Reuters News
Uber Technologies Inc has picked VMware Inc’s (VMW.N) Zane Rowe as the top candidate for chief financial officer to lead preparations for the ride-hailing company’s initial public offering in 2019, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
U.S. activist hedge fund Blue Harbour Group LP CEO Cliff Robbins told a conference in New York this week that Canadian business information management software company Open Text Corp could be acquired, Reuters reported. “There is potential for a strategic sale down the road,” Robbins said, adding that there has been significant consolidation in the software sector. Blue Harbour owns a 3.49 percent stake in Waterloo-based Open Text.
Westinghouse Electric, which filed for bankruptcy last year, is now “lean and mean and ready to get to work” on its projects to build nuclear reactors in India, U.S. energy secretary Rick Perry said this week. The show of support by Perry came after Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse’s bankruptcy filing had raised doubts about the proposed construction of six nuclear reactors in India’s Andhra Pradesh state. Westinghouse, owned by Japan’s Toshiba Corp which is to be bought by a unit of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of nuclear fuel and provides some form of service to 80 percent of the world’s 450 commercial reactors.
U.S. private equity firm Vista Equity Partners Management has agreed to merge two U.S. education technology companies it owns, PowerSchool and PeopleAdmin, with an investment from Canadian buyout firm Onex Corp, valuing the combined business at close to US$3 billion, including debt, sources told Reuters. The deal represents Onex’s biggest investment in the education software sector to date. Last year it hired Laurence Goldberg, a former head of Barclays Plc’s technology, media and telecom investing banking business, to find more such deals.
The Canadian government is looking into complaints that Restaurant Brands International Inc is not meeting the terms set out by Ottawa when it allowed the takeover of coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons, Reuters reported. Lawyers representing Tim Hortons franchisees sent a letter to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains this month alleging the company has not lived up to commitments including maintaining the rent and royalty structure of Canadian franchises. Restaurant Brands was formed in 2014 when 3G Capital-backed Burger King acquired Tim Hortons for $12.6 billion.
Gases groups Linde and Praxair have picked second-round bidders for a package of planned divestitures to facilitate their planned US$79 billion merger, sources told Reuters. The companies have invited buyout firm CVC Capital Partners, which has tied up with gases group Messer, to make further bids, as well as private equity investors Carlyle Group, Onex Corp and Blackstone Group, the sources said, adding that the investors are expected to bid for all assets on offer.
Macquarie picked three suitors for a final bidding round for the sale of German metering group Techem, which may be valued at around 4 billion euros (US$4.9 billion), sources told Reuters. A consortium comprising buyout firm CVC Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) as well as another group that includes Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Partners Group has prevailed in the auction, the sources said. Separately, buyout firm Silver Lake Partners is still competing for the asset.
European medical laboratory services operator Cerba Healthcare is raising an additional €408 million leveraged loan to back an acquisition of France-based clinical analysis specialist Groupe Bio7, banking sources told Reuters. Cerba announced that it had signed an exclusive agreement to buy Bio7 from French private equity firm Ardian last month. Cerba was last in Europe’s loan market in March 2017 when it raised a €794 million as part of a financing backing its acquisition by European private equity firm Partners Group and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments).
Swiss packaging maker SIG Combibloc is moving ahead with preparations for an autumn stock market listing in Zurich that could value it at about 4.5 billion euros (US$5.5 billion), sources told Reuters. Its Canadian private equity owner Onex Corp has hired Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Bank of America as global coordinators for the listing. Ahead of the listing, Onex will also sound out potential buyers for the beverage and food manufacturer it bought in 2015 from New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart in a deal valued at 3.75 billion euros (US$4.62 billion), one source said.
Leucadia National Corp (LUK.N), the parent of Jefferies Group LLC, said on Monday it would sell stakes in two non-financial companies for about $1.33 billion and reorganize its operations to focus on investment banking and advisory services.