Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)and Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC are understood to have fended off competition from some serious global players to buy Adelaide-based Energy Exemplar Pty Ltd. for about $1.6 billion. DataRoom understands that the parties also bidding for the business were General Atlantic, a New York-based private equity firm for growth companies - and Francisco Partners - a San Francisco-based buyout fund with a specific focus on technology companies. Also thought to have been around the hoop was Swedish private equity firm EQT.

It's a business that ticks multiple boxes for private equity when it comes to buying companies that line up with their investment themes in that it gives them exposure not just to technology, but the energy transition. Blackstone and Vista were known from the onset of the sale to be keen on the business, which fits their investment the matics, and they were always expected to put forward a bullish price. Other suitors were believed to be behind the pace.

Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners tapped William Blair as its adviser and Kirkland & Ellis as its law firm, while Energy Exemplar used Lazard and law firms Jones Day and Herbert Smith Freehills.