
Blackstone explores $3 billion sale of sustainability software firm Sphera, sources say
NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - Blackstone (BX.N), opens new tab is exploring a $3 billion sale of Sphera, a sustainability software and consulting services provider, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The private equity firm has hired investment bankers at William Blair and Evercore to run the sale, which is in its early stages, said the people who requested anonymity speaking about confidential matters.
Chicago, Illinois-based Sphera, provides risk management software as well as data and consulting services to corporations to help them stay compliant with environmental, health, safety and sustainability guidelines and other related matters.
The company has served more than 8,400 customers globally across 95 countries, according to Sphera's website. Some of its global customers include Danone, Siemens, Mercedes-Benz, Wrangler, and others.
Sphera generates over $300 million in annual revenue and more than $100 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), the sources said. The company is expected to fetch close to $3 billion in a potential sale, the people added.
Blackstone planned to shed twice as many portfolio holdings in 2025, compared to last year. However, dealmaking has cooled since the Trump administration sparked a global trade war in early April.
Despite the slowdown in M&A, private equity firms are facing pressure to return capital to their limited partners (LPs), leading to process launches of private equity's most resilient assets.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump approval rating tanks as Americans oppose GOP agenda
It's summer now, and the report card has arrived. Americans give Trump a failing grade on the budget, trade and immigration. That's tough to swallow for a politician who gauges everything on public perception. Trump, being Trump, is now pivoting to distractions, touting a military parade that flopped as an expensive boondoggle and then flipping from diplomacy with Iran to potentially ordering air strikes on that country. Take our poll: Should US go to war with Iran or support Israel from afar? | Opinion Americans disapprove of budget bill slashing Medicaid Let's start with Trump's budget, which Republican leaders in Congress call the "one big, beautiful bill" in honor of their continuing deference to whatever he wants and the dereliction of their duty to serve as a coequal branch of our government. The version that narrowly passed the House slashed federal safety net programs to boost tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Some senators, seeking to make things even better for the rich at the expense of the poor, want bigger cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs. Opinion: Trump lied about the LA protests so you wouldn't see what he's really doing A batch of recent polls shows Americans reject that: A June 11 Quinnipiac University poll found that 53% of American voters oppose the budget bill, while 27% approve it. Nearly half of the voters polled said funding for Medicaid should go up, not down, while 40% said it should stay the same and just 10% wanted it cut. A June 16 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 50% of Americans think we spend too little on Medicaid, while 31% say we spend enough and just 18% say we spend too much. Forty-five percent of Americans think we should spend more on food and nutrition assistance, while 30% say we spend enough and 24% say we spend too much. A June 17 KFF Health Tracking Poll found that 64% of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Trump's budget bill, while 83% of them hold a favorable view of Medicaid. Republican support for the bill came in strong at 61% at first, but then dropped by 20 points when the Republicans polled heard details about how the legislation would force millions off their health care plans. Polling finds Americans disagree with Trump on immigration, economy, border security This much seems clear: The more Americans learn about Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the more they find it small-minded and ugly. That explains the artificial deadlines. Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on people, power and policies in the time of Trump from columnist Chris Brennan. Get it delivered to your inbox. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress want to wrap this up by July 4. But Republican infighting - moderates who fear it goes too far, far-righters who complain it doesn't go far enough - will make for a contentious Congress for at least the next two weeks. While we wait, Trump is seeing his support on immigration - once his strongest issue - melt away in the summer of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. The Quinnipiac University poll found 54% of the registered voters surveyed opposed his approach to immigration, while 43% approve and 3% had no opinion. Trump campaigned in 2024 on reviving America's economy. But his trade wars, which have hit our country's international allies just as hard or harder than our geopolitical foes, are unpopular. Quinnipiac found that just 38% approve of Trump's trade policy, while 57% disapprove and 6% had no opinion. The AP-NORC poll found that 32% of Americans think we spend too much on border security, while 37% think we spend the right amount and 29% think we spend too little. Trump's approval rating continues to tank. Does it matter? In this time of divisiveness, a majority of Americans can agree on one thing: Trump is disappointing them as president. Just 38% of the votes surveyed by Quinnipiac approve of Trump's job performance, while 54% disapprove. Opinion: Threats against judges nearly doubled under Trump. Republicans blame the victim. That tracks with a Pew Research Center poll released June 17, which found that 41% of those polled approve of Trump's performance while 58% disapprove. Pew noted that Trump has lost ground in his approval rating since he was sworn into office again on Jan. 20. Don't expect Trump to spend too much time worrying about what Americans tell pollsters. He has a long history of touting polls when they hold good news for him and dismissing them when they don't. He also suggested just before the 2024 election that releasing poll results he didn't like "should be illegal." Here's what you can expect: more distractions from Trump as the Republicans fights it out on which version of his budget bill passes or fails in Congress. If they listened to Americans, they would kill the bill and start from scratch. Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.


