Good morning Hubsters, it’s Craig McGlashan here, filling in for MK Flynn on the Wire. There are few topics hotter than energy right now – whether it’s soaring costs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the need to switch away from fossil fuels in the face of climate change. But one long-standing problem that tends to garner fewer headlines is the health of energy infrastructure itself. Need for redundancy. Some in private equity are paying attention to this problem, however. PE Hub’sObey Martin Manayiti spoke to Centerbridge Partners’ senior managing director Steven Silver about his firm’s purchase earlier in October of a majority stake in MacLean Power Systems, a Fort Mill, South Carolina-based maker of poleline hardware, insulators, arrestors, connectors and other engineered products used in electrical power infrastructure. There are lots of angles to Obey’s interview – you can read the full piece here – but I was particularly interested to read how the rapid development of renewable energy from sources such as solar and wind has created a need to upgrade the grid, which was mainly targeting traditional energy, to handle both sources. Going nuclear. Sticking with the energy theme, Cameco Corp and Brookfield Renewable Partners have agreed to acquire Westinghouse Electric Company, a Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based nuclear services provider. The total enterprise value for Westinghouse is $7.9 billion. The seller is the private equity group of Brookfield Asset Management, also known as Brookfield Business Partners, which acquired Westinghouse in 2018. You can read more on the deal here. Taking off. A reportfrom tech analyst firm CCS Insight this week suggested that Elon Musk might spin-off Starlink from SpaceX via an IPO by 2025. Starlink delivers broadband internet to users via satellite and is part of Musk’s space exploration company. If you want to keep up with everything that’s been happening in the space sector (I was tempted to say the ‘space space’ but the subeditors would hate me) then check out Obey’s roundup piece: 6 PE-backed deals that shoot for the stars, gearing up for space tourism. Securing the deal. Cybersecurity has been a huge area of interest for private equity of late – check out MK’s coverage on Tech Tuesday this week. But there was more to come as Option3 sold Dark Cubed, a provider of automated network security solutions serving small and medium-sized businesses, to Celerium. No financial terms were disclosed. Check out the full coverage of the deal here. Final whistle. Before I leave you, I’m going to be cheeky and plug a bit of our recent coverage over at PE Hub Europe. I’m also going to try to get through this shoutout without forgetting my audience and referring to ‘football’ rather than ‘soccer’… We’ve seen a huge amount of US private equity interest in European soccer teams and leagues and while much of this has been focused on some of the larger clubs, one earlier deal was for Burnley Football Club. While it was playing in the top tier of English soccer when in December 2020, Velocity Sports Partners, the sports investment arm of New York-based private equity firm ALK Capital, paid a reported £200 million ($225 million; €230 million) for an 84 percent share in the club, it has since been relegated into the second tier. PE Hub Europe caught up with Alan Pace, managing partner at ALK Capital and chairman of Burnley FC, to find out why private equity has become so interested in European soccer, what made Burnley itself attractive and how the company is coping with relegation – a concept alien to American sports. You can see the whole interview here – just register to read for free. That’s it from me. Aaron Weitzman will be with you tomorrow for the final Wire of the week. Cheers, Craig Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ... | 