Private Equity
HICL Infrastructure, an infrastructure investment firm advised by InfraRed Capital Partners, has agreed to purchase a 99.9 percent interest in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 'E' Division headquarters project in Surrey, British Columbia. The acquisition is priced at about $53 million. The property is being sold by a fund affiliate of InfraRed, a London-based infrastructure and real estate investor, and requires shareholders' approval. The deal is HICL's third in Canada.
4 min read · 17 July 2015
Pension fund manager British Columbia Investment Management Corp (bcIMC) reported a net 14.2 percent annual combined return for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015. Driven chiefly by results from public equity and real estate investments, its performance exceeded a combined benchmark of 12.6 percent. Net assets managed by bcIMC increased to $123.6 billion in fiscal 2015, up $13.2 billion from the year before. Private equity, which accounts for 4.8 percent of assets, outperformed its one-year benchmark with an 18 percent return. Other alternative asset portfolios, including infrastructure, also outperformed.
3 min read · 17 July 2015
ACCEO Solutions Inc has bought the Canadian and U.S. assets of Gemmar Systems International Inc (GSI) for an undisclosed price. GSI, a Dorval, Québec-based provider of retail management technology solutions, is ACCEO's third acquisition in recent weeks. Earlier in July it purchased Julo LLC, a provider of recreational facilities and services, and in June it purchased Multipost Ltd, a developer of point-of-sale terminal software for retailers. With headquarters in Montréal, ACCEO is a business software specialist. It is backed by Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins, Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Investissement Québec.
3 min read · 16 July 2015
Daryl Gilbert, a managing director at Canadian energy private equity firm JOG Capital, has been appointed to the board of directors of Whitecap Resources Inc (TSX: WCP). Gilbert, who joined JOG in 2008, previously worked at Canadian petroleum engineering company GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd. Based in Calgary, Whitecap is focused on the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids in Western Canada.
2 min read · 16 July 2015
Matt Price (pictured) has been appointed a managing director in the Growth and Transition Capital (GTC) division of BDC Capital, effective August 10th. Price, who before joining GTC's Ottawa office in 2013 worked in the investment banking group at Scotiabank, will be based in Vancouver. He will focus on growing GTC's investment portfolio in British Columbia and Northern Canada. GTC was profiled by peHUB Canada last November.
1 min read · 16 July 2015
Sleep Country Canada Holdings Inc has completed its previously announced initial public offering. It raised total gross proceeds of over $300 million and may yet raise up to $345 million as a result of an additional purchase option granted to underwriters. The company's shares will begin trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “ZZZ”. The Toronto-based specialty mattress retailer was taken private by Canadian private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners and other investors in a $356 million deal in 2008. Another Birch Hill portfolio investment, Shred-it International Inc, also had plans to go public, but the company has instead agreed to be acquired by Stericycle Inc for US$2.3 billion.
4 min read · 16 July 2015
Ethoca has raised US$45 million in a minority growth investment led by U.S. private equity firm Spectrum Equity. Based in Toronto, Ethoca is a provider of technology solutions that help credit card issuers and online merchants increase card acceptance and prevent e-commerce fraud. Founded in 2005, the company also has offices in Austin, Texas, London and Dublin. Ethoca, which more than tripled its revenue in 2014, said it plans to use the partnership with Spectrum to accelerate the next phase of its global expansion and deliver new collaboration-based services. Last year, Spectrum invested in Canadian financial security startup Verafin, which is also backed by Information Venture Partners.
5 min read · 16 July 2015
Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ: SRCL), a U.S. waste disposal business, has agreed to buy Shred-it International Inc, a Canadian provider of secure information destruction services to more than 400,000 customers, for US$2.3 billion in cash. Stericycle said the deal is expected to add at least 10 percent to cash earnings per share by 2016, rising to the mid-to-high teens in 2018. Based in Oakville, Ontario, Shred-it has been a portfolio company of Canadian private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners and other investors since 2009. As reported by peHUB Canada, the company filed for an initial public offering in June, and recently priced it to raise about $600 million. With the acquisition's close, expected in Q4 2015, Shred-it's management team will join Stericycle, the company said.
6 min read · 15 July 2015
Kaizena, a Canadian technology platform that allows students to obtain feedback on their work, has secured $900,000 in seed-stage funding. The company was backed by U.S. venture capital firm NewSchools Seed Fund, Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Asian businessman Li Ka-shing, and a number of angel investors, including LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. Kaizena, which has been supported in its growth by the University of Waterloo's Velocity Garage, plans to use the proceeds of its investment to improve the speed and quality of its feedback loop.
5 min read · 15 July 2015
A Brazilian court approved a debtor-in-possession loan to engineering firm OAS SA, the company said, after it earlier this year filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of a corruption investigation that shut its access to refinancing, Reuters reported. Brookfield Asset Management will extend the US$254 million loan to OAS, which will set aside a 24.4 percent stake it owns in infrastructure company Invepar as collateral.
2 min read · 15 July 2015
