Uptick in clean-tech M&A expected in Q4; early-stage funding for telecom fades

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of global private equity news stories and more published throughout the week.

Private equity dealmaking has been sluggish in 2022, at least compared to the blistering pace set last year, but the sector experts who participated in a recent S&P Global Market Intelligence webinar projected an uptick in activity in the fourth quarter.

The outlook is particularly bright in the U.S. climate and clean-tech industries following the adoption of the Inflation Reduction Act, which added and extended the tax credits available to investors. That expansion of tax benefits paves the way for a "massive deployment" of capital by private equity, which has already stockpiled huge amounts of dry powder in climate funds, said Peter Gardett, executive director for climate and clean tech at S&P Global Commodity Insights.

"The Inflation Reduction Act will, other things being equal, get private equity firms to move forward on every kind of energy transition deal they've been sitting on, just because the terms are so generous," Gardett said.

Gardett was joined on the Sept. 27 "Expand Your Perspective: New Opportunities Abound for Private Markets" webinar by Tim Zawacki, a principal research analyst covering the U.S. insurance industry for S&P Global Market Intelligence, and Scott Crawford, research director for the information security channel at 451 Research.

Watch the webinar to hear more from all three on the factors that could shape M&A activity in each sector, including inflation and rising interest rates, as well as opportunities for private equity to invest in the growing overlap between insurance and cybersecurity.

CHART OF THE WEEK: Early-stage media and telecom funding fades

⮞ Early-stage funding deals in the first half of 2022 for North American media and telecommunications companies fell off the pace set in 2021.

⮞ There were just seven early-stage funding transactions in the second quarter compared to 15 for the same period in 2021, and the aggregate value of those transactions fell 43.2% year over year to $20.8 million.

⮞ The largest early-stage transaction through the first two quarters of the year was an $11 million raise by VShojo Inc., a livestreaming company.

FUNDRAISING AND DEALS

* EQT Partners AB agreed to take BTRS Holdings Inc., a business-to-business accounts receivable automation and integrated payments company, private for about $1.7 billion. The all-cash transaction is slated to close in the first quarter of 2023.

* Capital Dynamics AG is selling a 400-MW portfolio of operational solar photovoltaic power plants to Enfinity Global Inc. The portfolio includes 28 solar farms across California, Idaho and North Carolina.

* West Street Capital Partners VIII LP, a private equity fund of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s asset management arm, secured $9.7 billion in capital commitments, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP will invest approximately $300 million on average in larger companies through the vehicle, usually seeking a controlling interest.

ELSEWHERE IN THE INDUSTRY

* OEP Capital Advisors LP, or One Equity Partners, is buying the core operating assets of Muehlhan AG. The target company offers surface protection solutions for the marine, infrastructure and offshore wind energy markets.

* Acon Investments LLC's Acon Latin America Opportunities Fund V LP invested in Corporación Actinver, a Mexican investment services company.

* Argosy Private Equity completed the sale of supply-chain-as-a-service provider Component Sourcing International LLC to CPC LLC.

FOCUS ON: HEALTHCARE

* Ampersand Management LLC, or Ampersand Capital Partners, agreed to acquire iuvo BioScience, which is a clinical research organization.

* Neuropathy treatment company DFW Neuropathy received an investment from HCAP Partners. Baymark Partners led the deal.

* One Equity Partners purchased Prime Time Healthcare LLC, a healthcare staffing services provider.

S&P Global Commodity Insights is owned by S&P Global Inc.

451 Research is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.