AGM Alts & Wealth Weekly News Roundup | 4.24.26
The news of the week in private markets and wealth management
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AGM News Roundup
š¦ Wealth Management
Hightower agrees to buy $9.5bn practice The Bahnsen Group | Ian Wenik | Citywire | Hightower has agreed to fully purchase one of its largest affiliates, $9.5B The Bahnsen Group.
Savvy rolls out advisor-facing AI interface | Alec Rich | Citywire | Tech-enabled RIA Savvy Wealth has rolled out an internal AI platform that aims to unify client data for its advisors, leveraging AI agents to assist in advisor workflows.
CIOs worried about geopolitical uncertainty, see opportunity in US value stocks | Peter Saalfield | Citywire | Citywire RIA polled attendees of its CIO Summit and found that 50% of respondents said they were most concerned about geopolitical uncertainty.
Advisor moves jumped 16% in 2025: Report | Peter Saalfield | Citywire | The number of financial advisors who changed firms or advisor model grew by 16% in 2025, the highest annual total since Diamond Consultants began tracking the moves in its āFinancial Advisor Transition Reportā in 2022.
Schwab: Spot crypto trading for RIAs still pending | Sam Bojarski | Citywire | Advisors who custody with Schwab will have to wait before the firm rolls out spot crypto trading. Schwab has rolled out spot crypto trading to retail investors.
š² Evergreen Funds
Franklin CEO: Reports of software's demise are greatly exaggerated | Tania Mitra | Citywire | Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson shared perspectives that evergreen fund managers should hold their ground amid the current private credit cycle.
Hamilton Lane Launches Two Interval Funds Across Private Credit and Private Infrastructure, Leveraging Extensive Expertise and Deep Track Records | Hamilton Lane | Hamilton Lane has launched two interval funds across private credit and private infrastructure. The firmās Private Infrastructure Fund is also available in a tokenized format through Republicās digital investment platform.
Aussie wealth manager warns PE evergreens have overpromised on liquidity | Daniel Kemp | PEI | Gavin Ezekowitz, CIO of BFA Global Investors, says that the industry must do a better job of matching liquidity events in unlisted funds.
š ļø Private Markets Infrastructure
73 Strings Launches Global Operating Model from New York to Power Next Phase of Growth in Private Markets | 73 Strings | 73 Strings announced the launch of a unified global operating model. Jazmin Hogan, a 20-year veteran of valuation and private markets analytics at firms including Apollo and Blackstone, has been appointed Global Head of Client Operations.
šø Private Equity
EQT Raises Record $15.6 Billion for Asia Private Equity Fund | Cathy Chan | Bloomberg | EQT raised $15.6B for its latest Asia-focused private equity fund, which represents the largest pool of capital ever assembled for the region.
EQT makes improved Ā£9.7bn offer for Intertek | Ivan Levingston | Financial Times | EQT has submitted an improved takeover bid for Intertek, valuing the FTSE 100-listed testing specialist at Ā£9.7B.
OpenAI in talks to commit up to $1.5bn to private equity joint venture | George Hammond | Financial Times | OpenAI has pledged up to $1.5B to a new joint venture with private equity firms. OpenAI will put an initial $500M of its equity into the JV, which will be valued at $10B as part of a funding round that will include TPG, Bain Capital, Advent International, Brookfield, and Goanna Capital. The aforementioned private equity firms will invest another $4B.
Private equity firm L Catterton launches fund with top athletes | James Fontanella-Khan and Samuel Agini | Financial Times | LVMH-backed consumer-focused investment firm has launched a $500M fund with athletes including Kevin Durant, Mike Trout, and Patrick Cantlay. Athletes have committed more than $50M to the fund that will be managed by L Catterton, which has backed companies including Birkenstock, Solidcore, Dishoom, and Butternut Box.
Read AGMās post from January 2021 on the trend of athletes becoming investors and equity owners in āWhere Social Capital Becomes Financial Capital.ā
CVC-led group closes in on Ā£1bn Standard Life pensions deal | Lee Harris and Emma Dunkley | Financial Times | A consortium led by CVC and Prudential Financial is in position to take a Ā£1bn-plus stake in Standard Lifeās pension-risk transfer business. The JV is being pitched by Standard Life, previously called Phoenix Group, as an opportunity to compete with Apollo and Brookfield, who have recently entered the market.
