(Reuters) - Shares of trendy hamburger chain Shake Shack Inc soared 150 percent in their first few minutes of trading on Friday, valuing the company that grew out of a hotdog cart in New York’s Madison Square Park at nearly $2 billion.
2 min read · 30 January 2015
Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of Canada's second-largest pension fund, said it had sold its 50 percent interest in two Ontario shopping centers to a rival pension plan manager in Canada for $240 million as part of a move to reposition its retail portfolio, Reuters reported. Ivanhoé, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, said the properties were sold to HOOPP, or the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.
1 min read · 30 January 2015
Canadian healthcare technology and business services provider Accreon Inc has announced that it is in the final stages of a leveraged management buyout (MBO). The MBO will facilitate the company's succession to three senior Accreon executives: Eric Demers, Martin Ferguson and Michael Lavigne. The deal, the value of which was not published, will be funded by the new management team, the founders, and U.S. healthcare private equity firm Mansa Capital. Accreon, which has its headquarters in Fredericton, New Brunswick, said the MBO will help enhance its position in the Atlantic region and across Canada, and help accelerate its growth in the United States.
3 min read · 30 January 2015
Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons confirmed this week it will cut jobs as it reorganizes after being acquired by U.S. fast food chain Burger King for $12.64 billion last year, Reuters reported. Tim Hortons declined to provide exact figures on the number of employees to be affected, saying it is still in the process of reorganizing.
2 min read · 29 January 2015
Ivanhoé Cambridge has partnered with Veritas Investments to buy more multi-family properties in San Francisco. The new investment, which totals over US$190 million, brings the number of properties jointly owned by Ivanhoé and Veritas to 20 in total. The properties reflect a total of 580 housing units to date. Ivanhoé, the real estate investment arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, began partnering with the U.S.-based Veritas in 2014.
3 min read · 29 January 2015
Gordon Brothers Group and an affiliate of Hilco Global have jointly acquired the Canadian operations of Preferred Sands, a U.S. provider of sand to the hydraulic fracturing industry. The acquired assets include Preferred Sands of Canada's Hanson Lake facility in Saskatoon. The company specializes in producing premium silica sand, resin-coated proppants and industrial sand, as well as environmentally-sensitive varieties. The value of the assets is said to be about $30 million at cost. U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co agreed to make an investment in the Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Preferred Sands in 2014.
3 min read · 29 January 2015
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has committed $330 million more to Canadian private equity funds. The money, which will be managed by CPPIB's long-standing investment partner Northleaf Capital Partners, add to the $1.2 billion the pension fund manager has committed to the domestic market since 2005. Northleaf-managed capital will target small and mid-market buyout and growth equity funds that are seeking to raise $1 billion or less. A December report by peHUB Canada estimated that Canadian private equity firms raised about $14.4 billion last year, much of which went to large-sized funds. In 2014, CPPIB also made a $70 million commitment to the Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund.
3 min read · 29 January 2015
Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, reported a 6 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday as its real estate funds appreciated less than they did a year ago, according to Reuters news service.
1 min read · 29 January 2015
The private equity firm TPG Capital LP has sued former spokesman Adam Levine, accusing him of taking confidential documents and distributing them to the New York Times and other media after being denied a promotion to a partnership position, according to Reuters news service.
2 min read · 29 January 2015
(Reuters) - ClickTale, whose software enables website owners to see how people behave on their sites, has raised $35 million in a funding round led by KKR, marking the U.S. private equity firm’s first investment in Israel’s tech sector.
1 min read · 29 January 2015
