s investment activity to change over the next 12 months?
PRIVATE CREDIT CORNER
The BDC Capital Trap
Public BDCs are running into a familiar private markets problem: capital is available, but not necessarily at a price worth taking.
By December 2025, most of the BDCs shown are trading below NAV. PSEC sits near 0.4x NAV, while OBDC and GBDC are roughly 0.8x to 0.9x. ARCC is hovering around 1.0x. MAIN is the clear exception, commanding roughly 1.8x NAV, while TSLX also trades comfortably above book value at around 1.3x.
That valuation gap matters because a discounted stock price makes issuing new equity less attractive, constraining one of the cleanest ways BDCs can fund additional lending. Managers trading at premiums have a structural advantage: they can raise capital more efficiently and keep deploying while discounted peers face tighter choices.
For private credit investors, access to capital is becoming another source of competitive differentiation. The winners may not simply be the lenders finding the best loans, but the platforms whose own equity markets give them room to keep writing checks. (More)
You’re invited: Where AI Meets Private Equity
Artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation. The real question for private equity firms is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to turn it into measurable value across the investment lifecycle.
On November 18, PE150 and CapLink Group will host the AI / Data & Insight Private Capital Breakfast, an invitation-only gathering at London's May Fair Hotel that will bring together operating partners, deal teams, portfolio executives, and technology leaders to discuss what AI adoption actually looks like inside private equity.
The morning will feature three practitioner-led discussions:
AI Into Value Creation — How leading firms are transforming AI from dashboards into repeatable value creation playbooks across portfolio companies.
AI Across the Investment Lifecycle — Practical applications spanning sourcing, due diligence, investment decisions, and portfolio management.
Building the AI-Enabled Private Equity Firm — The operating models, data strategies, and organizational capabilities required to scale AI successfully.
Interested in attending? Register or request the full agenda here.
Interested in sponsoring? Email [email protected]
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
Bolt Ons Are Still Doing the Heavy Lifting
Global buyout activity came roaring back in 2025, but the composition tells the more interesting story. Total buyout value reached roughly $1.95T, up from about $1.52T in 2024 and approaching the $2.05T recorded in 2021.
Add ons contributed $700.7B in 2025, up from $601.7B in 2024. Yet non add on transactions grew even faster, reaching $1.25T. The result is a market where sponsors are deploying more capital into both new platforms and existing portfolios rather than relying on one playbook.
The 2026 figures show $274.3B of add ons against $472.7B of non add ons so far. If that mix persists, platform transactions could continue taking a larger share of the recovery.
For GPs, that creates a useful tension. New platforms expand the pipeline, while add ons remain the machinery for building scale after acquisition. The buyout rebound is not replacing buy and build. It is giving sponsors more raw material to do it. (More)
DEAL OF THE WEEK
Victory’s $7B Bet on Scale
Victory Capital is acquiring First Eagle Investments for approximately $7 billion, creating a global asset manager with roughly $571 billion in client assets. The transaction gives Genstar Capital, First Eagle’s majority owner, a major liquidity event while keeping it invested through an approximately 14.6% economic stake in Victory after closing.
The real story is scale. First Eagle brings $222 billion in AUM, including $41 billion across CLOs and alternative credit, expanding Victory’s footprint beyond traditional asset management and deeper into faster-growing private-market strategies. Victory also expects roughly $280 million in net expense synergies and approximately 35% adjusted EPS accretion in 2027.
For PE, the deal is another reminder that exits don’t always mean heading for the door. Genstar is monetizing a major investment while retaining exposure to a larger, more diversified platform—a useful blueprint as sponsors look for liquidity without giving up all the upside.
DEALS TRACKER
$2.6B | Apollo Sports Capital → Yankee Global Enterprises
Apollo Sports Capital agreed to provide $2.6B in credit and equity financing to Yankee Global Enterprises, supporting growth and debt refinancing while the Steinbrenner family retains full control of the New York Yankees. Read more
$232.8M | Navitas Semiconductor → Claros
Navitas Semiconductor agreed to acquire Claros for up to $232.8M, adding vertical power delivery and integrated voltage regulator technology designed to power next-generation AI data center chips. Read more
Undisclosed | KKR → Ci FLAVORS
KKR agreed to acquire Japanese beauty platform Ci FLAVORS from shareholders including L Catterton, backing further international expansion, category growth and strategic M&A across its portfolio of beauty and lifestyle brands. Read more
Undisclosed | Basware → Trustpair
Accel-KKR-backed Basware agreed to acquire Trustpair, combining invoice lifecycle management with payment fraud prevention as generative AI increases the sophistication and scale of payment fraud. Read more
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