Private Equity
Chevron Corp is exploring options including the sale of a minority stake in its Canadian liquefied natural gas project as it pushes ahead, sources told Reuters. Among the parties in talks with Chevron for a possible stake in Kitimat LNG are Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, which scrapped its own US$36 billion LNG project in British Columbia last year due to challenging market conditions. Chevron is also considering selling a stake in the project to a financial investor such as a Canadian pension fund or a private equity firm. The B.C. project is a 50-50 joint venture with Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd.
3 min read · 05 March 2018
Brazil’s antitrust watchdog Cade approved the sale of Ventos de Santo Estevao Holding, a wind energy company, to a joint venture between Votorantim Energia and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Reuters reported, citing the federal register. The wind company is owned by the Mario Araripe Group. CPPIB currently invests in government bonds, private sector securities and real estate in Brazil.
1 min read · 02 March 2018
The three banks leading the US$13.5bn-equivalent loan and bond financing backing US private equity firm Blackstone Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ (TRI.TO) Financial and Risk (F&R) unit are set to sign more banks into the deal.
3 min read · 01 March 2018
The three banks leading the US$13.5 billion-equivalent loan and bond financing backing U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial and Risk (F&R) unit are set to sign more banks into the deal, Reuters reported. Around 21 senior banks are expected to join the deal, which is being led by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, and is the biggest buyout financing since the financial crisis. The lead banks invited 23 banks to join at the next level and underwrite 28 percent of the deal. Banks making the biggest commitments after the leads are Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS, several sources said. There could be six or seven tiers of commitments.
3 min read · 01 March 2018
At least two Australian pension funds and one Canadian fund are participating in competing groups bidding for a majority stake in one of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects, people with knowledge of the sale told Reuters. Australia’s New South Wales government is trying to sell a 51 percent stake in Sydney Motorway Corp, the company building the A$16.8 billion (US$13.2 billion) WestConnex project, which links Sydney’s centre with its fast-growing western suburbs. Sources said local pension funds IFM Investors and AustralianSuper and Canada’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec were each part of separate consortia bidding for the stake. The unfinished 33-kilometre road will be built in three stages and is the largest transport project since the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was completed in 1932.
2 min read · 26 February 2018
Brookfield Energia Renovável SA, a Brazil-based unit of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, abandoned a plan to make a capital injection of 1.4 billion reais in Brazil’s Renova Energia SA, which would give it a controlling stake in the company, Reuters reported. According to a Renova securities filing, Brookfield Energia Renovável SA changed its proposal and now is offering only to buy a large wind power complex and other power generation assets held by the Brazilian company. Brookfield is offering 650 million reais (US$200.78 million) plus an earn-out value of 150 million reais to buy the Alto Sertão III wind power complex. It is also offering to buy other wind projects under development for 187,000 reais per megawatt of installed capacity. Renova said it is evaluating the new proposal.
1 min read · 26 February 2018
A flurry of huge US acquisitions is pushing high-grade M&A lending to early year highs as blue-chip firms take advantage of US tax reform and try to fight off the threat of online retail giant Amazon, Reuters reported.
4 min read · 23 February 2018
The real estate arm of Canada’s second-largest pension fund manager wants to “more than double” the $800 million (US$631 million) it has already committed to investments in India in the short term, Reuters reported. Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate unit of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, wants to grow its logistics and residential investments, Ivanhoe President Daniel Fournier said in an interview, although he did not specify an exact time frame. In a recent estimate by real estate services firm JLL, private equity pouring into Indian real estate is expected to drive nearly US$60 billion in investments between 2017 and 2026.
2 min read · 22 February 2018
Bombardier should be “on alert” for merger opportunities that will enable its transportation unit to compete with larger rivals in an industry that is consolidating to help reduce costs, the CEO of its biggest independent shareholder said this week. “I think, in an industry that’s consolidating to the degree that it is and given the scale issues associated with the size of the Chinese presence in that industry, the company needs to be always alert to M&A opportunities,” Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec's Michael Sabia told Reuters and other reporters. Germany’s Siemens AG last year opted to merge its rail business with France’s Alstom SA instead of Bombardier’s rail unit, leaving Bombardier facing a challenge to compete.
3 min read · 21 February 2018
Wealthsimple, a Toronto-based online wealth management startup, has raised $65 million (US$51 million) in funding from Power Financial Corp, as it seeks to compete in the increasingly crowded digital investment advice market, Reuters reported. The company, which is among the group of digital investment managers known as robo-advisers, last year became the first such foreign startup to enter the U.S. market and later opened in the United Kingdom. It currently manages about $1.9 billion for more than 65,000 clients in the three markets it operates in. The latest round brings the total investment of Power Financial in Wealthsimple to $165 million.
2 min read · 21 February 2018
