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| | | | | | Top of the Morning |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Several large private equity firms, including Blackstone and TPG, responded to Friday's Supreme Court decision by pledging to cover any abortion-related travel costs for U.S. employees who live in states where the procedure is outlawed. What to watch: If these benefits get extended to portfolio company employees. - Around 11.7 million Americans are employed by private equity-backed companies, per the industry's top trade group.
The question of covering portfolio company employees isn't a simple one, even for firms that are doing so internally. - For starters, private equity rarely likes to be too prescriptive when it comes to portfolio company operations. Both because it creates a heavy-handed reputation (i.e., making it harder to win future deals) and because they feel policies are most effective when originated by company management (i.e., the people charged with implementing said policies).
- TPG, for example, tells me: "We are offering a forum to share approaches and discuss how best to support them, consistent with how we usually engage with our portfolio companies."
- Moreover, PE firms based in "blue states" could worry about unintended consequences of insisting on such benefits at portfolio companies based where abortion is outlawed. For example, could it prompt local legislators to ban such benefits — at best sparking a new legal front?
- Finally, PE firms may worry about imposing blanket portfolio company requirements that are at odds with the beliefs of some of their own employees.
Caveat: Private equity isn't monolithic, and plenty of firms won't choose to cover abortion travel for their own employees. This isn't about them. The bottom line: All sorts of businesses are scrambling in the wake of Friday's ruling. Where private equity lands will be the most consequential, however, because of its massive scale. |     | | | | | | The BFD |  | | | Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios | | | | Office Depot (Nasdaq: ODP) said it will not sell or spin off its consumer business, despite receiving several nonbinding bids. Why it's the BFD: The office supplies giant took a very circuitous route to arrive back at the starting block, despite its stock being down 26% year-to-date. Backstory: Florida-based Office Depot early last year rejected a takeover offer from Staples, now owned by private equity firm Sycamore Partners. The company then announced plans to spin off its commercial distribution business, before later saying it would instead seek to sell or spin off the consumer group instead (with Staples among the bidders). Now it's remaining whole. The bottom line: "The announcement is another blow to retail M&A activity as deals for Kohl's and Walgreens' U.K. pharmacy division Boots hang in the balance." — Richard Collings, Axios Pro | | | | | | | | Venture Capital Deals | | • WorkMotion, a German global HR management platform, raised $50m in Series B funding. Canaan Partners led, and was joined by Activant Capital, XAnge and Picus Capital. www.workmotion.com • Hokodo, a London-based BNPL startup, raised $40m in Series B funding. Notion Capital led, and was joined by Korelya Capital, Mundi Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, Anthemis and Mosaic Ventures. http://axios.link/yAtr • HappyVore, a French plant-based meats company, raised €35m. Invus led, and was joined by Artal, Adrien de Schompré, BPI France and Philippe Cantet. http://axios.link/huK3 • Incredibuild, an Israeli distributed games and software development platform, raised $35m in Series B funding. Hiro Capital led, and was joined by insider Insight Partners. http://axios.link/4aTl 🚑 Medallion, an SF-based health care provider management startup, raised $35m in Series C funding, bringing total funding to $85m. Spark Capital and GV co-led, and were joined by Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Optum Ventures, BoxGroup and Elad Gil. www.medallion.co 🚑 Euclid, a Boston-based AI for cardiovascular disease diagnosis, raised $27m in Series B funding. Biovision Ventures led, and was joined by MedTex Ventures, IAG Capital, Bold Brain Ventures and BlueStone Venture Partners. http://axios.link/GW0t • Populix, an Indonesian consumer insights platform, raised $7.7m in Series A funding. Intudo Ventures and Acrew Capital co-led, and were joined by Altos Ventures and Quest Ventures. www.populix.co • Omi, a Paris-based SaaS for rendering 3D photos and video for brands, raised $6m in seed funding led by Dawn Capital. www.omi.so • Magical Mushroom Co., a London-based sustainable packaging startup, raised £3m led by Ecovative Design. www.magicalmushroom.com | | | | | | | | A message from PwC | | New opportunities for dealmakers | | |  | | | | Key factors influencing transactions this year, but not stifling them, include: - Economic contraction.
- Real wage challenges.
- Consumer spending variability.
