news

News (w/e 01/23/26)

Lee McCabe

30 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

NGP Energy Capital Plans Bigger Investment Push After Restructuring With Carlyle

NGP Energy Capital Management told LPs it plans to accelerate new investments after returning $2.58 billion last year and restructuring its long-standing partnership with Carlyle Group. Under the reset, NGP will keep a larger share of fees and carry and pursue more energy-sector deployments, signaling confidence among specialist GPs even as broader fundraising remains challenging. Link

CVC Strikes Up to $3.5B Partnership With AIG to Deploy Insurance Capital Into Private Markets

CVC Capital Partners agreed a partnership with American International Group (AIG) under which AIG will commit up to $2 billion to CVC funds and separately managed accounts, and $1.5 billion toward a new evergreen fund. The move highlights an institutional pivot — insurers are becoming strategic allocators to private equity, private credit, and secondaries in search of yield and diversification. Link

EQT to Acquire Coller Capital in a Major Secondary Market Expansion

EQT AB announced it will acquire Coller Capital, the secondaries specialist, for $3.2 billion, marking one of the biggest moves yet into the private equity secondary market. The strategic expansion gives EQT deeper capabilities in buying and selling stakes in existing funds, a segment growing in importance as LPs seek liquidity without traditional exits. Link

Activist Investors Set Sights on Corporates With More Breakup and M&A Demands

According to Reuters, activist investors are planning more aggressive campaigns in 2026, increasingly pushing portfolio companies toward mergers, acquisitions, or breakups to unlock value. While not strictly PE firms themselves, activists are a critical part of the broader private-markets landscape because they often catalyze transactions — including sponsored deals — and can compress timelines for exits or restructurings. Link

“Zombie” Buyout Funds Multiply, Forcing LPs to Pick Preppers Over Slackers

A Reuters Breakingviews piece highlighted the rise of so-called “zombie” private-equity funds — shops that haven’t raised a new vehicle in years and are living off legacy assets. According to industry data, up to 80% of smaller managers could be stuck in that category, leaving institutional investors to sort between proactive sponsors and capital drains in a capital-constrained environment. Link

Lifestyle (w/e 2/19/26)

Vox on the rise of “admin nights” — friends hanging out while doing life chores (budgeting, emails, meal prep), i.e., the new nightlife for people with calendars and back-to-back calls. link Reuters on “sober raves” taking off with Gen Z — earlier nights, no hangovers, still a proper dance floor. link

News (2/19/26)

McKinsey Declares “The Fog Has Lifted” on Private Equity McKinsey’s 2026 Global Private Markets Report says the fog has finally lifted, with buyouts up, exits rebounding, and IPOs creeping back after three flat years. That may be true, but the backlog of PE-owned companies is at record highs and

Deals (w/e 2/19/26)

Ariel Alternatives Acquires Front Line Power Construction Ariel Alternatives has acquired Front Line Power Construction, with Cherokee Nation Businesses joining as a minority co-investor. Power grid infrastructure is no longer theoretical. It’s cables, substations, and hard backlog tied to AI data centers and electrification mandates. This isn’t energy-transition

Capital doesn’t scale businesses. It scales whatever dysfunction is already there.

You see this constantly in home services and other PE-backed, multi-location businesses. New locations are added faster than systems mature. Marketing budgets increase, but lead quality becomes harder to explain. Revenue targets go up, while visibility into what’s actually driving demand goes down. On paper, the business is scaling.