CSC ServiceWorks Inc, one of the largest U.S. vendors of coin-operated laundry machines, is exploring a sale that could value the private equity-owned company in excess of US$3 billion, including debt, sources told Reuters. CSC’s owners, Pamplona Capital Management LLP and Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, have hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to run an auction for CSC, the sources said. Headquartered in Plainview, New York, CSC provides Coinmach laundry machines for apartment communities, co-ops, condos, military housing and public housing properties.
TorQuest Partners has sold yarn business Spinrite, capping an especially busy season of exits and acquisitions for the private equity firm. The Toronto investor this week announced the sale of its majority interest in Spinrite, North America’s largest consumer craft yarn maker, to Comvest Partners. Terms weren’t disclosed. Based in Listowel, Ontario, Spinrite produces tens of millions of yarn balls annually for a growing population of knitters and crocheters.
Selldown of the jumbo US$13.5 billion financing backing Blackstone Group’s US$20 billion buy of a 55 percent stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial and Risk unit is under way, sources told Reuters. A US$8 billion-equivalent Term Loan B is being shown to large institutional investors before an expected September launch, and a US$5.5 billion bridge loan to high-yield bond issues has also been launched. The US$13.5 billion financing, led by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, is the largest buyout financing since the financial crisis.
Canada's Hudson’s Bay Co is in discussions with Austrian property and retail group Signa Holding GmbH about a joint venture for its German retail chain Kaufhof, sources told Reuters. The joint ventures calls for Signa’s department store operator Karstadt to acquire half of Kaufhof’s property company, and 51 percent of its operating company, with the option to buy the rest at a later date. Hudson’s Bay rejected Signa’s 3 billion euro bid (US$3.7 billion) for Kaufhof earlier in 2018.
Activist investor Land & Buildings this week resumed its criticism of Canadian department store owner Hudson’s Bay Co, urging it to correct its under-performance and extract value from its substantial real estate holdings, Reuters reported. The hedge fund agreed in December to cease public statements about the company until its shareholder meeting on June 12. Now, Land & Buildings founder Jonathan Litt is again pushing HBC to boost its share price, which is below the value of its assets following a run of earnings disappointments, and to monetize its prime property assets.
Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management launched a $685 million (US$515 million) bid for Australian retirement village owner Gateway Lifestyle Group this week, topping an earlier bid from Hometown America Corp and setting up a takeover tussle, Reuters reported. The North American pair are jostling for exposure to Australia’s wealthy and ageing population, as well as a real estate market that has until recently run strongly. Gateway shares hit their highest in a year in anticipation of a battle. Only Brookfield was granted due diligence.
Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Canada’s fourth largest pension system, is seeing the benefits of a three-year strategy that changed the way it invests in private equity and infrastructure, in part by doing more direct deals. PSP Investments last week issued its report for fiscal 2018, ended in March, which shows PE deployments of $4.4 billion last year. Of the total, more than half went to co-sponsorships and co-investments. The activity marks a third year of unprecedented PE outlays, totalling $9.9 billion since 2015.
Construction company Vinci has approached investors to launch a bid for part of French airport group Aéroports de Paris, the largest of France's planned state sell-offs, sources told Reuters. The deal would see France sell all or part of its stake of 50.63 percent in the group which runs airports outside Paris and has a market cap of 19.63 billion euros (US$22.78 billion). Sources said Vinci has approached pension funds to become partners, including including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Beauty-products brand Marc Anthony, backed by U.S. private equity firm TA Associates, has priced its recently filed initial public offering in Canada. The Toronto company expects to raise about $126 million of treasury proceeds by selling shares at $14 to $16 per unit. It also expects to secure about $116 million to $132 million in secondary proceeds. The greenshoe option, if fully exercised, will increase secondary proceeds, bringing the IPO's bring total to about $278 million. Marc Anthony is one of five Canadian PE-backed companies to announce or complete an IPO since January.
Brazil’s Vale this week unveiled a US$690 million financing to expand a Canadian nickel mine, agreeing to sell unmined cobalt from Voisey’s Bay as a booming electric vehicle market propels demand for the critical battery ingredient, Reuters reported. Vale said it would sell cobalt mined after 2021 as a by-product from the mine in the northern Labrador region to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp and Cobalt 27 Capital Corp in a so-called stream financing deal. Cobalt 27, a Toronto-based battery metals streaming and royalty company, is backed by Swiss mining private equity firm Pala Investments.