Liquidity pressures drive minority stake sales; amateur sports investment rises

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

Private equity fund managers caught between a sluggish exit market and the urgent liquidity needs of limited partners are increasingly open to selling minority stakes in portfolio companies.

The value of minority stake transactions targeting private equity- and venture capital-backed companies totaled $51.82 billion globally in 2025, up 67% from $31.08 billion in 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. By comparison, total exit value was up just 18% in 2025 from the 2024 total.

When a full exit from a portfolio company investment is not achievable in an M&A market still grappling with a buyer-seller divide, minority stake sales offer a partial exit that can help boost the flow of cash back to investors. That is critical at a time when industrywide distributed to paid-in capital (DPI) ratios, which measure the amount of cash returned to investors relative to the amount invested, are coming off a four-year stretch of record lows, according to research recently published by Bain & Co.

Minority stake sales are just one tool fund managers are using to raise DPI and stay in the good graces of their limited partners. The same set of factors — a tough exit environment, lengthening portfolio company hold times and a slowing private equity investment cycle — are also driving record activity in the private equity secondaries market.

Read more about the spike in the value of portfolio company minority stake sales in 2025.

CHART OF THE WEEK: Investment in amateur sports hits multiyear high

⮞ Private equity and venture capital investment in amateur sports stood at $2.11 billion globally this year as of May 31, already surpassing any annual total since 2018, according to Market Intelligence data.

⮞ A single deal is largely responsible for the surge: TPG Capital LP's proposed $2 billion acquisition of Learfield Communications LLC, a college athletics media business.

⮞ The value of private equity-backed sports deals is rising on multiple fronts, with sports team acquisitions setting a record in 2025 and transactions targeting sports service businesses hitting at least an eight-year high in 2025.

TOP DEALS

– LongRange Capital LP agreed to acquire Pizza Hut LLC, excluding the restaurant chain's China operations, from Yum! Brands Inc. for approximately $1.5 billion. Separately, Yum China Holdings Inc. will purchase Pizza Hut in China for about $1.2 billion. Both transactions are expected to close in the third quarter. Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP was legal adviser and Greenberg Traurig LLP was franchise counsel to LongRange. UBS Investment Bank is providing financing for the LongRange-Pizza Hut deal. Barclays and Goldman Sachs are Yum! Brands' financial advisers, and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Mayer Brown LLP are its legal advisers.

– KKR & Co. Inc. is making a $1.4 billion equity commitment to expand its portfolio of leased commercial aircraft in partnership with aviation asset manager Altavair LP. Funds managed by KKR have committed more than $8 billion to aircraft leasing and lending transactions since the firm formed a strategic partnership with Altavair in 2018.

– Sixth Street Partners LLC bought a 27% noncontrolling equity stake in Pinnacle Gas Services LLC, the midstream subsidiary of energy company Comstock Resources Inc., for $600 million. Comstock retained a 73% controlling equity interest. Jefferies LLC was Comstock's financial adviser, and O'Melveny & Myers was its legal adviser. Wells Fargo and RBC Capital Markets were Sixth Street's financial advisers, and Latham & Watkins was its legal adviser.

TOP FUNDRAISING

– Clearlake Capital Group LP raised $14.8 billion at the close of Clearlake Capital Partners VIII LP alongside related coinvestment vehicles and separately managed accounts. Evercore Private Funds Group was the primary fundraising adviser and placement agent for the fund, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal adviser.

– Netherlands-based Main Capital Partners BV raised €5 billion across two funds, With Intelligence reported. The firm secured €4 billion for Main Capital IX, which will invest in mature and growing software businesses. Main Capital also raised €1 billion for Main Foundation III, which will focus on high-growth software businesses.

– Align Capital Partners LP secured $770 million for its fourth private equity fund, Align Capital Partners Fund IV LP, and $375 million for Align Collaborate Fund II LP at final close. Align Capital makes control investments in companies operating in the business services, technology, specialty manufacturing and distribution industries.

MIDDLE-MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

– Altaris LLC is set to acquire healthcare technology company Simulations Plus Inc. in an all-cash deal valued at about $375 million. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is the financial adviser, and Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch LLP is legal adviser to Simulations Plus. Truist Securities Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are Altaris' financial advisers, and Bass Berry & Sims PLC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP are its legal advisers.

– Flexstone Partners SAS reached a deal to purchase middle-market private equity secondaries manager Glouston Capital Partners LLC. The combined platform will manage more than $15 billion in assets across primary, coinvestment and secondary strategies.

– TPG Capital LP agreed to buy waste management companies Waste Eliminator LLC and Liberty Waste Solutions LLC from lower-middle-market firm Allied Industrial Partners LLC.

– Francisco Partners Management LP acquired network automation and security solutions company EfficientIP SAS from its founders and minority investors, including TempoCap Ltd. and Jolt Capital SAS. As part of the deal, EfficientIP founders Jean-Yves Bisiaux, Sylvain Galliano and Ronan David reinvested in the company.

FOCUS ON: LP INTEREST IN DATA CENTERS

Limited partners (LPs) are looking at increasing their exposure to data centers as demand for AI mounts.

Swiss multifamily office Victoria Capital SARL began exploring general partners focused on data centers, particularly large-scale infrastructure managers and smaller specialist managers with a strong deal-specific fit, Victoria Capital founder and Managing Director Pascal Marionneau told With Intelligence.

Pennsylvania-based multifamily office Pitcairn Wealth Advisors LLC is also hunting for drawdown real estate funds, which call capital from investors over time. Picairn is particularly interested in funds with a data center-focused industrial strategy in the US, according to With Intelligence.

"Data [centers] and digital infrastructure are attracting significant attention from LPs, not just because of the scale of projected AI growth, but also because investors are looking for assets that they believe can deliver resilient long-term value in a more uncertain market," said Emily Brown, co-head of the global private capital industry group at law firm White & Case LLP.

With Intelligence is a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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