Private Equity
U.S. private equity firm LaSalle Capital has sold United American Security (UAS), a Raleigh, North Carolina-based provider of security guard services in the United States, to Canada's Garda World Security Corp. No financial terms were disclosed. LaSalle initially invested in UAS in 2010. UAS CEO Stephen Levine will continue to lead the business as a subsidiary of Garda World, a Montréal-based security services provider. Garda World was acquired last year by U.S. private equity firm Rhône Capital in partnership with Stephan Crétier, the company's founder, chairman and CEO.
2 min read · 26 March 2018
Cargill Inc has agreed to sell grain and crop inputs retail assets in Ontario to La Coop fédérée. No financial terms were disclosed for the sale, which includes 13 grain and crop inputs retail assets and Cargill's 50 percent stake in South West Ag Partners, which includes nine facilities. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2018. La Coop fédérée, an agri-food enterprise and collective, said the buy will complement its existing Ontario operations. Last year, the Montréal-based company raised a $200 million investment from National Bank of Canada, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Fondaction CSN and Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins.
4 min read · 23 March 2018
Canadian financier Newton Glassman has long told his private equity firm’s clients that his big bet on casinos would yield a financial jackpot. Others haven’t been so sure. At the end of 2011, a year after Glassman’s Catalyst Capital Group took control of Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd, Catalyst told investors in a report seen by Reuters that it already had more than doubled their money and that its majority stake was worth US$475 million, for an implied value of the company of US$699 million. But Catalyst was forced to abandon a planned initial public offering of Gateway in 2012 after investors balked at the firm’s valuation.
10 min read · 23 March 2018
Calgary-based energy infrastructure company Wolf Midstream Inc has closed its acquisition of MEG Energy Corp's 50 percent interest in Access Pipeline and 100 percent interest in the Stonefell Terminal. The deal, announced in February, reflected a value of $1.61 billion. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which has partnered with Wolf since 2015, invested $703 million. As a result of the deal, Wolf gained full ownership of Access, operator of a heavy oil transportation pipeline network servicing facilities in Alberta. Two years ago, the company acquired a 50 percent stake in Access from Devon Energy Corp for $1.4 billion.
2 min read · 23 March 2018
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of the world’s biggest investors in private equity, is increasing its capital deployments by doing more direct deals with a select group of partners. The strategy was on display in 2017, when the pension system closed more than $7.6 billion in transactions. Stephane Etroy, CDPQ executive vice president and head of private equity, told PE Hub Canada that about 70 percent of the total went to co-sponsorships and co-investments.
3 min read · 23 March 2018
Toronto-based specialty aviation services provider Discovery Air Inc has been granted protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) and will undertake a court-supervised the sale of its equity interest in affiliate companies and a former defence business. KSV Kofman Inc was appointed as the CCAA monitor. Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group, which took Discovery Air private in 2017, has submitted bids to buy the company's affiliate interests as a stalking horse purchaser. Clairvest has also agreed to provide funding to Discovery Air as the company begins its restructuring process.
3 min read · 22 March 2018
OMERS Infrastructure Management has agreed to acquire Leeward Renewable Energy LLC, a Dallas-based owner, operator and developer of wind power projects in the United States. No financial terms were released for the deal, which is expected to close in Q3 2018. The seller is ArcLight Capital Partners, which acquired Leeward in 2015. Leeward currently oversees 19 operating projects with a total installed capacity of 1.7 gigawatts. OMERS Infrastructure, the infrastructure arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, recently recruited Blackstone Group’s Michael Ryder as head of its Americas team.
3 min read · 22 March 2018
U.S. private equity firm The Riverside Company has acquired Dartmouth, Nova Scotia-based Safety First Contracting as an add-on for its Area Wide Protective platform. No financial terms were disclosed. Established in 1993, Safety First is a provider of traffic management solutions for utilities, utility contractors and telecommunications companies. The acquisition marks the first Canadian and international add-on for AWP, a Kent, Ohio-based provider of temporary traffic management solutions. Riverside made its initial investment in the company in 2015.
2 min read · 22 March 2018
Canadian privately-held broadband provider Xplornet Communications Inc has hired two investment banks to explore a potential sale that could value the company at $2 billion, including debt, sources told Reuters. Xplornet, based in Woodstock, New Brunswick, is working with UBS Group AG and Bank of Montreal to assist it in the sales process. The process, which is in its early stages, could attract interest from private equity firms and infrastructure funds, the sources said. Xplornet’s private owners include U.S. private equity firms Sandler Capital Management and Catalyst Investors. It has also been backed by Canadian family office Werklund Capital Corp.
2 min read · 22 March 2018
Ontario Pension Board (OPB), the administrator of Ontario's Public Service Pension Plan, reported an investment return of 10.8 percent for last year, exceeding its portfolio benchmark by 0.4 percent. Income from investments, which reached $2.5 billion in 2017, helped push OPB's net assets to $26.4 billion. OPB continued shifting assets from public to private markets in 2017, increasing its infrastructure portfolio by 15.8 percent, its private equity portfolio by 53.5 percent, and its real estate portfolio by 18.1 per cent. Since last July, OPB's investing has been overseen by the Investment Management Corp of Ontario (IMCO).
2 min read · 21 March 2018
