Private Equity
Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust said this week it would sell its non-core property assets to privately held Slate Acquisitions Inc for $1.14 billion to reduce debt and focus on core assets, Reuters reported. Cominar said it intends to sell another $1 billion to $1.5 billion worth of properties. The assets being sold to Slate include 97 properties located in the Greater Toronto Area, the Atlantic provinces, and in Western Canada, the company said. The deal is expected to close by the end of March 2018. Slate is a Canadian real estate investment platform.
1 min read · 18 December 2017
Wood pellets producer Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc, owned by Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, wants to raise about $175 million (US$136 million) through a Toronto initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters this week. A successful deal would make it the second-biggest renewable energy IPO in Canada after TransAlta Renewables Inc raised $221 million in 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data. Onex has hired CIBC as the lead underwriter for the IPO, the sources said. ONCAP, a unit of Canadian buyout firm Onex that focuses on the middle market, acquired a majority stake in Richmond, British Columbia-based Pinnacle in May 2011 for $71 million.
1 min read · 15 December 2017
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Brazil’s Votorantim Group’s energy unit Votorantim Energia have formed a joint venture that will buy two operational wind parks in northeastern Brazil, Reuters reported. The wind parks will have a combined generation capacity of 565 megawatts. CPPIB will be initially contributing $272 million (US$213 million) in equity. The joint venture sees an investment of more 3 billion reals (US$897.72 million) in Brazil’s power generation sector and will pursue further acquisitions. Reuters reported in October that Votorantim Energia was in talks with pension and sovereign wealth funds to create a wind, solar and small-scale hydropower electricity joint venture in Brazil.
2 min read · 15 December 2017
U.S. venue management company SMG’s leveraged buyout by Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp will be backed by a US$650 million loan package, sources told Reuters. Jefferies, Nomura and Macquarie Group are providing the financing. SMG provides services including facility staffing and training, food and beverage, event booking, management and promotion, financial management and maintenance. Its client roster spans stadiums, arenas, convention centres, theatres and recreational and equestrian facilities. Onex is paying around US$1 billion before fees and expenses for SMG and will contribute approximately US$440 million in equity, one of the sources said.
2 min read · 13 December 2017
U.S. ride-hailing company Lyft Inc this week launched its service in Toronto, marking the first time it has taken its battle against the much larger Uber Technologies Inc outside of the United States, Reuters reported. Lyft presents itself as a friendlier version of Uber, which is facing investigations by governments around the world, including in Canada, over its cover up of a massive 2016 data breach. Lyft raised US$1 billion in October, in a financing round led by CapitalG, the growth investment fund of Alphabet Inc and in September hired an initial public offering advisory firm. Canadian investors in the company include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
2 min read · 12 December 2017
U.S. activist hedge fund investor Land and Buildings reiterated that Canadian department store operator Hudson’s Bay Co’s real estate assets were worth substantially more than the company’s current market valuation, Reuters reported. Jonathan Litt-led Land and Buildings, which held a 5 percent stake in Hudson’s Bay as of July, has been pressing the company to boost its sliding share price by extracting value from its real estate holdings. Hudson’s Bay this year sold its flagship Lord & Taylor building in New York for US$850 million, and has put up its Vancouver store for sale for $900 million. Litt said the company’s real estate and capital deals could give it a cash hoard of more than US$3 billion, which would help fund a going private transaction.
2 min read · 12 December 2017
Canada’s Fairfax Africa Investments will not proceed with a plan to buy 23 percent of cement producer PPC for 2 billion rand (US$146.34 million), Reuters reported. Fairfax offered to buy 23 percent of PPC in September for 5.75 rand per share, or 2 billion rand, on condition that it was approved by shareholders in order to allow a merger with South African rival cement maker AfriSam. Last month PPC’s board said it had advised Fairfax that it would not be recommending the offer to shareholders. Fairfax Africa, an affiliate of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, earlier this year raised US$500 million to invest public equity, private equity and debt in African businesses.
1 min read · 11 December 2017
GGP Inc, one of the largest owners and operators of U.S. shopping centers, has rejected a US$14.8 billion buyout offer from its biggest shareholder, Brookfield Property Partners LP, sources told Reuters. Brookfield Property made a US$23-per-share cash and stock offer last month for the 66 percent of GGP it does not already own. A combination of Chicago-based GGP and Brookfield Property would create one of the world’s largest publicly traded property companies. Brookfield Property is considering a new offer for GGP after a special committee of GGP’s board directors turned down its November 11 offer as inadequate, and negotiations between the two companies are expected to continue, the sources said. The acquisition would create a company with an ownership interest in almost US$100 billion real estate assets globally and annual net operating income of about US$5 billion, according to Brookfield Property.
2 min read · 11 December 2017
4 min read · 08 December 2017
Buyout group Ardian has received binding bids for its stake in Fives, which may value the French engineering group at about US$1.8 billion, Reuters reported. Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and private equity firm TowerBrook have both handed in offers for the minority stake, the sources said. The winner of the auction, which is being organised by BNP Paribas, is expected to tie up with Bpifrance or the Peugeot family’s investment arm FFP, both of which have offered to act as co-investors. Fives designs and supplies machines and ready-to-work factories for the metals, automotive, aerospace, logistics and energy industries.
1 min read · 06 December 2017
