Kirk Falconer

Canadian private equity firm KERN Partners has launched its fourth energy-focused partnership, KERN Energy Partners IV Fund (KEP IV), peHUB sister site peHUB Canada has exclusively learned.

Travel almost anywhere in North American PE circles and you’ll encounter people who know and speak highly of Rod Senft, founder and managing director of Tricor Pacific Capital. Now his son Derek is making a name for himself at Pender West Capital.

Canadian private equity firm KERN Partners has launched its fourth energy-focused partnership, KERN Energy Partners IV Fund (KEP IV), peHUB Canada has exclusively learned. In early July, KEP IV, which is targeted to raise $750 million, completed a first close for an unspecified amount anchored by existing LPs in prior KERN funds. KEP IV has also made its premiere platform investment, backing Steelhead LNG, a Vancouver company focused on liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects that recently announced plans for building a $30 billion LNG export facility on Canada's West Coast.

Travel almost anywhere in North American PE circles and you’ll encounter people who know and speak highly of Rod Senft, founder and managing director of Canadian mid-market private equity firm Tricor Pacific Capital. If you don’t already know Derek Senft, the second of three Senft family siblings, odds are that you will very soon. He is vice president of Pender West Capital Partners, a family office that invests in small and medium-sized companies in Canada and the western United States.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has been named the world's biggest private equity investor by Private Equity International's PEI LP50. CPPIB received the ranking with an 18 percent allocation to private equity and US$26.2 billion committed to or invested in opportunities over the past five years. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also placed in the report's top ten, while British Columbia Investment Management Corp (bcIMC) was ranked 32nd on the list.

Canadian private equity firm Auxo Management has completed a minority equity recapitalization of its portfolio company UCIT Online Security, a Mississauga, Ontario-based provider of tailored solutions for security installations, system maintenance and video monitoring. The deal involved a new investment by U.S. private equity firm Egis Capital Partners, which targets opportunities in security and homeland defense sectors. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. Auxo, which invested in UCIT in 2011, said the recapitalization is the first exit of a Canadian search fund. Torys LLP's Michael Akkawi and Sophia Tolias recently discussed the rise of search funds in the domestic market in a feature article for peHUB Canada.

Medicure Inc TSXV: MPH) has bought a minority interest in Apicore, a private developer and manufacturer of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients. The acquisition was made through a US$22.5 million deal involving U.S. private equity firm Signet Healthcare Partners, which provided an equity investment, and Knight Therapeutics Inc and Sanders Morris Harris Inc, which provided debt financing. Under the terms of the deal, Medicure received an option to acquire all of the remaining shares of Apicore within the next three years. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Medicure is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel small molecule therapeutics.

Longview Solutions Inc, a Toronto-based provider of corporate performance management and tax provisioning software, has been acquired by U.S. private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners. The seller in the undisclosed transaction was Dutch software company Exact Holding N.V., which bought Longview in 2007 for US$51.5 million. Prior to 2007, the company had been a portfolio investment of U.S. venture capital firm Edison Ventures, Canadian specialty finance firm Wellington Financial and other investors. Marlin said it plans to accelerate and strengthen Longview's product portfolio through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

Canadian mid-market private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners has agreed to purchase the retail home medical operations of Centric Health Corp for $50 million. The deal is expected to close in August. Doing business under the brand names MEDIchair and Motion Specialties, the operations to be acquired focus on the sale of home accessibility equipment, mobility devices and home medical supplies through a network of 47 franchised and 30 corporate stores. Birch Hill partner Thecla Sweeney said the firm will help position MEDIchair and Motion "to thrive in a fast growing industry." Based in Toronto, Birch Hill has $2 billion in capital under management.

Canadian private equity firm Tricor Pacific Capital has closed its fifth partnership, Tricor Pacific Capital Partners Fund V, raising capital commitments totaling $345 million. Fund V will invest in North American lower mid-market deal opportunities, and such industries as specialty manufacturing, business services and value-added distribution. Founded in 1996, Tricor is based in Vancouver and has an office in Chicago. Since inception, it has led the acquisition of 68 companies with more than $1 billion in investor capital. In February, the firm completed several portfolio exits, including the sale of Golden Boy Foods Ltd, a private label peanut butter maker, to Post Holdings Inc for $320 million.