Good morning, dealmakers. MK Flynn here with the Wire. Many private equity investors have told PE Hub that the biggest obstacle to growing their companies this year has been finding, recruiting and retaining talent. Ever since the advent of covid, in the healthcare industry, talent shortages have been both chronic and acute, and we’ve seen many PE firms invest in companies to help solve the problems. Earlier this morning, One Equity Partners announced the acquisition of Prime Time Healthcare, a staffing services provider. PE Hub’s Aaron Weitzman broke the news on the deal and conducted exclusive interviews with OEP senior managing director Greg Belinfanti and OEP principal Charlie Cole about the investment and about the overall environment for healthcare deals. “We’ve been looking at healthcare staffing for some time because the fundamentals suggest that staffing companies will be an increasing part of the healthcare labor ecosystem,” explained Cole. “The pandemic exacerbated existing clinician shortages, and we don’t see those easing anytime soon. Take nursing – estimates suggest the US could be at an RN deficit of almost 500,000 by 2025. When asked about dealmaking in today’s market conditions, Belinfanti shared some insights: “While it’s true that given the shifting equity market sentiment there is a larger disconnect between buyers’ and sellers’ expectations, it hasn’t really affected OEP’s opportunity set as we’ve always been focused on partnering with founders and management; thus, we’re not really buying so much as we are helping ambitious managers grow and transform their businesses,” said Belinfanti. “Our pipeline is as strong as it’s ever been across sectors. For example, at Prime Time, management will continue to own a large minority stake in the company.” Read the whole story here. Eye on Europe. The PE Hub Europe staff is heading to the HPE Europe conference in London on Thursday. Editor Craig McGlashan, reporter Nina Lindholm and assistant reporter David Wansboro will all be there. If you’d like to connect with them, send email to [email protected]. Today, Craig reported that UK waste management firm Biffa has agreed to a take-private deal with Energy Capital Partners that values the company at around $1.4 billion. There is no substitute. One upcoming European deal Craig is tracking is Thursday’s expected public debut of Porsche on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Porsche is expected to price at the top of its previously announced range, which would mean the posh sports car maker could be valued at about $72 billion, making the IPO one of Europe’s biggest ever. Volkswagen, Porsche’s owner, plans to use some of the proceeds from the IPO to build more electric vehicles. Click here to sign up for PE Hub Europe and the daily Dealflow newsletter about European PE-backed deals. Dear reader. PE Hub has launched a new reader survey, and we’d love to hear from you. Let us know how we’re doing at the survey here. As always, you can reach out to me at [email protected]. That’s all for now. Buyouts’ Chris Witkowsky writes the Wire on Wednesdays, and I’ll be back with more on Thursday. All the best, MK Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ... | 