Tricor Pacific Founders Capital has become Founders Group of Food Companies as the Vancouver firm plans to take its North American food-sector strategy to the next level. Launched in 2014 by a group of senior private equity and industry pros, Founders has spent the past three-plus years investing its own capital in businesses focused on specialty seafood and meats, prepared foods, and edible gifts and confections. The rebranding marks a milestone in the firm's progress that includes creating a portfolio of “threshold size,” Partner Derek Senft told PE Hub Canada.
A joint venture formalized last week by one of Brazil’s largest conglomerates and a Canadian retirement fund plans to become a major renewable power generator in Brazil, mostly through acquisitions, Reuters reported. Brazil’s Votorantim Energia, controlled by privately-held Votorantim SA, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) last week closed a deal to form a 50-50 venture to invest in renewable energy in Brazil. Among the opportunities the JV is looking at are subsidiaries that Brazil’s state-controlled power company Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras SA plans to sell.
U.S. hedge fund Paulson & Co is set to name a group of activist investors that will work together to try to drive changes and better returns from gold mining companies after years of dismal industry performance, sources told Reuters. The Canadian gold-mining index has lost 40 percent of its value in the past decade, compared with a 9 percent gain in the benchmark TSX index and a 95 percent rise in the S&P 500. Gold has risen 46 percent in the same period. The alliance is unusual because there is no similar group of investors targeting a specific sector, activism experts say.
Leverage levels for buyouts are close to pre-credit crisis levels as banks are more willing to underwrite highly leveraged deals following the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s softened stance towards lending risk, Reuters reported. So far during Q2 2018, leverage for U.S. buyouts averages 6.57 times, the highest level since it reached 6.65 times during Q3 2014. Leverage at this level had not been seen before that since 2007, before the credit crisis hit when leverage on buyouts topped out at 6.8 times on average.
Canada’s biggest public pension funds could be long-term buyers of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd’s Trans Mountain pipeline but are unlikely to invest until the $7.4 billion project has been built, several sources told Reuters. Frank McKenna, Toronto-Dominion Bank’s deputy chairman, said he expected pension funds and private equity players to be interested in the asset as well as other pipeline or infrastructure players. “I think there will be a lot of private sector interest in this project once the political risk is taken out of it,” he said.
Tacora Resources, an iron ore mining and processing business backed by U.S. private equity firm Proterra Investment Partners, this week priced its recently filed initial public offering in Canada. The company is seeking to raise $125 million, the updated prospectus shows, an amount that could increase to $144 million if the IPO’s greenshoe option is fully exercised. Tacora will use the proceeds to help finance the restart of the Scully Mine in Wabush, Newfoundland and Labrador, which the company acquired last year.
Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada’s largest and fastest growing pension systems, is doing more direct deals as part of a strategy intended to transform its approach to private equity and infrastructure investing. Over two-plus years, PSP Investments has deployed billions of dollars to a series of global transactions, shining a light on the characteristically low-profile institution. One result has been growth in PE co-sponsorships and co-investments to “slightly above” half of portfolio assets today from 40 percent in 2015, Guthrie Stewart, PSP senior vice president and global head of private investments, told PE Hub Canada.
A consortium led by Swiss asset manager Partners Group Holding will buy Techem from Macquarie in a deal that values the German metering company at an enterprise value of 4.6 billion euros (US$5.4 billion), Reuters reported. The buyers include Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as well as Techem’s management team. They plan to further develop the company, which supplies energy invoicing and energy management in buildings, in existing markets and expand into new geographic markets.
Australian hospital group Healthscope Ltd rejected two takeover approaches this week and said it will instead explore selling its properties, in what analysts called a risky move that could invite a more favourable takeover bid, Reuters reported. The Melbourne-based company said both US$3 billion-plus offers, from Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management and jointly from local private equity firm BGH Capital and 14 percent shareholder AustralianSuper, were conditional and undervalued the business. Reuters last month reported Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan were partnering with BGH in its Healthscope bid.
Rampant corruption scandals and a deep recession soured many foreign investors on Brazil in recent years, but one Canadian group saw opportunity, Reuters reported. Brookfield Asset Management and its subsidiaries have made nearly a dozen major acquisitions there since 2013. The firms have spent about US$10 billion on energy, infrastructure and real estate assets few others would touch due to the legal, political and economic risks involved. "A crisis is a good time to find value," said a person close to the group, who called Brookfield a "contrarian investor."