Private Equity
Onex Credit Partners LLC, the credit investment arm of Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, has priced its 15th collateralized loan obligation (CLO) offering at about US$615 million. The transaction will be issued by a special purpose vehicle, backed by a diversified portfolio of broadly syndicated leveraged loans. With the offering's close, Onex Credit Partners will oversee more than US$10 billion. Last November, Toronto-based Onex wrapped up its fifth flagship fund, Onex Partners V, raising US$7.15 billion.
2 min read · 24 May 2018
The sale of U.S. private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners’ North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP), an oil and gas pipeline business, could be hit by renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran, sources told Reuters, as one of its major clients is part-owned by the Iranian Oil Co. Parties interested in NSMP include Canada's OMERS Infrastructure which has teamed up with Macquarie, JP Morgan, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and KKR, which is working with BlackRock, the sources said. It was not clear whether they had bid. ArcLight initially created NSMP in 2012 to invest in the midstream sector of the North Sea’s oil and gas industry.
2 min read · 24 May 2018
U.S private equity firm The Riverside Co has made an investment in Destiny Solutions, a Toronto-based provider of student lifecycle management software. No financial terms were disclosed. Founded in 1995 and led by CEO Shaul Kuper, Destiny allowed the University of Toronto to be the first post-secondary institution to take enrollments online in 1997. It has since designed enterprise software focused on the non-traditional higher education market. Riverside said it will support Destiny's North American and global expansion through increased platform functionality, sales and marketing, new products and services, and add-on acquisitions.
3 min read · 24 May 2018
Trescal SA, recently acquired by OMERS Private Equity (OPE), has bought RS Calibration Services Inc, a Pleasanton, California-based calibration, qualification and validation laboratory dedicated to the life sciences industry. No financial terms were disclosed. Trescal, a Paris-based provider of calibration services for the test and measuring equipment market, said the deal increases its coverage in California and ability to service life sciences companies. OPE last year agreed to acquire a majority stake in Trescal in a transaction that valued the business at about €670 million (US$787 million). The deal closed in April.
3 min read · 24 May 2018
Canada Infrastructure Bank has appointed Pierre Lavallée to be its president and CEO effective as of June 18. In the role, Lavallée will oversee the strategy and day-to-day operations of the bank, set up in 2016 by the federal government to provide access to $35 billion and tap private financing for Canadian infrastructure projects. He joins the bank from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), where he most recently served as senior managing director and global head of investment partnerships. Lavallée left CPPIB earlier this month, resulting in the pension fund's appointment of Shane Feeney to an expanded role as head of global private investments.
3 min read · 24 May 2018
Swiss private equity firm Partners Group has agreed to acquire a stake in GlobalLogic Inc, a U.S. provider of digital product development services, from U.K. private equity firm Apax Partners. The transaction values the business at more than US$2 billion. With the deal's close, Partners Group will become an equal shareholder in GlobalLogic with existing investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). Last year, CPPIB announced it had acquired a 48 percent stake in the San Jose, California-based company from Apax for an undisclosed amount.
5 min read · 23 May 2018
Montréal-based media company Stingray Digital Group Inc (TSX: RAY.A-.B) has raised $40 million from its issue of private placement subscription receipts to Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. A shareholder of Stingray has also exercised and subscribed for subscription receipts, generating $15 million, which was funded by Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Investissement Québec. The deals, which are part of a $138 million financing, will back the company's previously announced buy of Newfoundland Capital Corp Ltd (NCC), the owner and operator of Newcap Radio, for $506 million.
4 min read · 23 May 2018
Global mergers and acquisitions have already reached US$2 trillion in 2018, a record for the value of deals in the period, Reuters reported, citing Thomson Reuters data. A flurry of deals at the start of the week, particularly in the United States with the US$11.1 billion merger of GE’s transportation business and rail equipment maker Wabtec, helped reach the milestone. The last two periods when M&A reached similar levels were in 2007 (US$1.8 trillion), a year before the financial crisis and in 2000 (US$1.5 trillion), just before the bursting of the dot.com bubble of technology and internet-related stocks.
1 min read · 22 May 2018
MAV Beauty Brands Inc, the holding company for Toronto-based beauty specialist Marc Anthony Cosmetics Inc, has filed a preliminary prospectus with Canadian securities regulators for an initial public offering of common shares. The IPO has not yet been priced; however, Bloomberg earlier reported the company is looking to raise as much as $250 million. The IPO will include a treasury offering by MAV and a secondary offering by TA Associates, which acquired the company in 2016, as well as President and CEO Marc Anthony Venere and the Redmond Family. CIBC Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Jefferies Securities are the joint bookrunners.
3 min read · 22 May 2018
Australian hospital group Healthscope Ltd rejected two takeover approaches this week and said it will instead explore selling its properties, in what analysts called a risky move that could invite a more favourable takeover bid, Reuters reported. The Melbourne-based company said both US$3 billion-plus offers, from Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management and jointly from local private equity firm BGH Capital and 14 percent shareholder AustralianSuper, were conditional and undervalued the business. Reuters last month reported Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan were partnering with BGH in its Healthscope bid.
3 min read · 22 May 2018