The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump toy tariffs: Supreme Court won't speed decision on challenge
More: Hasbro layoffs: Toymaker restructures due to tariff struggles and weak demand The company, which makes educational toys, won a court ruling on May 29 that Trump cannot unilaterally impose tariffs using the emergency legal authority he had cited for them. That ruling is currently on hold, leaving the tariffs in place for now. Learning Resources asked the Supreme Court to take the rare step of immediately hearing the case to decide the legality of the tariffs, effectively leapfrogging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington, where the case is pending. More: 'Two dolls instead of 30': Trump acknowledges prices will force consumers to cut back More: Second federal court blocks Trump tariffs, this time for Illinois toy importers Two district courts have ruled that Trump's tariffs are not justified under the law he cited for them, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Both of those cases are on appeal. No court has yet backed the sweeping emergency tariff authority Trump has claimed.


The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump orders ICE arrests: See cities with large immigrant populations
According to U.S. Census data, The New York metro area has the nation's largest foreign-born population, followed by Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Chicago. Trump did not mention Miami or Houston in his post, though they have some of the nation's largest foreign-born populations. Which cities have the most immigrants? Across the nation, immigrants make up roughly 14% of the population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly two-thirds of foreign-born residents live in 20 major metropolitan areas, the Pew Research Center reported. The New York, Los Angeles and Miami metro areas had the largest population of immigrants. About 60% of the nation's undocumented population lives in these same metro areas. Immigrants make up 19.2% of the civilian labor force. Immigrant workers made up 28.6% of all people employed in the construction industry, according to the Census Bureau. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. Of that amount, $59.4 billion was paid to the federal government, and the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments. The U.S. Census American Community Survey of 2023 collected data on the cities Trump mentioned and the others in the top five. Here's the demographic breakdown: Los Angeles City Census Bureau data shows nearly half of Los Angeles' population is Hispanic or Latino, and a third of all residents living there are immigrants. This includes foreign-born U.S. citizens and noncitizens. Although the exact count of undocumented immigrants in the city is not known, a 2020 study by University of Southern California Dornsife, estimated about 900,000 people in Los Angeles were undocumented and that most had been in the United States for 10 years or more. According to the nonprofit California Budget and Policy Center, immigrants make up roughly one-third of workers in the state, comprising an outsize share of the workforce in physically intense sectors like construction and agriculture. Economists say having fewer immigrants in the United States could weaken the economy, causing labor shortages and slowing economic growth. A 2024 analysis from Jamshid Damooei, executive director at the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University, found that work from undocumented employees created an additional 1.25 million jobs in California. 37.9% of Los Angeles-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Chicago Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker defended sanctuary laws protecting undocumented immigrants at a congressional hearing June 12. "Safe and compassionate immigration policies, I believe, are vital. In fact, my own family owes everything to this country accepting a young refugee named Nicholas Pritzker to its shores over a century ago," he said. The Illinois TRUST Act prohibits state and local law enforcement from arresting, searching or detaining a person because of their immigration status. The law prohibits local police from cooperating with federal immigration officers, with some exceptions. 23% of Chicago-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. New York City ICE recently arrested New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander as he attempted to escort a man out of immigration court. The arrest, which went viral, is the latest standoff between federal agents and Democratic officials opposed to the Trump administration's tactics to detain mass numbers of of 2022, an estimated 412,000 undocumented immigrants lived in the city, according to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. That's a decline of 32% from 2012. Immigrants make up nearly 40% of the total population in New York City. Immigrants made up 44.3% of the city's total labor force - more than double the national share of 18.6%, according to the New York State Comptroller's Office."Many industries in the city depend on these workers, including construction, where foreign-born workers made up almost 70% of all workers, while 65% worked in transportation and utilities, and nearly 55% worked in manufacturing," the report said. In 2023, 36.8% of New York-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Miami Miami recently voted to enter a 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities. The partnership will allow local Miami police to enforce federal immigration laws. Local and state police in Florida already have 292 signed and pending agreements, the most of any state. Miami is home to more than 252,000 immigrants, representing 55% of the city's total population, according to the Census Bureau. In 2023, 50.7% of Miami-area workers are were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Houston Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign legislation that requires all county police to sign agreements with ICE, according to the Houston Chronicle. The partnership with federal immigration officials would allow local police to investigate the immigration status of people in their 70 counties in Texas already signed 287(g) agreements as of June. About 24% of Houston's population are immigrants, according to Census Bureau data. Immigrants make up nearly a third of the Houston workforce, according to the nonprofit American Immigration Council. As of 2023, 31% of Houston-area workers were immigrants, according to USAFacts. Read more: More than 600 local police agencies are partnering with ICE: See if yours is one of them