PE Deals

Canadian private equity firm TriWest Capital Partners has in partnership with company management made an undisclosed majority investment in Landmark Cinemas, a Calgary-based movie exhibition chain with theatres and screens in cities across Western Canada. Concurrent with the investment, TriWest financed the equity for the company's buy of Western Canadian and select Ontario theatres of Empire Theatres. TriWest senior managing director Cody Church said the Empire deal creates the second largest movie exhibition company in Canada and the tenth largest in North America. The Landmark investment closely follows several TriWest deals done in late 2013, including the acquisition of Source Energy Services, the acquisition of Colter Energy, and the acquisition of Triple M Housing. All of these investments we made by TriWest Capital Partners Fund IV, which closed in 2012.

Final bids for French construction and concessions firm Vinci's parking concession business are due by early February, in a deal expected to fetch around 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion), three people close to the deal told Reuters. Potential buyers who are expected to submit bids include private equity firms KKR, Charterhouse and Ardian, infrastructure fund Antin and Canadian pension funds Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the sources said. Vinci Park operates 2,600 parking-lot assets in 14 countries and posted 615 million euros in revenue in 2012. Analysts say the unit is profitable but exposed to the mature, slow-growing French market.

Canadian First Nation-owned River Cree Enterprises has received a bond issue from a group of Canadian and U.S. institutional investors. The bond issue, estimated by The Globe and Mail as totaling $200 million, has helped facilitate the Enoch Cree Nation's acquisition in partnership with River Cree Enterprises of sole ownership of  the Edmonton, Alberta-based River Cree Resort and Casino, buying out minority partner Paragon Gaming. Advice in connection with the acquisition and financing strategy was provided by investment banking firm Crosbie & Co, which confirmed that the bond issue attracted interest from investors that are active in alternative assets markets. The casino will be managed by gaming property operator Sonco Gaming Inc of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Torys LLP was one of the legal advisors on the deal.

Canadian industrial chemicals and services provider Chemtrade Logistics Income Fund (TSX: CHE.UN) has closed its previously announced buy of General Chemical Holding Co. The final cash purchase price is approximately US$900 million, which will be financed by Chemtrade through a mix of debt and equity. The acquisition, which Reuters first reported in Nov. 2013, adds significant size, scale and scope to Chemtrade's existing product and service platform, according to the company. The seller of the Parsippany, New Jersey-based chemicals and sulphuric acid manufactuer was U.S. private equity firm American Securities, which took General Chemical private in 2009 for US$673 million. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP acted as legal advisor to Chemtrade in the deal.

Aqua Terra Water Management LP, which was formed last year by U.S. private equity firm Bregal Partners, said Friday that it has acquired saltwater disposal assets from Canadian companies Ceiba Energy Services Inc and Phyllis Disposal Ltd. No financial terms were disclosed. Canaccord Genuity advised Aqua Terra on the deal. Update: The acquisition was made by Aqua Terra subsidiary Four Winds Energy Services Ltd, a Grande Prairie, Alberta-based operator of Class 1b and Class II water disposal facilities that was bought in Nov. 2013. Aqua Terra said the latest transaction marks its initial entry point into the Canadian Bakken and the heavy oil corridor around Lloydminster, Saskatchewan

Madison Dearborn Partners is investing $244 million to buy a majority of Ikaria, the latest example of a private equity firm using low equity.