UPDATE, 8/30/2012, 6:35 p.m. EDT: Crowell & Moring is serving as lead U.S. antitrust counsel to DuPont in connection with the sale. The firm’s team is led by antitrust group cochair Wm. Randolph Smith, with counsels Olivier Antoine and Shawn Johnson also advising.

The Carlyle Group’s deal streak continued Thursday when the private equity firm said it will pay $4.9 billion in cash to acquire DuPont Performance Coatings, the automotive paint business of Wilmington, Delaware–based chemicals manufacturer DuPont.

DuPont Performance Coatings makes and distributes products that include paints and finishers used by the automobile industry. The business employs more than 11,000 people and is expected to generate more than $4 billion in sales this year. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013, pending regulatory approval.

In announcing the deal, Carlyle said it was attracted to both the DuPont unit’s innovative technology and its presence in such emerging markets as China and Brazil. Meanwhile, DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman said in a statement that the transaction fits with her company’s long-term strategy of focusing on high-growth areas like agriculture, nutrition, and biotechnology.

The acquisition is the latest in a string of recent deals for Carlyle, which paid $3.3 billion for Getty Images earlier this month. As The Washington Post noted at the time, that deal was Carlyle’s fifth major acquisition since early July and continued a streak that kicked off not long after the private equity firm’s May launch of an initial public offering raised $671 million.

Latham & Watkins is representing longtime private equity client Carlyle on the DuPont agreement. The firm has worked on a number of deals for Carlyle in recent years, including the $3.8 billion takeover of vitamin company NBTY and the $3.1 billion sale of preferred provider MultiPlan, both of which came in 2010. Corporate partners Daniel Lennon and David Dantzic are advising on the DuPont deal, as are finance partners Patrick Shannon, Jason Licht, and Jennifer Van Driesen. Partner David Raab is advising on tax matters.

DuPont, meanwhile, has turned to a Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom team that includes New York–based M&A partners Brandon Van Dyke, Thomas Greenberg, and Lou Kling. Last year, Skadden advised DuPont, a longtime clients, on its $6.3 billion acquisition of Danish enzyme and specialty food ingredients company Danisco A/S.

Thomas Sager serves as DuPont’s general counsel.

Skadden also had a hand in a second deal announced Thursday, advising Validus Holdings in connection with its $623 million purchase of Flagstone Reinsurance. Validus, a Bermuda-based provider of insurance and reinsurance, will pay $2 in cash, along with 0.1935 Validus shares, for each share in Luxembourg-based reinsurer Flagstone. That deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year, pending approval by regulators and Flagstone’s shareholders.

The Skadden attorneys working on the deal include corporate partners Todd Freed and Steven Daniels.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore is advising Flagstone with a team led by corporate partners Sarkis Jebejian and Eric Schiele. Tax partner Andrew Needham and compensation and benefits partner Eric Hilfers are also working on the deal.