Private Equity
U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in advanced talks to buy an approximate 55 percent stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, a deal that would value the unit at about US$20 billion including debt, sources told Reuters.
4 min read · 30 January 2018
U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in advanced talks to buy an approximate 55 percent stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, a deal that would value the unit at about US$20 billion including debt, sources told Reuters. Thomson Reuters’ board is expected to meet this week to discuss Blackstone’s offer for the F&R business, which supplies news, data and analytics to banks and investment houses around the world. The unit contributes more than half of Thomson Reuters’ annual revenues. Under the terms of the Blackstone offer, Thomson Reuters would retain a 45 percent stake in the F&R business as part of a partnership with the U.S. buyout firm, the sources said. Canada’s Thomson family controls more than 63 percent of Thomson Reuters shares through Woodbridge Co Ltd. The news and data provider has a market value of about US$31 billion.
4 min read · 30 January 2018
Struggling Noble Group (NOBG.SI) has struck a deal with creditors to restructure $3.5 billion of its debt in exchange for 70 percent of the company, with existing equity holders’ combined stake diluted to only 10 percent, Reuters reported.
2 min read · 29 January 2018
Loot Crate Inc, a monthly subscription service that sends video game and sci-fi paraphernalia to customers, has hired strategic consulting firm Dendera Advisory LLC as it seeks to raise new funds, sources told Reuters.
3 min read · 25 January 2018
Canada’s second-biggest marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis Inc has agreed to buy smaller rival CanniMed Therapeutics Inc for $1.1 billion creating the world’s largest weed producer by market value, Reuters reported. The agreement follows months of tensions between the companies as Aurora made a hostile bid of $24 per share for CanniMed, which itself was engaged in a friendly deal to buy Newstrike Resources Ltd. The agreement tops a deal-making frenzy among cannabis companies as they jostle for prime position ahead of Canada’s legalization of recreational use of marijuana by mid-2018, making it only the second country in the world to do so. Both Aurora and CanniMed have in recent years secured financing from Canadian and U.S. private equity and venture capital investors.
2 min read · 24 January 2018
Brazilian toy retailer Ri Happy Brinquedos SA filed on Tuesday for an initial public offering on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, according to documents filed with Brazil’s securities regulator, Reuters reported.
1 min read · 23 January 2018
Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners Management LLC is exploring options for two software companies it owns, PowerSchool and PeopleAdmin, that could involve combining them in a deal worth between $2 billion to $3 billion, Reuters reported.
2 min read · 22 January 2018
Westinghouse Electric Co LLC, Toshiba Corp’s nuclear services business, has made an agreement with its creditors that will clear the company’s path out of bankruptcy, sources told Reuters. The deal will divvy up cash from the US$4.6 billion ($5.7 billion) proposed sale of Westinghouse to Brookfield Business Partners, an affiliate of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management. As part of the agreement, Toshiba will sell its claims to a group of hedge funds led by the Baupost Group, making the group the biggest creditor in the case, the sources said. The claims sale helps avoid fights among creditors that threatened to slow down the case. Toshiba subsequently confirmed that it had struck a deal with the Baupost-led consortium.
2 min read · 17 January 2018
RNC Minerals is in talks with commodity traders, mine operators and financiers to help secure US$1 billion to build the world’s biggest nickel and cobalt project next year, Reuters reported. A global battery boom, driven by growing demand for electric cars, is pushing prices higher for such key ingredients as nickel and cobalt and encouraging miners to accelerate development plans. Conditions are right to build Dumont in Québec, said RNC. With 3.15 million tonnes of nickel sulphide and 126,000 tonnes of cobalt, it is the largest undeveloped reserve of both metals in the world, the Toronto-based company said. RNC owns 50-percent of Dumont with Canadian mining private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management holding the remainder.
2 min read · 15 January 2018
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP led an investment round of more than US$950 million for Enfoca, a Peruvian private equity firm, em>Reuters reported. CPPIB committed US$380 million to the investment. Goldman and three Peruvian pension funds also contributed to the funding. In a release, the parties said the secondary deal gives existing Enfoca limited partners a liquidity option and new limited partners an opportunity to invest in a portfolio of Peruvian mid-market companies. CPPIB's Michael Woolhouse said the pension fund's commitment increases its "overall investment in Latin America, one of our strategic focus regions.”
1 min read · 12 January 2018
