US middle-market private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners has closed a $1.2bn single-asset continuation vehicle for its stake in Circana, a global consumer behaviour adviser, with Blackstone Strategic Partners and HarbourVest Partners acting as lead investors in the transaction.

Concord, a US investment group backed by Apollo Global Management, has raised its bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund to $1.5bn, surpassing a competing offer from Blackstone and initiating a bidding war, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Funds advised by private equity firm Triton have agreed to sell EQOS, a European specialty installation and service company providing critical infrastructure, to Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, part of French construction group Eiffage. 

IK Partners’s IK Partnership II Fund has acquired a minority stake in A-SAFE, a UK designer, manufacturer and distributor of industrial polymer safety barrier systems, from the company’s management team, led by Co-CEOs James and Luke Smith. 

Manchester-based private equity firm Palatine has exited specialist fleet solutions provider NRG Riverside via a sale of the business, following significant investment in its people and operations, to Astatine Investment Partners, a specialist PE investor focused on infrastructure investments.