Private equity looks for help

Things aren’t going all that great for private equity firms. They’re struggling to sell the companies they own and return cash to investors. But it turns out their counterparts in the world of private credit are offering special loans to tide them over. Direct lending arms at shops from Ares Management to Neuberger Berman Group and even private equity titan KKR have all launched what some are calling “dequity” funds—to convey the presence of both debt and equity—to the tune of $30 billion industry-wide since 2023.

Demand for this type of stopgap financing has soared lately as cash-strapped PE firms face a prolonged deal drought. Higher borrowing costs as well as erratic US trade policies have made it harder for corporate buyers to appraise the value of potential targets or for sponsors to figure out how public stock offerings will go. That’s left PE firms saddled with their portfolio companies longer than they’d planned, creating a situation where they don’t have enough money to distribute to their limited partners.

“We are quite busy,” said JT Munch, managing director at Neuberger who works on this type of financing. “In today’s market, private equity firms aren’t always able to sell a controlling stake in a business at a valuation they like. As a result, they’re willing to get creative.” —David E. Rovella

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What You Need to Know Today

Protests against Donald Trump and his administration’s arrests of immigrants have spread to more cities, turbocharged by a potentially illegal and certainly historic break from American norms in militarizing law enforcement at largely peaceful protests. According to CNN, Trump is said to have been planning to deploy soldiers on American streets for months, and Los Angeles turned out to be the proving ground.

So far, National Guard soldiers have been assisting federal security agents in ongoing raids across the city while largely remaining in the background at demonstrations. (In another potentially illegal escalation, Trump called in 700 Marines to the area.) According to one news report, military family groups have said soldiers there are suffering from low morale and feel they are being politicized. (A separate report from Military.com said soldiers at Fort Bragg who cheered Trump during a recent speech were handpicked for “political leanings and physical appearance.”) Meanwhile, California law enforcement yesterday charged demonstrators on horseback, beating some with wooden batons and firing projectiles, the Associated Press reported.

Then on Thursday, six federal security agents grabbed a 52-year-old sitting member of the United States Senate, forcing him out of a press conference by Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, as he tried to ask her questions. They forced Senator Alex Padilla to the ground, handcuffed and detained him for some time. Footage of the arrest showed a police officer with his knee on the senator’s back while others held him down or attempted to block journalists from filming. Noem’s staff sought to blame Padilla, but their comments were contradicted by video of the altercation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has emerged as the leader of a growing national resistance to the president’s efforts, called the physical assault by federal agents on a member of Congress “outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control.”

According to NPR, Noem called what’s happening in Los Angeles a “blueprint” for other American cities. But while the administration’s justification for many of its actions is an alleged immigrant “invasion,” Trump’s handpicked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified Thursday there isn’t one.

Nevertheless, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused on Thursday to say whether he would obey an order from a federal judge to remove troops from Los Angeles, raising the possibility of illegal military control of American streets. But soon he may have to answer that question, as a federal judge was scheduled to hear arguments on that very matter this afternoon.

As Democrats on Capitol Hill erupted in fury at the assault on one of their own, Republicans in the House retroactively approved $9.4 billion of Elon Musk’s federal spending cuts to PBS, NPR and foreign aid. The measure faces a more uncertain future in the GOP-controlled Senate, where a handful of moderates have voiced opposition to some of the funding reductions. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate may amend the package before it votes on it in July.

The bill would codify Musk’s unilateral cuts to the US Agency for International Development and the US Institute of Peace. USAID cuts have been criticized for endangering lives in developing countries that rely on help from the US. A recent study estimated that the elimination by Trump and Musk of US taxpayer-funded assistance via USAID has already resulted in the deaths of almost 100,000 adults and 200,000 children and infants.

BYD sees China’s electric-vehicle price war as unsustainable, according to a senior company executive, who stopped short of saying the country’s largest EV maker would scale back the aggressive discounting it helped trigger. “It’s very extreme, tough competition,” Executive Vice President Stella Li said in an interview with Bloomberg News in London. “It’s not sustainable.”

The comments highlight mounting strain within China’s overheated EV market, where a flood of new entrants and deep price cuts—many led by BYD—have eroded margins and triggered rare government intervention. While BYD has gained market share, the fallout is growing, with investors, regulators and rivals all pushing for a reset. The EV price war has weighed heavily on automaker shares, with BYD losing around $22 billion in market capitalization since peaking in late May. Still, the company is seen as a likely long-term winner if smaller and mid-sized rivals are squeezed out, allowing BYD to grow its dominant market share.

Apple has set an internal release target of spring 2026 for its delayed upgrade of Siri, marking a key step in its artificial intelligence turnaround effort. The company’s Siri team is aiming to bring the revamped voice assistant to market as part of an iOS 26.4 software update. The long-promised changes will allow Siri to tap into consumers’ personal data and on-screen activities in order to better fulfill queries.

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

For Your Commute

(Yesterday’s edition of the Evening Briefing was corrected to show that a National Guard commander who had said US soldiers were detaining civilians later said he was mistaken.)

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