Private Equity
Canadian energy infrastructure company AltaGas Ltd (TSX: ALA) has agreed to acquire WGL Holdings Inc (NYSE: WGL), the U.S. parent of natural-gas utility Washington Gas Light Co, in a deal valued at $8.4 billion. The acquisition, which is expected to close by Q2 2018, will be funded in part by a private placement transaction involving the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). The OMERS investment will generate gross proceeds of about $400 million. Calgary's AltaGas said the acquisition of WGL, which will continue to reside in Washington, D.C., will give it growth opportunities in the midstream, power and utilities markets.
5 min read · 26 January 2017
Emerald Expositions LLC, the largest operator of business-to-business trade shows in the United States, is exploring a sale that could value the company at close to US$2 billion, including debt, sources told Reuters. Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, which acquired Emerald for US$950 million in 2013, has hired Bank of America Corp to run an auction for Emerald, the sources said. Onex may pursue an initial public offering of Emerald if it is not satisfied with the acquisition offers it receives.
2 min read · 26 January 2017
Performance Sports Group Ltd said it would seek approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court for the sale of its assets to Power Corp's Sagard Capital Partners LP and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, after it failed to attract other bids, Reuters reported. Sagard, Performance's biggest shareholder, and Fairfax had agreed in October to act as "stalking horse" bidders to buy most of the Bauer ice hockey gear maker's assets and its North American units for US$575 million. The former chairman of Performance was in talks with U.S. and Canadian private equity firms about submitting a bid for the company.
2 min read · 26 January 2017
Judges in Delaware and Canada have approved a plan to pay more than US$7 billion to creditors of Nortel Networks Ltd, ending years of litigation over the former telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009, Reuters reported. Ottawa-based Nortel was once among the biggest makers of telecom equipment in the world, with a market capitalization of US$250 billion at the height of the 1990s technology bubble. Some of the biggest bondholders include George Soros' investment vehicle Quantum Partners LP and Elliott Management Corp.
3 min read · 25 January 2017
The OECD recently released a discussion draft entitled the “BEPS Action 6 Discussion Draft on non-CIV examples” to clarify when investors like private equity funds should be entitled to tax treaty benefits. In a PE Hub Canada feature article, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Partners Patrick Marley and Matias Milet argue the document does little to dispel uncertainty about the application of rules governing transactions involving PE investors. This, they say, may adversely impact cross-border investment.
5 min read · 24 January 2017
Northern Investment Partners, a Montréal private equity firm focused on real estate technology, has partnered with M Capital Group (MCG) to invest in Canada's wholesale data centre sector. The partnership plans to invest up to $160 million to pursue a strategy that will provide facilities for AA and AAA tenants to house their IT infrastructure. Northern Chairman Roger Karam said Canada is poised to capture an increasing share of the global data centre industry, which is currently valued at more than US$14 billion. Dubai-based MCG is a merchant banking firm.
3 min read · 24 January 2017
Brazil's Cyrela Commercial Properties SA is in talks with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for a potential asset swap and joint ventures to invest up to US$400 million in new commercial office space, Reuters reported. Cyrela said in a securities filing that it had signed a non-binding agreement regarding the transfer of a 33 percent equity stake in its office buildings in exchange for CPPIB's 25 percent stake in Cyrela's warehouse business. The deal underscores investors' hopes that falling interest rates will trigger a new round of investment in Brazil's beleaguered commercial real estate sector.
2 min read · 24 January 2017
Northleaf Capital Partners has closed its second OECD-focused pooled infrastructure fund, Northleaf Infrastructure Capital Partners II (NICP II), at its $950 million hard-cap target. NICP II, which was launched in 2015, will focus on direct investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in developed markets. The fund has already made its first two investments: a portfolio of U.K. bulk liquid storage assets and a portfolio of U.S. wind and solar assets. It also recently agreed to acquire a stake in Northwest Parkway, a Denver, Colorado highway system. The $2.5 billion infrastructure program of Northleaf, a Canadian private-markets investor, operates from offices in Toronto and London.
3 min read · 24 January 2017
Fortress Bioenergy Ltd, a subsidiary of Fortress Paper Ltd (TSX: FTP), has entered into an agreement with IAM Infrastructure Private Debt Fund LP to receive a $40 million secured loan. Fortress, a Canadian producer of specialty pulp and security papers products, said the loan's proceeds will be used to repay convertible debentures, among other things. IAM Infrastructure Private Debt Fund LP is managed by IAM Private Debt Group, a division of Toronto-based Integrated Asset Management Corp. The fund raised $347 million last September.
3 min read · 23 January 2017
Canada is not the main target of U.S. President Donald Trump's push to renegotiate the NAFTA trade accord and is unlikely to be hit hard by any changes to the deal, Reuters reported, quoting the head of a business advisory council to Trump. "Canada is very well-positioned for any discussions with the United States," Stephen Schwarzman, named by Trump to a lead a forum that includes a variety of major U.S. corporations to advise on job creation, said. Schwarzman, who is CEO of U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, added that the risk of Canada suffering collateral damage from the NAFTA talks was low.
2 min read · 23 January 2017
