Private Equity
Canadian zinc mining company Adventus Zinc Corp (TSX-V: ADZN) has launched a bought-deal private placement offering to raise as much as $11.5 million. It is expected that the company's strategic investors, Canadian mining royalty firm Altius Minerals Corp, U.K. private equity firm Greenstone Resources and U.S. private equity firm Resource Capital Funds (RCF), will participate in the deal. The three shareholders provided Adventus with $8 million in seed financing last year. Toronto-based Adventus said it will use the offering's proceeds to fund the Curipamba polymetallic project in Ecuador and for other priorities.
3 min read · 04 December 2017
The private equity market in Europe remains at least as buoyant as in Canada and the United States and, despite political and market uncertainty, PE M&A activity remains high, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Partner Mary Abbott writes. However, the realities of sourcing and executing on deals remains a challenge, as it does globally. Despite this shared reality, deal-making in Europe has some features or norms not common in North America that prudent businesses (and investors) can leverage to their advantage. Some of them arguably make deal execution more predictable and completion more certain.
5 min read · 04 December 2017
Arterra Wines Canada Inc, formerly known as Constellation Brands Canada, has agreed to acquire Laughing Stock Vineyards Ltd, a Penticton, British Columbia-based boutique winery. No financial terms were released. David Enns and Cynthia Enns, who founded Laughing Stock in 2003, will continue to play a leadership role in the company. Mississauga, Ontario-based Arterra is an owner and distributor of more than 100 wine brands. It was acquired last year by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan from Constellation Brands Inc in a deal valued at $1.03 billion.
4 min read · 04 December 2017
Underwriting banks and leveraged loan investors are struggling to analyse the impact of technological disruption on the business models underpinning private equity buyouts, as they try to dodge bullets by avoiding lending to companies that could be rendered obsolete by the ‘Amazon effect’, Reuters reported. KKR-owned U.S. retail giant Toys ‘R’ Us sent shock-waves through the market when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, citing the “unrelenting competition from e-commerce” as key to its predicament. “Technology is undoubtedly a threat to traditional business models: this is definitely a topic discussed in every credit committee. The first question everyone asks is: ’What’s Amazon doing?’” said Simona Maellare, global co-head of financial sponsors coverage at UBS.
4 min read · 01 December 2017
Canadian luxury retailer Hudson’s Bay Co (HBC) said this week it reached an agreement with shareholder Land & Buildings, under which the U.S. activist hedge fund investor would withdraw its appeal against the conditional approval given for an investment by Rhône Capital, Reuters reported. HBC in October received a US$500 million ($632 million) investment from U.S. private equity firm Rhône in the form of eight-year mandatory convertible preferred shares. Land & Buildings head Jonathan Litt said the investment was not in the best interests of minority shareholders. As a concession to Litt, the Toronto-based HBC said that if it issues new shares in a way that triggers a price protection feature available to Rhône for a year as part of the deal, it would do the issuance as a rights offering available to all its investors on a pro rata basis.
2 min read · 01 December 2017
New Flyer Industries Inc (TSX: NFI) has bought 100 percent of the interests in ARBOC Specialty Vehicles LLC, a Middlebury, Indiana-based producer of specialty vehicles targeting the low-floor, small and mid-size bus markets. New Flyer's U.S. affiliate paid US$95 million for ARBOC, which was sold by U.S. private equity firm HIG Capital. New Flyer, a Winnipeg-based transit bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor, said the deal provides it with complementary product lines and an opportunity for growth and diversification. Founded in 1930, New Flyer was formerly backed by Harvest Partners and Lightyear Capital.
5 min read · 01 December 2017
InnovaSea Systems Inc has acquired Amirix Systems Inc, a Bedford, Nova Scotia-based designer and maker of electronic systems for underwater acoustic telemetry, aquatic animal tracking, positioning, and data logging. No financial terms were disclosed. Founded in 1981, Amirix operates through a family of companies, including Vemco, HTI-Vemco USA and Realtime Aquaculture. InnovaSea, a Boston-based producer of open-ocean fish farming systems, said the combination of the businesses will create an "integrated solution for monitoring aquaculture farms." InnovaSea is owned by Cuna del Mar, a U.S. aquaculture private equity firm.
3 min read · 01 December 2017
West Face Capital said Black Cube has contacted current and former employees, as well as a retired Ontario Superior Court judge, concerning a claim launched against the firm by Catalyst Capital Group and dismissed by the judge last year. Black Cube, an Israeli intelligence company, reportedly worked for Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to gather information about women accusing him of sexual abuse. West Face, a Toronto-based alternative investment firm, said it is "appalled" by Black Cube's activities in relation to the Catalyst claim, which alleged that West Face misused confidential data when buying a stake in Wind Mobile Corp in 2014.
2 min read · 30 November 2017
Private equity-backed Canadian waste management company GFL Environmental Inc is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion in an initial public offering that could be filed as early as the first quarter, sources told Reuters. A $1 billion IPO would be the biggest Canadian listing since Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd raised $1.7 billion early this year, and would value GFL at nearly $5 billion, the sources said. It would provide an exit for investors including U.S. private equity firm HPS Investment Partners and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III, a fund linked to a unit of Australian financial services firm Macquarie Group. While an IPO is one of several ways to unlock value, no decision has been made to proceed with an offering, GFL General Counsel Joy Grahek said. GFL is also backed by Canadian private equity firm Hawthorn Equity Partners.
2 min read · 29 November 2017
BDC Capital has earmarked $900 million for deals backing ownership changes in Canadian small businesses. The initiative is part of the $1.8 billion in fresh funding supplied to BDC Capital's Growth and Transition Capital (GTC) division, announced last April, for mostly mezzanine debt and growth equity financings. The new allocation will support business successions through management buyouts, acquisitions and dividend-recaps. Senior Vice President Patrick Latour said GTC has financed 53 deals valued at $142 million since April. Last month, it provided funding to Fuller Industrial Corp to support the company's acquisition of ACR Group Inc.
3 min read · 29 November 2017
