Advanstar Global has completed its previously announced buy of ENK International for $155 million. ENK organizes fashion events in New York, Las Vegas, Europe and Asia. Advanstar is backed by Anchorage Capital Group, Ares Management, and Veronis Suhler Stevenson. GE Capital, RBS Citizens and U.S. Bank provided debt financing for the deal.

Ares Management LLC has launched a closed-end fund earmarked for high-yield corporate debt, sister magazine Buyouts reported.

Ares Management has announced the successful initial public offering of Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund. The fund priced an offering of 16 million shares at a price of $20.00 per share, for a total issuance of $320 million. Shares will commence trading today on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol ARDC.

M&A’s on the backburner. Fundraising is still tough. But one thing has gotten easier for PE firms: recruiting.

Once a firm passes into zombieland can it ever come back? J.W. Childs Associates may have something to say about that. Leonard Green & Partners and Ares Management are buying CHG Healthcare Services, a Salt Lake City-based healthcare staffing firm, that is majority owned by J.W. Childs.

Ares Management has agreed to buy a majority stake in Smart & Final Holdings in a deal valued at $975 million. Senior management is retaining a minority stake. The seller was Apollo Global Management. Commerce, Calif.-based Smart & Final is smaller store, warehouse-style, “no membership fee,” multi-format retailer that serves both households and smaller businesses. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank Securities are providing debt financing. UPDATE: Robert Robison, R. Alec Dawson, Juan Damian Guzman and Andrew Milano of Morgan Lewis provided legal advice to Smart & Final. Dan Mandel, Dan Fetters and Thomas Amster of Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Smart & Final. Michael Woronoff and Daniel Ganitsky of Proskauer Rose supplied legal advice to Ares.

Final bids for Smart & Final, which is backed by Apollo Global Management, are due later this month, sources tell peHUB. Centerbridge Partners and Ares Management are still vying for the grocery retailer, persons say. Smart & Final could go for $700-$900 mln.

New York City’s five pension funds made $600 million in fresh commitments to three private equity funds, according to a spokesman for the New York City Comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management, which manages their assets. As of June 30, 2012, the five pensions had combined assets of $122 billion. The three new commitments are $300 [...]

Madison Dearborn looks like it will exit Bolthouse Farms after a near seven-year hold.

Blair Jacobson has left the StepStone Group for Ares Management.