Ex-Martis exec emerges at THL, Falfurrias builds platform around locally sourced, raw honey

Happy Tuesday!

Your thoughts on taxing carry: The issue of how to tax carried interest has come under the spotlight in recent months, most recently with panelists at PEI Media’s CFOs & COOs Fall Forum last week noting that proposals to lengthen hold periods related to taxing carry could affect the continuation fund market.

With carry under fire on this and several other fronts, our colleagues at Private Equity International are asking GPs how such regulatory changes would affect their operations. If you have a spare 2-minutes, please take their anonymous survey here.

Mover: Readers of the Wire will recall that Shahab Vagefi, a founding partner at healthcare specialist Martis Capital, left the firm in August. Vagefi has re-emerged at Thomas H. Lee Partners, where he joined as a managing director with a particular focus on healthcare technology, writes Sarah Pringle on PE Hub.

Vagefi is the firm’s fourth healthcare-focused managing director along with Josh Nelson, who leads the strategy, Megan Preiner and Jesse Searby. The healthcare focused investment team stands at 15-plus members, including several healthcare executive advisers, Sarah writes.

The hire comes as THL builds out its growth-oriented healthcare focus. “We’ve had an objective and an output to grow,” Nelson told Sarah. “We need to keep up on the human capital side with the growth in the portfolio.”

THL has partially or fully monetized five healthcare portfolio companies over the past 18 months: Syneos, CSafe Global, HSS, PCI Pharma Services and 1-800 Contacts, Sarah writes. It also took Agiliti public.

Read more here on PE Hub.

Tech: Vista Equity is set to take-private and add-on UK software robotics firm Blue Prism to its portfolio company Tibco for around $1.5 billion, the company said. Vista acquired Tibco in 2014. The price represents a 35.2 percent premium to Blue Prism’s closing trading price on Aug. 27, the company said in a filing.

Blue Prism’s board had been considering strategic options since March and commenced a search for a new CEO, the filing said. As well, the board determined that implementing its strategy would require more investment in product development and go-to market activities, the filing said.

“The Blue Prism board has determined that the acquisition is in the best interests of Blue Prism shareholders, immediately delivering certain value without the execution risks associated with the necessary strategic investments envisaged,” the board said in a statement.

Raw: Charlotte-based Falfurrias Capital plans to build a platform around its inaugural investment out of its Fund V, which is a controlling stake in Local Hive Honey, writes reporter Aaron Weitzman on PE Hub today.

The firm considered acquiring Local Hive Honey as an add-on to its existing platform, Sauer Brands but changed direction and bought the company as a platform.

“For now, Local Hive will stand on its own, but we will be opportunistic and are actively reviewing opportunities for add-ons to the newly acquired honey brand,” said Chip Johnson, partner at Falfurrias who led the investment. (Falfurrias has another add-on to the Sauer brands that will be announced later this week.) Read it here.

That’s it for me! Have a great rest of the day. Hit me up with tips n’ stuff at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com or find me on LinkedIn. Also, don’t forget to use our anonymous tip box right on the front pages of PE Hub and/or Buyouts. Just keep in mind, we only use those for actual anonymous tips and not press releases.