Reuters News

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) could benefit from trade tensions between the United States and China by buying Chinese assets at knock-down prices, Reuters reported, citing comments made by CEO Mark Machin. CPPIB, one of the world’s biggest investors in real estate and infrastructure, has 8 percent of its funds invested in China and has said it expects to increase that number significantly in the next few years. “The thing for us is to be patient and look for good opportunities that are arising as a result of market stress and economic stress,” Machin said. “I think we’ll find very interesting opportunities in China over time as this continues.”

Rival consortia led by U.S. buyout fund KKR and Germany’s insurer Allianz are among the four main contenders for a stake in the fibre network business of Dutch-based telecom company Altice, sources told Reuters. Altice is selling a stake of between 40 and 60 percent in its fibre network business, a deal that could be worth up to 3.6 billion euros (US$4.11 billion). The two other bidding groups are led by Australian investment firm Macquarie and U.S. infrastructure fund I Squared Capital. Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has teamed up with Allianz while Singapore’s GIC has joined forces with I Squared, one of the sources said.

Thomson Reuters Corp is looking to make “substantive” acquisitions to boost its legal and tax units after selling a majority stake in its financial terminal business, CEO Jim Smith said. The news and information provider has set aside US$2 billion for deals, Smith told Reuters in an interview, after raising US$17 billion from selling 55 percent of its Financial & Risk (F&R) unit to U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group. “We are interested in bigger, more substantive deals,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t expect a string of small, bolt-on acquisitions. We’d rather spend that $2 billion on a handful of deals rather than spread across a couple of dozen.”

Specialist mining investors have found a “buyer’s market” for projects as the mining sector struggles to compete for funding with new industries, Reuters reported, citing industry executives at a conference this week. Smaller mines and developers who previously found capital through retail investors in public markets are increasingly turning to specialist investors such as private equity or companies that seek returns in mining royalties, the executives said. Mines need to replenish their supplies and expand while developers are desperate for funding to better quantify what they have found underground.

TIG Advisors this week said it has bought a piece of Canadian mortgage investor Romspen Investment Corp, marking the first time it has taken a stake in another hedge fund, Reuters reported. Romspen, a Toronto-based credit manager, invests $2.5 billion in assets, providing first mortgage bridge lending to commercial real estate projects in North America. Romspen’s management team, led by Mark Hilson and Wes Roitman, will continue to run the firm. New York-based TIG, founded nearly 40 years ago by Carl Tiedemann, oversees roughly US$3 billion in assets and plans on making more investments in other alternative managers.

Apollo Global Management LLC is in advanced negotiations to acquire U.S. aluminum products maker Arconic Inc for more than US$11 billion, sources told Reuters. Apollo could reach a deal with Arconic as early as next week after a competing buyout consortium comprising Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Onex Corp and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board indicated it may need three more weeks to complete due diligence on the company, the sources said. A transaction would come after U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of aluminum tariffs this year drove up some costs for Arconic, which makes aluminum components for cars and airplanes.

Johnson Controls International Plc is nearing a deal to sell its power solutions business, which makes car batteries, to Brookfield Asset Management for between US$13 billion and US$14 billion, sources told Reuters. The transaction would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts this year and allow Johnson Controls to focus on its building technologies and solutions business. Brookfield, a Canadian investment firm, outbid buyout firm Apollo Global Management LLC in an auction for the power solutions unit, the sources said. Brookfield and Johnson Controls could finalize the terms of a deal for the unit, whose batteries are used in about a third of cars globally, as early as this week.

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp is considering liquidating its U.K. nuclear unit NuGen, sources told Reuters, leaving Britain to seek alternatives for a project that was meant to provide 7 percent of the country’s electricity. The move comes as Toshiba believes talks to sell the unit have dragged on too long, the sources said. Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) was initially the preferred bidder, but lost that status in July. Toshiba then negotiated with Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, but the talks fell through. The NuGen project in Moorside, northwest England, faced setbacks after Toshiba’s nuclear arm Westinghouse went bankrupt last year.

Australian private equity firm BGH Capital and its partners lobbed a second A$4.1 billion (US$2.9 billion) bid for hospital operator Healthscope Ltd, this time with a top shareholder’s support, Reuters reported. Healthscope rejected as too cheap an identically priced earlier offer from the BGH-led consortium, as well as a higher one from Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management, in May. BGH, which is partnering with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and others, said its repeated offer had the backing of No. 2 shareholder Ellerston Capital. Healthscope is Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator.