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Riverstone Holdings, which just last year closed its first fund independent of The Carlyle Group on $7.7 billion, is out talking to limited partners about its next flagship vehicle, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

A fresh breeze has been blowing in North America’s PE fund-raising market of late, bringing relief to many investors with new offerings. But it takes more than that to explain the success that Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group has recently had marketing its fifth fund, Clairvest Equity Partners V LP (CEP V). This week, Clairvest expects to announce the first close of CEP V, raising at least 75% of the partnership’s $600 million hard-cap target. What’s more, it will have managed this feat in less than three months on the fundraising trail.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has become something of a white knight for a few private equity managers with aging funds they can’t seem to close. CPPIB announced this week that it led the restructuring of J.W. Childs Associates’ third fund, a US$1.75 billion vehicle that closed in 2002. According to Yann Robard, CPPIB’s head of secondaries and co-investments, the pension fund will continue to look for more opportunities to restructure older PE funds as part of its “portfolio liquidity solutions” strategy.

Vista Equity Partners has held a first close for its fifth flagship fund on about $3.8 billion, already beating its $3.5 billion target and heading for its hard cap of $5.75 billion.

Acts of bribery, fraud and corruption are as old as human history. And as tactics by people committing such acts adapt and change, so do initiatives by public authorities to curb abuses. As Canadian and U.S. private equity and venture funds have become increasingly active in global deal-making, they need to be more aware of bribery and corruption issues abroad. And investors need to take steps to ensure that they and their investee companies are not in violation of laws concerning the corruption of foreign public officials.

Crestview Partners looks like it will be merging Munder Capital Management with another of its portfolio companies, two sources told peHUB.

On the job’s board this week are vacancies at state pension fund Maine Public Employees Retirement System, the New York City Comptroller, associate roles at BNP Paribas, Liberty Mutual and Siemens Financial Services and a private equity analyst position at Fortress Investment Group.

Canadian private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management has wrapped up a new partnership earmarked for deals in the metals and mining industry. The firm’s second fund, Waterton Global Precious Metals Fund II, closed at just over US$1 billion. The partnership was oversubscribed, with a small group of institutional LPs – primarily endowments, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds – committing large individual sums, said Isser Elishis, the Toronto-based firm’s managing partner and CIO. As a result, Waterton Fund II raised 33% more than its US$750 million target.

This week there are job offerings from private equity giant Carlyle Group, along with HarbourVest, Northern Trust and the State Board of Administration of Florida.