News (w/e 11/14/25)
Carlyle Circles Lukoil’s Foreign Assets as Sanctions Fatigue Sets In
Carlyle is sniffing around Lukoil’s non-Russian assets, a sprawl of energy holdings valued around $22 billion, according to Reuters. It’s the kind of geopolitical scavenger hunt only a top-tier PE shop attempts — buying orphaned assets from a sanctioned oil major without getting political shrapnel lodged in the term sheet. Carlyle doesn’t do charity; they do mispriced complexity. If Western regulators don’t choke the deal, it’s a classic distressed-diplomacy play: buy assets everyone else is too scared to touch, clean them, reposition them, and exit once the world forgets why they were tainted. Link
Prophet Equity Spins Up Secondaries Shop for Industrial Orphans
Prophet Equity launched a new arm — Tabernacle Equity — aimed at scooping up secondary positions in sub-$150M industrial companies that have been neglected, under-loved, or structurally ignored. Think dusty fabrication shops, aging contract manufacturers, and legacy assets trapped in funds approaching the finish line. Instead of competing for shiny platforms, Prophet wants to buy the stuff that requires elbow grease, not CIM gloss. It’s the opposite of the Instagram-ready roll-up thesis: buy the mess, fix the mess, sell the now-less-messy thing. Link
Secondaries Party Gets Loud — and A Little Drunk
Reuters’ Breakingviews called out the single-asset continuation craze: the secondaries market is ballooning, but buyers are taking bigger, less diversified swings. Volume has climbed from ~1% to ~1.4% of private markets AUM over the last decade — small in percentage terms, massive in dollar terms — and the quality bar is wobbling. Too many managers are trying to sell their “best” asset into a continuation fund at a price only they believe. The risk profile is shifting from diversified liquidity valve to “hope this one company doesn’t fall apart.” Middle-market sponsors, take note: optionality is up, discipline is down. Link
U.S. Equity Fund Inflows Slow to a Crawl as Valuation Fatigue Hits
U.S. equity funds took in only $1.15B last week — a four-week low — as investors got spooked by tech valuations and labor-market softness. When public-market flows slow, LPs usually go into “let’s see how this plays out” mode. Translation for PE: fundraising doesn’t stop, it just gets stickier. Managers counting on a Q4 liquidity bounce may want to revisit their assumptions; LP checkbooks tighten long before headlines catch up. Link
Global Investors Hit the Brakes as Tech and Labor Jitters Spread
Global equity inflows dropped from $22B to $4.11B in a week — a straight risk-off pivot. Tech cooled, healthcare cooled, even industrials lost momentum. When the public markets sneeze, private markets catch pneumonia six months later. For middle-market PE, this means exit windows stretch, underwriting gets stricter, and every growth plan suddenly needs a footnote labeled “macro permitting.” Link