Morning Hubsters,
Happy Fri-yay! John R Fischer here bringing you the US Wire from the New York newsroom.
While much of dealmaking remains in the doldrums – as Irien Joseph reported in the Europe edition of the Wire earlier this morning – Sycamore Partners made a splash yesterday afternoon when Walgreens Boots Alliance announced it has agreed to be bought by the PE firm for $23.7 billion. There’s a 35-day go shop period, but if the deal goes through, it will be one of the biggest LBOs in a decade.
Now, on to today’s coverage. First up, my Q&A with PE advisor West Monroe’s Beth Mosier and Jeremy Tancredi on how tariff uncertainty could affect healthcare investing.
Then, we have Iris Dorbian’s eight-deal listicle on the fire and life safety services sector, which is drawing investors like Atlas Partners, Leonard Green & Partners and the Riverside Company.
We’ll wrap up with a discussion between PE Hub affiliate title Private Equity International and Institutional Limited Partners Association’s Jennifer Choi on LP concerns for US GPs regarding the new administration’s stance on diversity, equality and inclusion policies. Choi will be a featured speaker at PEI Group’s NEXUS 2025 conference in Orlando next week.
Location, location, location
To find out how healthcare investors are proceeding with uncertainty around tariffs, I spoke with PE consulting firm West Monroe’s Beth Mosier, health/life sciences M&A director, and Jeremy Tancredi, partner of operations excellence/supply chain management.
Upgrade to the premium version to learn how investors can prepare in advance here.
Consolidating safety
For private equity firms, the fire and life safety services sector offers both recession resilience and fragmentation, making it ripe for consolidation, despite the recent dealmaking downturn.
PE Hub‘s reporter Iris Dorbian tracked eight notable deals and spoke with John McKernan, a partner at the Riverside Company, about trends driving dealmaking in this segment.
Premium subscribers can check out all eight deals here.
Ripple effects
The new US administration’s pushback on diversity, equality and inclusion programs is causing institutional investors to try to better understand how their exposure to private markets DE&I initiatives will fare.
To learn more, affiliate title Private Equity International’s Adam Le spoke with Jennifer Choi, chief executive of the Institutional Limited Partners Association. Choi said there are “ripple effects” when it comes to US institutions with exposure to federal funding and that non-US institutional investors are also keen to understand how the executive order may affect their US GP partners. Private Equity International will be speaking with Choi about the subject and more at PEI Group’s NEXUS 2025 conference in Orlando on March 10-12.
Become a premium subscriber to read the full story on LP concerns about US DEI policies.
PE Hub editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen (MK) Flynn (mk.flynn@pei.group) and reporter Rafael Canton (Rafael.c@pei.group) will be attending NEXUS 2025, so be sure to reach out to them if you’d like to meet up.
Well, that’s it for me. Nina Lindholm will greet you on Monday with the Europe Wire, while MK Flynn will bring you the US edition.
Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ...
