Private Equity
Penfund, one of Canada’s oldest private equity firms, has wrapped up its fifth mid-market fund, raising $724 million in committed capital with the help of an expanded investor base. Penfund Capital Fund V shot past its original goal of $525 million earlier this year. Last week it was closed above its hard-cap target of $700 million. The fund is the largest in Penfund’s 37-year history, exceeding by 57 percent the $460 million secured by its predecessor in 2012.
3 min read · 02 October 2016
Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp has closed its previously announced investment in WireCo WorldGroup, a Prairie Village, Kansas-based maker of mission-critical steel wire rope, synthetic rope, specialty wire and engineered products. Onex Partners IV invested US$270 million to acquire a majority interest in the company. Paine & Partners, which acquired WireCo in February 2007, will retain a minority stake alongside senior management.
2 min read · 30 September 2016
OMERS Private Equity and Harvest Partners have closed their take-private acquisition of Epiq Systems Inc, a Kansas City, Kansas-based provider of technology and services to the legal profession. Announced in July, the deal was valued at about US$1 billion. As a result, Epiq has been merged with DTI, a U.S. legal processing outsourcing company backed by OMERS since August 2014. The combined business, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, will have more than 100 locations around the world.
3 min read · 30 September 2016
Beothuk Energy Inc has partnered with Danish infrastructure investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) to develop, own and operate offshore wind farms supplying power to Atlantic Canada. The first project will be the 180 megawatt St. George's Bay wind farm in Newfoundland, which has been under development since 2011. Beothuk and CIP will fund additional development, while CIP will invest in the asset's construction. No financial terms were disclosed. Once fully operational, St. George's will be Canada's first offshore wind farm, St. John's-based Beothuk said.
3 min read · 29 September 2016
Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp has made the best acquisition offer in an auction for Save-A-Lot, the discount grocery U.S. retail chain that Supervalu Inc has been considering divesting, sources told Reuters. The price that Onex is offering could not be learned, but sources have previously indicated that Save-A-Lot could be valued at as much as US$1.8 billion. Supervalu, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, announced its intention to spin off Save-A-Lot a year ago. Reuters reported in December that Supervalu would consider an outright sale of Save-A-Lot after receiving interest from private equity firms.
2 min read · 29 September 2016
IAM Private Debt Group, a division of Integrated Asset Management Corp (TSX: IAM), has provided $15 million in financing to Biomont Energy LP. The loan will fund the construction and operation of a 4.8 megawatt cogeneration facility that will utilize landfill and natural gas to generate electricity and heat. The facility is located near Montréal's Saint Michel Environmental Complex landfill. The project's investors are Eolectric Inc, Valeco Énergie Québec Inc and Fondaction CSN, a Québec venture capital and private equity firm.
3 min read · 28 September 2016
Canadian private equity firm Penfund has provided an incremental US$9 million second lien term facility to Pediatric Services Holding Corp (PSA Healthcare), a provider of home nursing services to medically fragile children in the United States. The proceeds of the investment were used to support PSA's buy of Professional Pediatric Home Care. To date, Atlanta, Georgia-based PSA has secured US$53.5 million in debt and equity financing from Penfund, including a second lien term facility announced in February. The company is a portfolio investment of U.S. private equity firm J.H. Whitney Capital Partners, which acquired it in early 2015.
3 min read · 28 September 2016
SKY Aviation Leasing International Ltd, a Dublin, Ireland-based full-service aircraft leasing company, has closed a US$750 million warehouse debt financing facility. About half of the facility is expected to be drawn to finance aircraft currently owned or soon to be acquired by the company. The rest of the facility will be use to finance additional aircraft acquisitions. SKY Leasing is owned by U.S. private equity firm ATL Partners and Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). ATL and PSP invested more than US$250 million in the company's launch last October.
2 min read · 28 September 2016
IAM Private Debt Group has closed its Infrastructure Private Debt Fund at $347 million in committed capital. The fund, backed by institutional investors, will make loans with terms of up to 25 years. It will build on the group's prior financings of toll bridges, wind farms, solar energy, biomass and cogeneration facilities, and municipal waste treatment assets across Canada. The private debt group, a division of Toronto-based Integrated Asset Management Corp (TSX: IAM), raised $672 million for its fifth mid-market fund, Integrated Private Debt Fund V, last November.
2 min read · 28 September 2016
U.S. private equity firm Thoma Bravo has closed its acquisition of Trader Corp, a Canadian digital automotive marketplace and software solutions provider. The deal, announced in July, was valued at about $1.57 billion (US$1.22 billion). The seller was British private equity firm Apax Partners, which held the Etobicoke, Ontario-based company for close to five years. Holden Spaht, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo, said the firm will focus on further development of Trader and support its future growth initiatives.
3 min read · 28 September 2016
