Private Equity
Travel almost anywhere in North American PE circles and you’ll encounter people who know and speak highly of Rod Senft, founder and managing director of Tricor Pacific Capital. Now his son Derek is making a name for himself at Pender West Capital.
6 min read · 17 July 2014
Vision Critical Communications Inc has secured $16 million in follow-on financing. The round was led by Canadian venture capital firm Georgian Partners, which earlier this year wrapped up the first close of its second fund, Georgian Partners Growth Fund II. Also participating in the deal were Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund and Kensington Global Private Equity Fund. Founded in 2000, Vision Critical is a customer intelligence platform that has provided support to more than 650 enterprises around the world. Based in Vancouver, it is also backed by Difference Capital Financial, OMERS Ventures, TELUS Ventures and Wellington Financial. Vision Critical co-founder Angus Reid last month stepped down as the company's executive chair.
3 min read · 17 July 2014
Canadian private equity firm KERN Partners has launched its fourth energy-focused partnership, KERN Energy Partners IV Fund (KEP IV), peHUB Canada has exclusively learned. In early July, KEP IV, which is targeted to raise $750 million, completed a first close for an unspecified amount anchored by existing LPs in prior KERN funds. KEP IV has also made its premiere platform investment, backing Steelhead LNG, a Vancouver company focused on liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects that recently announced plans for building a $30 billion LNG export facility on Canada's West Coast.
4 min read · 17 July 2014
Travel almost anywhere in North American PE circles and you’ll encounter people who know and speak highly of Rod Senft, founder and managing director of Canadian mid-market private equity firm Tricor Pacific Capital. If you don’t already know Derek Senft, the second of three Senft family siblings, odds are that you will very soon. He is vice president of Pender West Capital Partners, a family office that invests in small and medium-sized companies in Canada and the western United States.
6 min read · 14 July 2014
D-Wave Systems Inc has raised an additional $28.4 million in venture capital financing according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, sister website peHUB Canada reports.
2 min read · 11 July 2014
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has been named the world's biggest private equity investor by Private Equity International's PEI LP50. CPPIB received the ranking with an 18 percent allocation to private equity and US$26.2 billion committed to or invested in opportunities over the past five years. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also placed in the report's top ten, while British Columbia Investment Management Corp (bcIMC) was ranked 32nd on the list.
2 min read · 10 July 2014
Canadian private equity firm Auxo Management has completed a minority equity recapitalization of its portfolio company UCIT Online Security, a Mississauga, Ontario-based provider of tailored solutions for security installations, system maintenance and video monitoring. The deal involved a new investment by U.S. private equity firm Egis Capital Partners, which targets opportunities in security and homeland defense sectors. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. Auxo, which invested in UCIT in 2011, said the recapitalization is the first exit of a Canadian search fund. Torys LLP's Michael Akkawi and Sophia Tolias recently discussed the rise of search funds in the domestic market in a feature article for peHUB Canada.
3 min read · 07 July 2014
If history repeats, a combination of disclosed and non-disclosed VC financings should put Canadian market activity in Q2 within reach of the $454 million invested in Q2 2013.
4 min read · 03 July 2014
Medicure Inc TSXV: MPH) has bought a minority interest in Apicore, a private developer and manufacturer of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients. The acquisition was made through a US$22.5 million deal involving U.S. private equity firm Signet Healthcare Partners, which provided an equity investment, and Knight Therapeutics Inc and Sanders Morris Harris Inc, which provided debt financing. Under the terms of the deal, Medicure received an option to acquire all of the remaining shares of Apicore within the next three years. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Medicure is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel small molecule therapeutics.
7 min read · 03 July 2014
Longview Solutions Inc, a Toronto-based provider of corporate performance management and tax provisioning software, has been acquired by U.S. private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners. The seller in the undisclosed transaction was Dutch software company Exact Holding N.V., which bought Longview in 2007 for US$51.5 million. Prior to 2007, the company had been a portfolio investment of U.S. venture capital firm Edison Ventures, Canadian specialty finance firm Wellington Financial and other investors. Marlin said it plans to accelerate and strengthen Longview's product portfolio through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
3 min read · 02 July 2014