EQT Is Said to Explore Takeover of Japanās $2.6 Billion Kakaku.com | Michael Msika, Daniele Lepido, Manuel Baigorri | Bloomberg | EQT is considering a takeover of Kakaku.com, as part of a broader increase in private equity deals in Japan.
EQT warns AI fears will stall sales of private equity software stakes | Alexandra Heal | Financial Times | EQT has warned that fears about AI could ripple through the market and stall private equity firms selling their investments, with the possibility of a lower level of deal activity in software, according to CEO Per Franzen.
Vista Strikes Deal to Speed Up Google AI in Software Portfolio | Preeti Singh, Reshmi Basu, and Ryan Gould | Bloomberg | Vista Equity Partners is partnering with Google Cloud to accelerate the deployment of AI across its portfolio of software firms. The partnership will focus on agentic AI and allow Vista's portfolio companies to access Google Cloud's offerings, including AI assistant Gemini and super-computing system AI Hypercomputer.
Google Cloud and CVC launch partnership to accelerate agentic AI transformations | CVC | Google Cloud and CVC announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the adoption of AI technology among CVC portfolio companies. CVC portfolio companies will have streamlined access to Google Cloudās AI stack, including its Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Agent Gallery, Agent Builder, Gemini models, AI infrastructure, and more.
Warburg Pincus ready to write ā¬200m checks for European defence companies | Nina Lindholm | PEI | Warburg Pincus is on the hunt for mid-market assets in the European defense sector with check sizes in the ā¬200M range.
š³ Private Credit
Private credit faces strain as borrowing costs edge higher | Eric Platt, Michelle Chan and Jill R. Shah | Financial Times | Private credit funds are getting squeezed by higher borrowing costs, with banks tightening terms on the leverage they provide to investors. The premium debt investors demand to lend to private credit funds has risen 34 bps since the start of the year and is up 83 bps since the beginning of 2025, according to JPMorgan Chase.
Exclusive: Thoma Bravo nears agreement to turn software firm Medallia over to creditors, sources say | Milana Vinn and Isla Binnie | Reuters | Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is nearing an agreement to hand over software firm Medallia to its lenders. The move will wipe out $5.1B in equity for Thoma Bravo and its co-investors, who bought the customer service software company for $6.4B in 2021.
CVC Credit raises fourth CLO equity vehicle with $1 billion in commitments | CVC | CVC conducted a final close of CVC CLO Equity IV with $1B of commitments. Itās CVC Creditās fourth dedicated CLO equity vehicle, and is 25% larger than the firmās predecessor vehicle.
Blackstone, KKR Move to Restructure $1.4 Billion Private Loan | Olivia Fishlow and Reshmi Basu | Bloomberg | Blackstone and KKR are leading a debt restructuring for Affordable Care, which has struggled to service a $1.4B private credit loan as earnings deteriorated.
Permira Credit announces pricing of Providus CLO XV at ā¬403.3 million | Permira | Permira Credit completed its 19th new-issue transaction globally and its fifth transaction of 2026 to date. The firmās Global Liquid Credit AUM will reach ā¬7.7B upon closing.
Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman hits back against 'intensively negative campaign' against private credit | Alex Nicoll | Business Insider | Blackstone Chairman, CEO, & Co-Founder Steve Schwarzman said that the firm is ānavigating an intensely negative campaign against the private credit sector,ā and that we should āseparate the fact from the fiction.ā Blackstone President & COO Jon Gray said the āstrikingā difference between institutional and insurance clients and retail investor sentiment is āas sharp of a contrast as I've ever seen.ā
š Real Estate
Zara Founder Ortega Leads Ultra-Richās Push Into $1 Trillion Property Market | Benjamin Stupples and Clara Hernanz Lizarraga | Bloomberg | Zara founder Amancio Ortega and other UHNWs are focused on allocating to the commercial real estate market, with private capital deploying a record $464B last year.
