By Sawyer Duncan (December 6, 2018, 12:35 PM EST) -- Club deals involving one or more private equity funds are again becoming increasingly popular across the market. Recent large-cap deals involving high-profile, publicly traded targets have been the surest indicia of this trend. It was recently reported that Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Onex Corp. and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board formed a team to bid for the activist-addled aluminum maker Arconic. Earlier this fall, Blackstone, CPPIB and GIC Private Ltd. announced a joint deal for control of Thomson Reuters Corp.'s financial and risk management business. Johnson Controls recently sold its power solutions unit to a private equity consortium that included Brookfield Business Partners and CDPQ. We are also witnessing increased joint investment activity among fundless sponsors in smaller transactions. At the lower end of the market, we have recently seen many small-cap and regionally focused private equity firms teaming up for joint investments in local, privately held assets, especially where there is a prior history of co-participation between those sponsors in such industries....