Reuters News
Thomson Reuters Corp has completed the sale of a majority stake in its Financial & Risk (F&R) unit to U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, Reuters reported. The news and information provider agreed in January to sell a 55-percent stake in the business, which provides data and news primarily to financial customers, in a deal which values the total F&R business, now called Refinitiv, at about US$20 billion. It gives Thomson Reuters, controlled by Canada’s Thomson family, an ally as it seeks to reinvigorate a business facing challenges from a shrinking and budget-conscious customer base. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and GIC invested in the deal alongside Blackstone.
SIG Combibloc priced its initial public offering at 11.25 Swiss francs per share in a deal that raises 1.49 billion francs (US$1.53 billion) before an overallotment option and values the Swiss packaging maker at around 3.6 billion francs, it said before its market debut on Friday. As well as new shares being issued to reduce debt, Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, majority owner of the drinks packaging company since 2015, and SIG management are also selling some of their existing holdings. The offer price, which Reuters had reported on Thursday, was towards the lower end of the 11 to 12 franc price range the company had flagged this week.
Canadian food retailer Empire Co Ltd has agreed to acquire privately held grocer Farm Boy Inc for an enterprise value of $800 million to increase its presence in Ontario, Reuters reported. Ottawa-based Farm Boy, which specializes in “farm-to-table” wholesale, will be acquired from Berkshire Partners, following which it will be set up as a separate company within Empire’s structure. “It will be a growth vehicle in urban and suburban markets,” Empire CEO Michael Medline said, adding that he expected Ebitda to double in five years. Berkshire, a Boston private equity firm, invested in Farm Boy in 2012.
Distressed investor Marble Ridge Capital LP said in a letter to Neiman Marcus Group Ltd LLC that the U.S. luxury department store company may be in default on its debt after it moved its Mytheresa business into an entity belonging to the retailer’s private equity owners, Reuters reported. Buyout firm Ares Management LP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) acquired Neiman Marcus for US$6 billion in 2013, saddling the retailer with about US$4.7 billion in debt. Neiman Marcus said this week it moved the Mytheresa online business to an entity owned by Ares and CPPIB.
Privately owned investment firm JAB Holding Co, best known for stirring up the coffee industry with a string of deals, sees huge opportunities for acquisitions in the market for non-alcoholic beverages, one of its senior partners said in an interview with Germany’s Manager Magazin published on Thursday.
Hillhouse Capital, an investor in top Chinese technology firms including Tencent (0700.HK) and Baidu (BIDU.O), has closed its latest funding round at $10.6 billion, it said, making it the region’s biggest private equity capital raising, Reuters reported.
China’s HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] is in talks with banks to find a buyer for its CWT logistics unit, nine months after it acquired the Singaporean business in a $1 billion deal, several people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Toshiba Corp is in talks with Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management for the potential sale of its U.K. nuclear unit NuGen, a source told Reuters. Brookfield has emerged as one of several new candidates since Korea Electric Power Corp lost its preferred bidder status in July, the source said. The NuGen project in Moorside, northwest England, was expected to provide around 7 percent of Britain’s electricity, but faced setbacks after Toshiba’s nuclear arm Westinghouse Electric Co LLC went bankrupt last year. Brookfield's private equity group acquired Westinghouse earlier in 2018 for US$4.6 billion.
Shares in Danish jeweler Pandora (PNDORA.CO) jumped as much as 10 percent on Tuesday following a media report that private equity funds are studying a potential takeover bid, Reuters reported.
The term loan financing backing U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group’s purchase of a 55 percent stake in Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters’ Financial and Risk division, has been increased to US$9.25 billion from US$8 billion and the high-yield bonds have been reduced, Reuters reported. A strong response from the loan market, particularly from the United States, also allowed pricing to be cut, and relatively minor investor-friendly changes to be made to the documents. The successful conclusion of the jumbo new-money loan is expected to set a positive tone for the market until the end of the year, bankers said.