Stonepeak, an alternative investment firm specialising in infrastructure and real assets, and Spirit Super, an Australian industry super fund, are to acquire 100% of Australia’s GeelongPort Pty Limited. 

Broad Sky Partners, a private equity firm that partners with middle-market business services and consumer companies, has made a strategic investment in Smith + Howard, a US-based tax, accounting, and advisory firm. The investment marks Broad Sky’s third platform investment. Smith + Howard specialises in tax, accounting, and advisory services to middle-market businesses, non-profits, and high-net-worth families. Broad Sky’s investment aims to accelerate Smith + Howard’s long-term growth initiatives, including expanding its advisory services, increasing its geographic footprint, and accelerating its technology solutions through acquisitions and other strategic investments. Going forward, Smith + Howard PC and Smith + Howard Advisory

Private equity firm KKR & Co is looking to offload Canadian oil and gas producer Westbrick Energy Ltd in a potential deal valued at between $1.13 billion and $1.5 billion, according to a report by Reuters. The report cutes unnamed sources as revealing that majority owner KKR is looking to find a buyer by the end of the year, one of the sources said, but that it could also hold on to Westbrick should it fail to find a suitable buyer. KKR has owned Westbrick for a decade, investing CAD250 million in the company when it was a smaller producer

Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising mid-market companies, has acquired L2 Brands, a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of custom apparel and headwear for the collegiate, destination and leisure, and corporate markets.  Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. With a heritage dating back more than 30 years, L2 Brands creates customized products that connect consumers with the schools, destinations, and traditions they love. Since its founding in 1991, L2 Brands has grown into a diversified business with a successful history of long-term profitable growth. L2’s two brands—League and Legacy—offer widely recognised lines of

The Riverside Company, a global private investor focused on the smaller end of the middle market, has invested in Motivating Systems, a provider of behavioural management software to K-12 schools and districts, as an add-on to its portfolio company, Navigate360. Motivating Systems is the creator of PBIS Rewards, an evidence-based, tiered framework for supporting students’ behavioural, academic, social, emotional and mental health. PBIS, which stands for Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports, helps schools track positive reward and behaviour referral data, which are critical inputs in assessing the overall wellbeing of a student. The company’s software suite allows customers to analyse

MiddleGround Capital, an operationally focused private equity firm that makes control investments in North American middle market B2B industrial and specialty distribution companies, has acquired SixAxis, a provider of compliance-driven safety equipment solutions across diverse end markets. SixAxis’ patent-protected suite of customisable and modular solutions are purpose-built to address companies’ safety and productivity challenges. The Company’s products, offered under the brand families SafeRack, ErectAStep and Upside Innovations, include superior stairway and platform systems, fall protection and bulk loading solutions.  With an over $3 billion addressable market for access and loading fall prevention solutions, SixAxis is well positioned within a highly

LDC-backed Croud, a global digital marketing agency working with some of the world’s leading brands, has acquired Born Social, a global social media agency. This transaction marks Croud’s third acquisition in 12 months. With the support of its private equity partner LDC, it  continues to build its group of global businesses. This follows the acquisition of luxury digital marketing agency VERB Brands in November 2021, and data and analytics company impakt Advisors in December. The transaction takes Croud group’s annual revenues to more than £50 million in its latest financial year, a record for the group.   The business is

Grant Avenue Capital, a middle market healthcare-focused private equity firm, has launched Helios Clinical Research, a new integrated clinical site organisation that partners with patients, physicians, and biopharma sponsors to optimise clinical research. 

Armònia, an Italian private equity fund manager, together with the minority shareholders, including CEO Vanni Benedetti, has sold 100% of BioDue, an Italian player in the market of food supplements, medical devices and cosmetics, to the international private equity fund manager Riverside. The sale of BioDue, which will be completed once the regulatory approvals have been obtained, is the second exit for Armònia Italy Fund. The completion of this transaction will allow Armònia to repay to investors more than 90% of total invested capital. Armònia acquired the stake in BioDue at the end of 2019 through a delisting. During the