Owl Rock appoints co-heads for opportunistic strategy, Stellex Capital in market with sophomore fund, KKR commits $1bn to develop data center platform

Happy Thursday!

Expansion: Owl Rock Capital named Jesse Huff and Nicole Drapkin to co-lead its opportunistic investing strategy, which the firm has been planning for some time.

Drapkin worked at Owl Rock since inception, prior to which she was a principal in principal credit investments group at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Huff joined Owl Rock from Oaktree Capital, where he worked as a managing director focusing on opportunistic credit. Prior to Oaktree, he worked at Carlyle Group as global head of distressed debt trading and sourcing. Read the news brief here on PE Hub.

Owl Rock’s launch into the strategy came after it received a minority investment from Dyal Capital last year. The firm primarily targets high-performing companies with its lending products, which includes an institutional-level business development company, a high net worth-backed BDC, a tech-focused BDC and a first lien loan-focused fund.

The firm didn’t have a place for investments in more stressed companies. The opportunistic strategy would focus on companies that “aren’t pristine, but are perfectly attractive businesses.” These types of companies represent about 25 percent of the deal flow Owl Rock sees, a source told Buyouts last year.

Another PIPE: PE Hub recently had in-depth coverage of GP enthusiasm for private investments in public equities — another opportunity created by the pandemic downturn. Today we have news that One Equity Partners is making a $190 million PIPE deal in AdaptHealth, a distributor of home medical equipment, writes Sarah Pringle on PE Hub.

As well, Deerfield Management is set to invest $35 million in AdaptHealth, Sarah writes. The company’s lenders also have agreed to increase the company’s term loan by $240 million.

Amid all this new investment, publicly traded AdaptHealth said it would buy Solara Medical Supplies from Linden and ActivStyle from Riverside Co. Linden will join the shareholder base as it rolls equity as part of the exit of Solara, Sarah writes. Read here story here on PE Hub.

Private equity firms invested in more than 150 public companies so far this year, according to Pitchbook data, PE Hub reporter Karishma Vanjani wrote earlier this month. Availability of capital, agility and a need to put money to work spurred sponsors to increasingly turn to PIPEs to seize on opportunities in the downturn, Vanjani wrote. Check it out here on PE Hub.

Top Scoops
Emerging manager Stellex Capital Management is raising its second fund, targeting $1.25 billion, writes Justin Mitchell on Buyouts. Fund II has a $1.75 billion hard cap, according to documents from New Jersey Division of Investment, he writes. Check it out here for strategy and fee structure.

KKR is committing $1 billion to build a data center platform in Europe. The capital comes from KKR’s third global infrastructure fund. KKR is working with data center entrepreneur Franek Sodzawiczny on the platform that will develop data centers for large tech companies across Europe. KKR’s equity commitment is expected to support more than $2.5 billion of asset development.

The platform, called Global Technical Realty, is partnering with Mercury Engineering on the effort. Read the news brief here on PE Hub.

Correction: In yesterday’s Wire, I included an email subject line that said Carlyle’s Eggplant finds PE buyer. The company is being acquired by a public company, not a PE buyer.

That’s it! Have a great rest of your day. Hit me up as always with tips n’ gossip, feedback or just to chat at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com, on Twitter or find me on LinkedIn.