PE Hub’s top stories of 2025 included our scoop on Baker Hughes readying assets for sale, a Q&A with Blackstone on AI, and soaring HVAC deals
Hello Hubsters. MK Flynn here in New York with the US edition of the Wire.
Looking ahead to the new year, PE Hub’s Outlook series featuring Q&As with PE thought leaders continues today with Mike Bego, managing partner, Kline Hill Partners.We discussedwhat’s ahead for GP-led single-asset continuation vehicles and other secondaries strategies.
And looking back, I’m sharing some highlights of PE Hub’s coverage this year, showcasing three of our most widely read stories.
Lying in wait
Continuation vehicles and other PE secondaries strategies have picked up over the past few years as exits have proved elusive. With a rebounding M&A market, will the secondaries activity remain robust? For insights, PE Hub turned to Mike Bego, managing partner, Kline Hill Partners, as part of our ongoing Outlook Q&As with dealmaking thought leaders.
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For more Outlook 2025 Q&As from PE Hub, see:
Coming to market
PE Hub’s most popular story of 2024 was senior reporter Michael Schoeck’s scoop that Baker Hughes is getting ready to sell its Druck, Panametrics and Reuter-Stokes industrial product groups, according to confidential sources. We published the story in September. At that time, sources expected the sale process to launch in October. Michael checked back in with the sources recently, and they said the company is expected to come to market in early 2025.
Premium subscribers to the Wire may read the story.
Interest in the story underscored PE’s growing appetite for deals in the industrial sector. For more on that, read Michael’s analysis of dealmaking in the sector, which sources say is expected to increase by 25 percent in 2025.
The popularity of the Baker Hughes story also shines a spotlight on the dozens of scoops Michael had this year in his coverage of companies coming to market.
Another coming to market story that attracted a lot of traffic was Audax Private Equity’s earmarking five portfolio companies for sale, according to sources.
Check out the US edition of the Wire on Thursdays for regular updates on the 200+ entities Michael’s tracking. We expect to see many of them sold next year.
Digital transformation
Private equity firms are investing in companies and industries in the midst of digital transformation, but they’re also in the middle of their own digital transformations – as are the companies in their portfolios. From generative AI to cybersecurity, the array of technology available to PE firms is unprecedented.
The second most read story on the Hub in 2024 was reporter Rafael Canton’s interview with John Stecher, who joined Blackstone as chief technology officer in 2020. The interview resonated with our readers, who are eager to deploy the latest technology in their dealmaking activities.
It’s the second time we did a Q&A with Stecher. Last year, I asked him about how PE firms were starting to use ChatGPT and other tools.
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Hot, hot, hot
HVAC deals were booming in 2024, and reporter Obey Martin Manayiti followed the activity closely all year.
Obey recently analyzed about 80 residential and commercial HVAC deals that we covered between 2022 and 2024, and his story on the topic was one of our most widely read articles of the year.
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This is my last Wire of the year, as I’ll be on vacation next week, and PEI Group is closed from December 25 until January 2.
Before I sign off, I want to give a shout out and a thank you to Chris Wood, managing editor, digital, who produces our US newsletters and writes the Also of Note section of the Wire.
Craig McGlashan will bring you the Europe Wire tomorrow, and Obey Martin Manayiti will bring you the US edition.
Let me take this opportunity to wish Happy Holidays to all of you, Dear Readers!
All the best, MK
