IPOs

Wood pellets producer Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc, owned by Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, wants to raise about $175 million (US$136 million) through a Toronto initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters this week. A successful deal would make it the second-biggest renewable energy IPO in Canada after TransAlta Renewables Inc raised $221 million in 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data. Onex has hired CIBC as the lead underwriter for the IPO, the sources said. ONCAP, a unit of Canadian buyout firm Onex that focuses on the middle market, acquired a majority stake in Richmond, British Columbia-based Pinnacle in May 2011 for $71 million.

Canada’s market for initial public offerings came roaring back this year from a dismal 2016, due in no small part to new issues backed by private equity and venture capital funds. This year “was a breakthrough year in the IPO market, one of the best of the past decade,” Dean Braunsteiner, national IPO services leader at PwC Canada, told PE Hub Canada. Braunsteiner gives some of the credit to PE and VC funds investing in the wake of the 2007-2009 recession and now on the lookout for liquidity opportunities. This trend, combined with pent-up demand and rising share prices late last year, created a “perfect storm,” he said. Taken together, a dozen Canadian PE- and venture-backed IPOs collected $2.3 billion in 2017.

Neo Performance Materials Inc, an advanced materials supplier, has closed its initial public offering in Canada. The company raised gross proceeds of more than $200 million, all of which will go to its majority owner, U.S. distressed investor Oaktree Capital Management. The amount raised may increase to $230 million if the offering's greenshoe option is fully exercised. Toronto-based Neo Performance, which emerged from bankruptcy last year, will commence trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "NEO". The company originally priced its IPO to raise as much as $345 million.

Neo Performance Materials Inc, an advanced materials producer, has revised its recently filed initial public offering in Canada. The company, owned by U.S. distressed investor Oaktree Capital Management, said it will sell up to 12.8 million shares at $18 per unit, generating as much as $230 million in gross proceeds. It originally priced the offering, expected to close on December 8, to raise as much as $345 million. As reported by PE Hub Canada, Oaktree took control of Neo Performance when the Toronto-based company emerged from bankruptcy in 2016. The investor will account for all of the IPO's proceeds.

Private equity-backed Canadian waste management company GFL Environmental Inc is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion in an initial public offering that could be filed as early as the first quarter, sources told Reuters. A $1 billion IPO would be the biggest Canadian listing since Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd raised $1.7 billion early this year, and would value GFL at nearly $5 billion, the sources said. It would provide an exit for investors including U.S. private equity firm HPS Investment Partners and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners III, a fund linked to a unit of Australian financial services firm Macquarie Group. While an IPO is one of several ways to unlock value, no decision has been made to proceed with an offering, GFL General Counsel Joy Grahek said. GFL is also backed by Canadian private equity firm Hawthorn Equity Partners.