š„ Secondaries
Blackstoneās Secondaries Unit Hits $100 Billion as Demand Grows | Preeti Singh | Bloomberg | Blackstoneās secondaries business reached $100B AUM in the first quarter. Its flagship secondaries fund raised an additional $6B in Q1.
GPs increasingly step up CV alignment with cross-fund commitments | Hannah Zhang | Secondaries Investor | GPs are increasingly backing continuation vehicles with capital from blind pool funds to reinforce alignment with LPs and secondaries investors.
New Mountain Raises $2.4 Billion to Hold Azuria Water Longer | Preeti Singh | Bloomberg | New Mountain Capital raised $2.4B to extend its hold period of infrastructure firm Azuria Water Solutions. The single-asset CV was co-led by HarbourVest Partners and backed by a mix of pensions, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and other investors.
š ļø Infrastructure
Anthropic and Amazon agree $100bn AI infrastructure deal | George Hammond and Rafe Rosner-Uddin | Financial Times | Anthropic has committed to spend more than $100B on chips and computing power from Amazon, receiving up to 5 gigawatts of new capacity to train and run its model Claude over the next decade. A fifth of that capacity will arrive this year and Amazon will invest $5B into Anthropic at its current valuation of $380B and up to a further $20B over time.
Blackstoneās Gray Cites AI Build-Out as Top Driver for Firm | Amanda Cantrell | Bloomberg | Blackstone President & COO Jon Gray said the build-out of AI infrastructure is the single biggest driver for the company right now as global demand for computing power outstrips supply. Blackstone āhas become the largest investor in AI-related infrastructure in the worldā with more than $150B of data centers globally, according to Chairman, CEO, & Co-Founder Steve Schwarzman.
EQT Introduces AI Infrastructure Strategy to Help Build the Foundation of the AI Economy | EQT | EQT introduced its AI Infrastructure strategy, which will focus on building the physical infrastructure underpinning AI. The initiative will be seeded by global data center developer and operator EdgeConneX.
Nvidia-Backed Vast Data Raises $1 Billion, Triples Valuation to $30 Billion | Dina Bass | Bloomberg | Vast Data, which makes software for storing data for AI tasks, has raised $1B at a valuation of $30B.
KKR Invests $1.5 Billion in Tower Operator Vertical Bridge | Michelle F Davis and Ryan Gould | Bloomberg | KKR is investing $1.5B in Vertical Bridge REIT LLC, which values the tower operator at $10-15B. Vertical Bridge is the largest private owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure in the US with a nationwide portfolio of more than 17,000 towers.
Brookfield eyes circa $20bn first close for Fund VI - exclusive | Bruno Alves | Infrastructure Investor | Brookfield is targeting $30B for its sixth flagship fund, with a first close expected in Q3.
š„© GP Stakes
GP Stakes Decoded: A Dual-Lens Guide for Sponsors and Investors | Tram Nguyen, Joseph Castelluccio, Jonathan Dhanawade and Don Irwin | Mayer Brown | Over the last decade, GP stakes has matured from a niche strategy into a mainstream feature of the industry.
GP Stakes Boom Forces Firms to Rethink Playbook | Paul Elias | Mergers & Acquisitions | A surge of capital in the GP stakes market is pushing firms to compete on more than price. Firms including BlackRock, Goldman, and Blue Owl are reportedly bundling capital solutions along with GP stakes.
Strengthens partnership with BNP Paribas Asset Management Altsā GP stakes platform, which is also participating in the transaction | BNP Paribas Asset Management | Wendel announced the closing of a controlling stake (56% of the capital) in Committed Advisors from its founding partners. Committed Advisors is a global private investment firm focusing on the mid-market, providing a broad range of solutions to investors and general partners seeking liquidity solutions for their private equity assets. The firm manages ā¬7.7B of private assets.
š¬ Private Markets Research
Private Investments and Long-Term Portfolio Construction Presentation | Andrea Auerbach | Cambridge Associates | Andrea Auerbach, Global Head of Private Investments at Cambridge Associates, shares her perspective on the private investment landscape and the considerations that matter most for long-term portfolio construction.
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