Reuters News
Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons is pushing into China with plans to open 1,500 outlets in the world’s second largest economy over the next 10 years, Reuters reported. Restaurant Brands International Inc, which owns Tim Hortons as well as Burger King chains, said its Chinese restaurants will be opened under a master franchise joint venture with U.S. private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group. “China’s population and vibrant economy represent an excellent growth opportunity for Tim Hortons in the coming years,” President Alex Macedo said in a statement.
Australian retirement village owner Gateway Lifestyle Group has rejected Hometown America’s revised takeover bid offering A$695 million (US$514 million) in cash, saying it was not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders, Reuters reported. The revised offer had come after Gateway agreed to grant an exclusive due diligence to Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, which made a non-binding A$2.30-a-share offer for Gateway on June 21, trumping an earlier offer from Hometown.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Silicon Valley-based investor TCV are buying a stake in Sportradar, valuing the Swiss sports data group at 2.1 billion euros (US$2.5 billion), including debt, Reuters reported. Founder and Chief Executive Carsten Koerl will retain his majority stake in Sportradar, while CPPIB and TCV are buying a 37 percent stake from buyout group EQT as well additional shares from other minority investors. CPPIB and TCV won out in the auction against buyout groups KKR and Blackstone Group, sources said.
Rising pricing is creating a more challenging environment for large US buyout loans that were underwritten earlier this year, including a US$13.5bn loan and bond financing for Thomson Reuters Finance and Risk (F&R) unit and an US$8.05bn financing for physician services provider Envision Healthcare.
Public listing preparations of state-run Saudi Aramco have stalled, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Canadian mergers-and-acquisitions activity edged lower in the first half of 2018, weighed by trade uncertainty, investment bankers and lawyers said, in contrast to a surge in global dealmaking, Reuters reported. Year-to-date deal volume slipped 2.3 percent to US$130.3 billion ($171 million) from US$133.3 billion in the same period last year, according to data released by Thomson Reuters this week. Factors weighing on market sentiment include fears of a trade war between the United States and other countries, as well as a lack of a resolution of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Hudson’s Bay Co has agreed to sell about half of its European business to Austria’s Signa Holding in a deal that will bring together two German department store chains, Reuters reported, citing media stories. A joint venture will be created consisting of Kaufhof, the German chain owned by Canada's Hudson’s Bay, and Karstadt, which is owned by Signa, one story said. The Wall Street Journal said Hudson’s Bay would receive 1.1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) from Signa as part of the deal, while Signa will assume 750 million in debt.
Enbridge Inc said this week it would sell its Canadian natural gas gathering and processing business to Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and its institutional partners for about $4.31 billion, as part of a move to recast itself as a pipeline utility, Reuters reported. The business includes 19 natural gas processing plants and liquids handling facilities and is spread across Montney, Peace River Arch, Horn River and Liard basins in British Columbia and Alberta. Calgary-based Enbridge has been under pressure to sell non-core assets and reduce its debt.
CSC ServiceWorks Inc, one of the largest U.S. vendors of coin-operated laundry machines, is exploring a sale that could value the private equity-owned company in excess of US$3 billion, including debt, sources told Reuters. CSC’s owners, Pamplona Capital Management LLP and Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, have hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to run an auction for CSC, the sources said. Headquartered in Plainview, New York, CSC provides Coinmach laundry machines for apartment communities, co-ops, condos, military housing and public housing properties.
Selldown of the jumbo US$13.5 billion financing backing Blackstone Group’s US$20 billion buy of a 55 percent stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial and Risk unit is under way, sources told Reuters. A US$8 billion-equivalent Term Loan B is being shown to large institutional investors before an expected September launch, and a US$5.5 billion bridge loan to high-yield bond issues has also been launched. The US$13.5 billion financing, led by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, is the largest buyout financing since the financial crisis.