Gases groups Linde and Praxair have picked second-round bidders for a package of planned divestitures to facilitate their planned US$79 billion merger, sources told Reuters. The companies have invited buyout firm CVC Capital Partners, which has tied up with gases group Messer, to make further bids, as well as private equity investors Carlyle Group, Onex Corp and Blackstone Group, the sources said, adding that the investors are expected to bid for all assets on offer.
Macquarie picked three suitors for a final bidding round for the sale of German metering group Techem, which may be valued at around 4 billion euros (US$4.9 billion), sources told Reuters. A consortium comprising buyout firm CVC Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) as well as another group that includes Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Partners Group has prevailed in the auction, the sources said. Separately, buyout firm Silver Lake Partners is still competing for the asset.
Swiss packaging maker SIG Combibloc is moving ahead with preparations for an autumn stock market listing in Zurich that could value it at about 4.5 billion euros (US$5.5 billion), sources told Reuters. Its Canadian private equity owner Onex Corp has hired Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Bank of America as global coordinators for the listing. Ahead of the listing, Onex will also sound out potential buyers for the beverage and food manufacturer it bought in 2015 from New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart in a deal valued at 3.75 billion euros (US$4.62 billion), one source said.
Canada’s Nemaska Lithium Inc is in talks with U.S. private equity firm Orion Mine Finance Group on a lithium streaming deal, sources told Reuters. Nemaska Lithium, which is developing a lithium mine and processing plant in Québec to meet growing demand for the material used in rechargeable batteries, said last week it was negotiating a US$150 million streaming deal. Orion may also provide debt financing. Separately, the company said this week Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp will buy a stake of up to 9.9 percent and invest up to $99.1 million via a private placement.
Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp will buy up to 9.9 percent stake in Canada-based Nemaska Lithium Inc and invest up to $99.1 million through a private placement as part of the agreement, Reuters reported. The investment, which SoftBank said was its first in the lithium industry, will be used to fund the construction and commissioning of Nemaska’s Whabouchi Mine in Québec and its Shawinigan plant. The investment comes at a time when lithium batteries are increasingly being installed in electric cars, including Tesla Inc's top-of-the-line Model X and General Motors Co's modestly-priced Chevy Bolt.
Mergers and acquisitions among Canadian companies are expected to pick up pace after a sluggish first quarter, driven by non-resource deals and a rebound in outbound transactions as pension funds and private equity firms put massive pools of capital to work, M&A advisers told Reuters. Canadian M&A activity in the first quarter of the year dropped to US$54.2 billion, down 37 percent compared with a year ago, data from Thomson Reuters showed this week, weighed down by lower energy deals which were the biggest driver of 2017 activity.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Canada’s third-biggest public pension plan, more than doubled its 2017 net return from investments compared with the year before, boosted by strong returns in private equity and infrastructure, Reuters reported. Strong performances from those asset classes helped the fund increase the value of its net assets to $189.5 billion at the end of 2017. Ontario Teachers' also said Chief Investment Officer Bjarne Graven Larsen, who joined the fund in January 2016 and has steered its investment strategy since then, had resigned and planned to return to Denmark.
Transcontinental Inc said it would buy the U.S. packaging business of Coveris Holdings SA for about $1.70 billion (US$1.32 billion) as the Canadian publisher looks to join other top North American companies in the flexible packaging space, Reuters reported. As part of the deal, Transcontinental will take control of privately held Coveris Americas’ 21 production facilities that make rollstock, bags and pouches, shrink films and labels, among others. Luxembourg's Coveris Holdings is a portfolio company of U.S. private equity firm Sun Capital Partners. It was formed in 2013 through a merger of five packaging businesses.
OMERS Private Equity finished 2017 with a hefty pay packet, earning a net return of 18.2 percent, much of it owing to sales of a U.K. software business and a Canadian plastics supplier. Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System in February reported that all PE investments showed a net return of 11.1 percent last year. In a more detailed report issued this month, performance was broken down to show a net return of 18.2 percent from OPE's direct investments, driven by sales of Civica and Husky IMS International.
Brookfield Property Partners LP’s latest bid to acquire the two-thirds of mall owner GGP Inc it does not already own low-balls the price of prime retail assets whose value has been obscured by e-commerce, analysts told Reuters. Brookfield’s existing 34 percent stake in GGP puts it in the driver’s seat because it only has to pay 65 cents on the dollar to match other offers, said Alex Goldfarb, a managing director at Sandler O’Neill + Partners LP. Another offer would have to replace the board and management, which Brookfield does not need to do, he said.