Higher oil prices and a positive earnings outlook for energy companies are expected to fuel a rebound in North American oil and gas initial public offerings in 2018, with bankers betting investors will remain optimistic about the sector even if the broader stock market remains volatile, Reuters reported. IPOs in the United States and Canada could reach their highest in four years, and oilfield services companies are seen leading the recovery, given their pressing capital needs. Potential Canadian exploration and production candidates for IPO include Canbriam Energy and Velvet Energy, two sources said. Calgary's Canbriam and Velvet are both private equity-backed.
At least three bidders are expected to submit final offers for global miner Rio Tinto’s Hail Creek and Kestrel coal mines in Australia, which could fetch up to US$2.5 billion, sources told Reuters. The Anglo-Australian mining company made a strategic decision in 2017 to exit coal and focus on growth in iron ore, copper and its aluminum division. Hail Creek and Kestrel are Rio Tinto’s last two coal mines. The expected bidders include a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Apollo Global Management and that includes Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, strong>Xcoal Energy & Resources and a former Glencore executive.
The private equity group of Brookfield Asset Management will soon launch its biggest fund yet to support an intensified global strategy that is taking dealmaking into new territory. Brookfield Capital Partners V will begin fundraising in the first half, a person with knowledge of the matter told PE Hub Canada. No decision about a target has been made, but it is expected to be larger than the previous one, the source said. Brookfield Capital Partners IV , now 80 percent invested, closed in 2016 at its US$4 billion hard cap, making it the firm’s largest PE fund to date.
Chevron Corp is exploring options including the sale of a minority stake in its Canadian liquefied natural gas project as it pushes ahead, sources told Reuters. Among the parties in talks with Chevron for a possible stake in Kitimat LNG are Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, which scrapped its own US$36 billion LNG project in British Columbia last year due to challenging market conditions. Chevron is also considering selling a stake in the project to a financial investor such as a Canadian pension fund or a private equity firm. The B.C. project is a 50-50 joint venture with Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd.
The three banks leading the US$13.5 billion-equivalent loan and bond financing backing U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial and Risk (F&R) unit are set to sign more banks into the deal, Reuters reported. Around 21 senior banks are expected to join the deal, which is being led by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, and is the biggest buyout financing since the financial crisis. The lead banks invited 23 banks to join at the next level and underwrite 28 percent of the deal. Banks making the biggest commitments after the leads are Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS, several sources said. There could be six or seven tiers of commitments.
At least two Australian pension funds and one Canadian fund are participating in competing groups bidding for a majority stake in one of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects, people with knowledge of the sale told Reuters. Australia’s New South Wales government is trying to sell a 51 percent stake in Sydney Motorway Corp, the company building the A$16.8 billion (US$13.2 billion) WestConnex project, which links Sydney’s centre with its fast-growing western suburbs. Sources said local pension funds IFM Investors and AustralianSuper and Canada’s Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec were each part of separate consortia bidding for the stake. The unfinished 33-kilometre road will be built in three stages and is the largest transport project since the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was completed in 1932.
Bombardier should be “on alert” for merger opportunities that will enable its transportation unit to compete with larger rivals in an industry that is consolidating to help reduce costs, the CEO of its biggest independent shareholder said this week. “I think, in an industry that’s consolidating to the degree that it is and given the scale issues associated with the size of the Chinese presence in that industry, the company needs to be always alert to M&A opportunities,” Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec's Michael Sabia told Reuters and other reporters. Germany’s Siemens AG last year opted to merge its rail business with France’s Alstom SA instead of Bombardier’s rail unit, leaving Bombardier facing a challenge to compete.
The financing backing U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial and Risk (F&R) unit totals more than US$15 billion, banking sources told Reuters. The deal, which consists of a US$14 billion loan and bond financing, also includes a US$1 billion payment-in-kind (PIK) note at the holding company level. The US$14 billion financing is currently being marketed to other banks by the three lead banks Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and JP Morgan. The US$1 billion PIK note has already been placed. “I think it’s a great business, it’s a good solid subscription model with sticky customers and high cash conversion, which is what you need for good LBOs,” a syndicate head said. Blackstone will acquire a 55 percent stake in the F&R business in a deal valued at US$20 billion, with Thomson Reuters, controlled by Canada's Thomson family, retaining a 45 percent holding.
Thomson Reuters Corp Chairman David Thomson urged the company’s board of directors to seek better terms for its US$17 billion sale of a large chunk of its business to U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, the Wall Street Journal reported this week, citing people close to the deal. Blackstone last month agreed to buy a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk division in a US$20 million deal. Executives with Woodbridge Co Ltd, a private Toronto firm that holds the Thomson family’s majority stake in Thomson Reuters, disagreed with David Thomson and supported the deal, the newspaper said. The Thomson family owns 64 percent of Thomson Reuters through Woodbridge. Thomson eventually voted in favour of the deal, but only after telling other directors he was concerned they had not sought a higher price or considered other potential buyers for the business, according to the newspaper.
More banks are poised to join a US$14 billion financing backing U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group’s acquisition of a majority stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, banking sources told Reuters. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and JP Morgan are leading the financing and are talking to other banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and RBC about joining the deal shortly. “Every man and his dog is pitching to get in on the action,” a loan syndicate head said. The large deal is attracting interest from banks vying for roles on the lucrative underwritten leveraged loan and high yield bond financing. Blackstone will acquire a 55 percent stake in the F&R business in a deal valued at US$20 billion, with Thomson Reuters, controlled by Canada’s Thomson family, retaining a 45 percent holding.