See how your industry may be impacted — and how transformation can help — in PwC's 2022 deals midyear outlook reports. | | | | | | Private Equity Deals | | • Accel-KKR invested in Singletrack, a London-based capital markets client engagement and analytics firm. www.singletrack.com ⚡ Brookfield Asset Management is among those circling the U.K. power portfolio of InterGen, including four operational gas plants, per Bloomberg. A deal could fetch up to £500m. http://axios.link/0jjt ⚡ Generate Capital will invest $500m in Pine Gate Renewables, an Asheville, N.C.-based renewable energy developer for utility-scale solar and storage, split between $200m in equity and $300m for a long-term asset partnership for solar project financing. www.pinegaterenewables.com • Investindustrial is in exclusive talks to buy the meal prep business of TreeHouse Foods, which could fetch $1.3b, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/rZZu • Keensight Capital invested in Lisam Systems, a Belgian provider of environment, health and safety software. www.lisam.com • Pine Labs, an Indian e-commerce and payments startup, acquired Indian embedded finance startup Setu for around $75m in cash and stock, per The Economic Times. Pine Labs backers include Vitruvian Partners, BlackRock, Baron Funds, Madison India Capital, Ward Ferry Management and Invesco. Setu had raised a $15m Series A round co-led by Lightspeed India Partners and Falcon Edge Capital. http://axios.link/tqkr | | | | | | | | SPAC Stuff |  | | | Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images | | | | Digital World Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: DWAC), the SPAC seeking to take former President Trump's Truth Social public, disclosed on Monday that each of its directors received subpoenas from a New York grand jury. - This is in addition to previously disclosed investigations by both the SEC and Justice Department.
- DWAC also said that director Bruce Garelick has resigned. Go deeper.
| | | | | | | | Liquidity Events | | • CPP Investments agreed to sell its 48% stake in Arqiva Group, a British broadcast and broadband services provider, to Digital 9 Infrastructure. http://axios.link/Br1l • KKR completed its $3b sale of C.H.I. Overhead Doors, an Arthur, Ill.-based garage door maker, to Nucor Corp. (NYDE: NUE). http://axios.link/wzt9 • Zomato, a listed Indian food delivery firm, completed its purchase of Indian instant grocery delivery startup Blinkit, for $568m in stock. Blinkit had raised over $700m from firms like Zomato, SoftBank and Tiger Global. When the deal was announced earlier this year, the value was closer to $750m. http://axios.link/CBee | | | | | | | | More M&A | | 🍺 Bay Brewing, the Boston-based parent of craft brewer Harpoon, agreed to acquire Vermont's Long Trail Brewing. http://axios.link/HzqO • CareTech (LSE: CTH), a British social care services firm, agreed to be taken private in an 870m deal led by CareTech's co-founders. http://axios.link/m0Nw • NerdWallet (Nasdaq: NRDS) agreed to acquire On the Barrelhead, a Durango, Colo.-based lending recommendation platform, for $120m in cash ($70m) and stock. www.onthebarrelhead.com 🍺 Sapporo USA agreed to acquire Escondido, Calif.-based craft beer maker Stone Brewing. http://axios.link/PMdP | | | | | | | | Fundraising | | 🚑 Foresite Capital, a healthcare-focused VC firm, is raising its sixth fund, per an SEC filing. It raised $775m for its fifth fund in 2020. • Leon Capital, a new midmarket PE firm focused on tech-enabled services companies in Western Europe, is raising up to €250m for a pledge fund, per Buyouts. http://axios.link/IZz7 • MaC Venture Capital, formed via the merger of Cross Culture Ventures and M Ventures, raised $203m for its second fund. www.macventurecapital.com • Plural, a new European VC firm, raised €250m for its debut fund. It's led by the founders of Wise, Songkick, Teleport and Certific. www.pluralplatform.com • True Wealth Ventures, an Austin, Texas-based firm focused on women founders, raised $35m for its second fund. http://axios.link/zsLa | | | | | | | | It's Personnel | | • Gunther Bright joined TPG (Nasdaq: TPG) as an independent director. He's a former American Express exec who was an independent director with former TPG portfolio company McAfee. www.tpg.com • Alex Graham joined Rothschild & Co. as a managing director and head of Canada. He previously was with RBC Capital Markets. www.rothschildandco.com | | | | | | | | Final Numbers |  Data: Yahoo! Finance; Chart: Axios Visuals | | | | | | | | A message from PwC | | A return to capital discipline | | |  | | | | Low interest rates over the past 15 years have been a leverage luxury. Okay, but: In the current environment, dealmakers once again need to exercise capital discipline. Learn how executives can be more deliberate with their capital choices in PwC's 2022 deals midyear outlook. | | | | ✔️ Thanks for reading Axios Pro Rata! Please ask your friends, colleagues and office supplies salespeople to sign up. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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