Private Equity
BrightPath Early Learning Inc (TSX-V: BPE), a Canadian childcare provider, has agreed to be acquired by Busy Bees Holdings Ltd, a British childcare provider and portfolio company of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The deal will see a Busy Bees' affiliate buy all of the issued and outstanding common shares of BrightPath for about $145 million. Established in 2010 as Edleun, Calgary-based BrightPath currently operates 77 locations across Canada. Busy Bees, the U.K.'s largest nursery chain, was founded in 1983. Ontario Teachers' acquired the company in 2013 and pledged to support its global growth through the development of new locations and acquisitions.
5 min read · 23 May 2017
Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp has hired Laurence Goldberg as a managing director based in New York. In the new role, Goldberg will be responsible for leading the firm's investments in technology sectors. He joins Onex from Barclays Investment Bank, where he served as the global head of technology, media and telecommunications investment banking operations. He previously held similar executive positions at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse. As reported by PE Hub Canada, Onex recently launched fundraising for Onex Partners V at a US$6.5 billion target.
2 min read · 23 May 2017
Canadian private equity firm Novacap has invested in Mucci Farms, a Kingsville, Ontario grower, packer and shipper of greenhouse vegetables. No financial terms were released. Established in 1963, the family-operated Mucci grows its own produce and helps market more than 700 acres of produce from other growers across North America. The company also operates warehouse and distribution facilities in Ontario and Michigan. President Bert Mucci said the partnership with Novacap will allow Mucci to focus on operations and growth. Mucci is the latest deal of Novacap Industries, one of the investor's two sector-focused groups. Novacap Industries IV closed last year at $470 million.
3 min read · 23 May 2017
U.S. M&A standards continue to influence the Canadian market, but despite the general trend of convergence in the cross-border legal market, deal terms in the Canadian M&A market still tend to offer more protection to the buyer, particularly with respect to indemnification, write Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Partner Marc Kushner and Associates Michael Budabin McQuown and Jillian Mulroy. In a PE Hub Canada feature article, they argue that deal-makers in Canada can profit by keeping abreast of the latest developments and tactically applying the prevailing norms.
8 min read · 23 May 2017
Great-West Lifeco Inc (TSX: GWO) has agreed to acquire Financial Horizons Group, a Kitchener, Ontario-based managing general agency (MGA) that distributes life insurance and other products and services in Canada. No financial terms were released. Great-West, an insurance holding company affiliated with Canada's Power Financial Corp, said it will support Financial Horizons' consolidation strategy, which has resulted in the buy of 30 MGA businesses during the ownership of Genstar Capital, a U.S. private equity firm. Genstar, which holds a 72 percent stake in the company, invested in 2010. Financial Horizons will continue to be led by President and CEO John Hamilton.
4 min read · 19 May 2017
Alignvest Acquisition II Corp (AQY), a Canadian special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), has filed a final prospectus with most securities regulatory authorities in Canada for an initial public offering of class A restricted voting units. The filing included an adjustment in the IPO's target, from a prior $250 million to $350 million, which combined with permanent capital committed would give AQY about $460 million to invest. AQY is the second SPAC sponsored by Alignvest Management Corp, a Toronto alternative investment management firm. The first SPAC acquired Trilogy International Partners LLC earlier in 2017.
10 min read · 19 May 2017
Laurentian Bank of Canada (TSX: LB) has agreed to acquire Northpoint Commercial Finance, a U.S. inventory finance lender with a portfolio of about $1.2 billion. The deal, which Laurentian will fund with a $225 million equity financing and existing liquidity, is expected to close in fiscal 2017. In a separate release, the bank announced plans to raise funds to cover a portion of the acquisition, including a $25 million investment by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Laurentian said Northpoint will be a strategic fit with its own equipment finance subsidiary, LBC Capital.
5 min read · 19 May 2017
Pixelworks Inc (NASDAQ: PXLW) has agreed to acquire ViXS Systems Inc (TSX: VXS), a Toronto-based provider of media processing, encoding and transcoding solutions. The all-stock transaction is valued at about $28 million (US$20.2 million). Pixelworks, a U.S. visual processing solutions provider, said the deal will accelerate its development of end-to-end video streaming solutions. Founded in 2001, ViXS Systems was venture-backed before going public in 2013. The company's founding investor, Canadian venture capital firm Celtic House Venture Partners, remains a shareholder, as does New Enterprise Associates. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2017.
6 min read · 19 May 2017
FirePower Capital has completed the debut transactions of its new lending operation, backing a big-data SaaS company and a realty brokerage software platform. FirePower, a Toronto investment bank, launched its private capital division in late 2016. The unit oversees Gap Debt fund, earmarked for mezzanine financings of lower-mid-market companies. The fund was capitalized with an initial $100 million-plus by FirePower principals, high-net-worth investors and an unidentified U.S. strategic partner.
3 min read · 19 May 2017
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), one of the world's biggest infrastructure investors, is regularly losing out in bidding wars for such assets, as investors seek alternatives to low-yielding government bonds, Reuters reported, citing CPPIB's chief executive. CPPIB is one of the world's biggest investors in infrastructure such as roads, bridges and tunnels but its CEO Mark Machin said high valuations were making it harder to do deals in the current environment. "We are consistently outbid for assets around the world because they are really priced almost to perfection and there's an enormous amount of capital chasing infrastructure, particularly in developed markets," Machin said.
2 min read · 18 May 2017
