U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in advanced talks to buy an approximate 55 percent stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp, a deal that would value the unit at about US$20 billion including debt, sources told Reuters. Thomson Reuters’ board is expected to meet this week to discuss Blackstone’s offer for the F&R business, which supplies news, data and analytics to banks and investment houses around the world. The unit contributes more than half of Thomson Reuters’ annual revenues. Under the terms of the Blackstone offer, Thomson Reuters would retain a 45 percent stake in the F&R business as part of a partnership with the U.S. buyout firm, the sources said. Canada’s Thomson family controls more than 63 percent of Thomson Reuters shares through Woodbridge Co Ltd. The news and data provider has a market value of about US$31 billion.
Canada's M&A market was highly active in 2017 in volume, but with smaller values. Strategic buyers drove much of the action, while private equity firms found sell-side opportunities. The mid-market remained the focal point, while both inbound and outbound deal-making showed strength. And all investors exhibited prudence in what continues to be a frothy market. Torys LLP's Sophia Tolias, Michael Akkawi and John Emanoilidis think there's reason to expect sustained momentum in Canadian M&A in 2018. They tell us why in this PE Hub Canada feature article.
OMERS Infrastructure recruited Blackstone Group’s Michael Ryder as a senior managing director and head of its Americas team, a person familiar with the matter told PE Hub Canada. Ryder joins OMERS Infrastructure, an investment arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, after more than three years as a Blackstone senior managing director. He led the midstream energy and oilfield-services strategy of Blackstone Energy Partners. Before then, Ryder was for seven years a managing director at Morgan Stanley Private Equity. OMERS Infrastructure invests in large-scale infrastructure businesses in energy, social infrastructure and transportation, primarily in North America, Europe and Australia. Ryder will oversee the Americas infrastructure operation from OMERS' New York office.
For Canada’s private equity market, 2017 was the most active year in a decade. While the vast majority of deals were mid-market in nature, the headlines focused on a handful of large-caps. They included last year’s proposed buy of Husky IMS International by Platinum Equity and the completed buy of DH Corp by Vista Equity Partners, the two biggest Canadian PE deals since 2014. They helped Canada’s top 10 private-equity deals in 2017 together account for disclosed values of more than $22 billion. That's up 88 percent from the $11.7 billion captured by the top 10 deals in 2016.
Sagard Holdings, an investment arm of Power Corp, has raised about $325 million (US$260 million) in the first close of a debut credit fund managed by former members of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s private debt group. Sagard Credit Partners LP, earmarked for loans to North American mid-market companies, secured more than half of its $625 million (US$500 million) target in the initial close. It is expected to wrap up by the end of 2018, Sagard Managing Partner and CIO Adam Vigna told PE Hub Canada. SCP, Sagard’s first fund marketed to third-party investors, was anchored by Canadian limited partners.
Westinghouse Electric Co LLC, Toshiba Corp’s nuclear services business, has made an agreement with its creditors that will clear the company’s path out of bankruptcy, sources told Reuters. The deal will divvy up cash from the US$4.6 billion ($5.7 billion) proposed sale of Westinghouse to Brookfield Business Partners, an affiliate of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management. As part of the agreement, Toshiba will sell its claims to a group of hedge funds led by the Baupost Group, making the group the biggest creditor in the case, the sources said. The claims sale helps avoid fights among creditors that threatened to slow down the case. Toshiba subsequently confirmed that it had struck a deal with the Baupost-led consortium.
RNC Minerals is in talks with commodity traders, mine operators and financiers to help secure US$1 billion to build the world’s biggest nickel and cobalt project next year, Reuters reported. A global battery boom, driven by growing demand for electric cars, is pushing prices higher for such key ingredients as nickel and cobalt and encouraging miners to accelerate development plans. Conditions are right to build Dumont in Québec, said RNC. With 3.15 million tonnes of nickel sulphide and 126,000 tonnes of cobalt, it is the largest undeveloped reserve of both metals in the world, the Toronto-based company said. RNC owns 50-percent of Dumont with Canadian mining private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management holding the remainder.
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Chief Executive Michael Sabia said he believes that if U.S. President Donald Trump abandons the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, the United States would then negotiate a new deal with Canada, Reuters reported. Sabia was speaking at a Thomson Reuters Breakingviews event in Toronto discussing predictions for 2018 alongside Brookfield Asset Management Chief Executive Bruce Flatt. Canada is increasingly convinced that Trump will soon announce the United States intends to pull out of NAFTA, Reuters reported earlier this week, sending the Canadian and Mexican currencies lower and hurting stocks. Sabia added that other factors, such as entrepreneurial activity, could help mitigate the impact of the NAFTA talks failing.
Pinnacle Renewable Energy Group, an industrial-wood-pellet maker and distributor, this week priced its recently filed initial public offering in Canada. The Richmond, British Columbia, company is seeking to raise $175 million by selling common shares at $13 to $15 per unit, the updated prospectus shows. The issue’s greenshoe option, if fully exercised, would bring the total raised to more than $200 million. Pinnacle has been majority owned by ONCAP, the mid-market private equity arm of Onex Corp, since 2011. Its IPO is 2018’s first in Canada backed by a PE firm. PE and venture capital firms looking to monetize their investments played a key role in the domestic IPO market last year, raising a combined $2.3 billion.
Initial public offerings by Canadian companies are expected to increase in 2018, driven by activity in industrials, alternative energy and base metals sectors, banking advisers told Reuters. Companies raised $4.6 billion (US$3.7 billion) through IPOs in 2017, marking a surge in activity following a lull the previous year, according to numbers from Thomson Reuters that were released on Thursday. There were 22 IPOs, the highest for Canada since 2013. With asset valuations at elevated levels, private equity firms are looking to monetize their investments, often choosing between an IPO and a sale. PE Hub Canada in December estimated that a dozen Canadian private equity- and venture-backed IPOs raised $2.3 billion last year.