| Morning all, Craig McGlashan here filling in for Irien Joseph on the Europe Wire. We’ve got a string of new deals to report from the London newsroom this morning, making it a busier than usual Friday. First though, we’ve got the latest in our popular listicle series. It’s a bit of a novel approach this time – we’re looking at private equity firms investing in service providers for their own industry. Moving on to the fresh deals of the day, Inflexion has agreed to buy Finanzen.net Group, a digital broker and financial information portal in the DACH region, from Axel Springer, a business that was recently split up in a deal involving KKR and CPP Investments. We can sharethe enterprise value on the Inflexion deal. Next, we have Ardian exitinga couple of positionsin the transport sector, in a French rail business and in a Spanish motorway operator. Elsewhere in roads, Mutares has agreed to acquire a road logistics business from Finnish state-owned VR Group. Finally, Triton has agreed to acquire MacGregor, a maritime cargo handling company, from Cargotec Corporation. We’ve got the enterprise value on that one for you. Close to home Private equity firms have been investing in a subset of businesses that they already know plenty about – service providers to their industry. Find out why and a roundup of deals in the premium version of the Wire. Financial play Inflexion’s decision to open a Frankfurt office earlier this year is paying off, with the London-headquartered mid-market private equity firm this morning announcing its second deal in the DACH region since it opened the Frankfurt office in May. The firm has agreed to invest in Finanzen.net Group, a digital broker and financial information portal in the DACH region, alongside the founders. Read details including the enterprise value of the deal in the premium version of the Wire. Transatlantic media company Axel Springer is selling the business. That company was the subject of its own private equity deal in September, as KKR and CPP Investments agreed to split the business, with the private equity firms keeping control of the advertising business, including Finanzen, while exiting the media side. For more about Inflexion’s growing continental European presence, check out this Dealmakers to Watch interview with the firm's Flor Kassai from last week. Exit route Ardian is making a double exit from the transport infrastructure sector. Find out the details in the premium version of the Wire. Drive-in Sticking with the road network, Mutares has agreed to acquire the VR Road Logistics business from Finnish state-owned VR Group. Carve-out Elsewhere in Finnish logistics, yesterday Triton agreed to acquire MacGregor, a maritime cargo handling company, from Cargotec Corporation. Read the premium version of the Wire to learn the enterprise value. OK that’s all from me today. John R Fischer is back from his holiday – which included a stopover in our London newsroom – and will write to you with the US Wire later today. I’ll be back with you for the Europe opener next week. Have a great weekend all. Craig Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ... | 