Canadian cable company Cogeco Communications Inc said its Atlantic Broadband unit would buy MetroCast's assets for about US$1.4 billion, expanding its presence in the United States, Reuters reported. The deal, which includes a US$315 million equity investment by Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, will add about 120,000 internet and 76,000 video customers to Atlantic Broadband's U.S. base. The deal allows the company "to increase its presence in the growing and lucrative U.S. cable market," Cogeco's Chief Executive Officer Louis Audet said in a statement. In an attempt to find growth outside of Canada, Cogeco first entered the U.S. market in 2012 when it bought Atlantic Broadband for US$1.36 billion.
Cirque du Soleil paid US$65.5 million to acquire New York-based Blue Man Productions, the company behind the popular live performance Blue Man Group, sources told Reuters. Financing was sourced from a US$85 million add-on to the company’s US$635 million term loan due in July 2022 that was arranged last month by RBC Capital Markets. Montréal-based Cirque previously said the acquisition adds to its audience pool and is in line with a global expansion plan intended to help diversify its offering beyond circus arts. The company has been majority owned by U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital, Fosun Capital and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec since 2015.
Brookfield Asset Management Inc has proposed buying out Renova Energia SA's controlling bloc as part of a sweetened bid to take over the debt-laden Brazilian renewable energy firm, sources told Reuters. Canada's Brookfield, which has made a number of high-profile infrastructure and energy acquisitions in Brazil over the past year, would pay Renova's controlling bloc about 810 million reais (US$247 million) for their stakes and pump about 800 million reais (US$242 million) worth of fresh capital into the company. One source said Brookfield's sweetened bid should trump a competing proposal by Oaktree Capital Management LP.
Canadian mergers and acquisitions rose about 13 percent to $120.5 billion in the first half of 2017, driven by big-ticket energy deals and robust cross-border activity, Reuters reported, citing Thomson Reuters data released this week. Despite strong initial public offerings, overall equity capital deals fell 12 percent to $26.9 billion in the first half from a year ago, the data showed. strong>JPMorgan, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Goldman Sachs took the top three spots in the M&A league tables rankings, while Royal Bank of Canada, TD and Bank of Montreal were the top three advisers on Canadian equity issues in the first half of 2017.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board said it would buy Houston-based real estate investment trust Parkway Inc for US$1.2 billion, its second significant U.S. investment this week, Reuters reported. Parkway, in which U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital has a 9.8 percent stake, said it owned 19 Houston office properties totaling about 8.7 million square feet. On Wednesday, CPPIB agreed to invest up to US$1 billion to buy oil and gas assets in the United States in a partnership with Encino Energy Ltd. The pension fund is most heavily invested in the United States, which accounts for about 39 percent of its $317 billion of assets.
Highland West Capital has gone big with its second platform investment, backing a turnkey supplier to North America’s wood-processing industry. In June, the Vancouver private equity firm acquired a majority stake in BID Group. It partnered with the management team, led by CEO Alistair Cook and Chairman Brian Fehr, whose family owned the forest-products specialist for more than 30 years. Terms weren’t disclosed. However, BID, which has revenue approaching $400 million, represents a “large-sized deal,” Highland Managing Director David Mullen told PE Hub Canada.
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of the world's biggest infrastructure and real estate investors, is holding off on major investments in London real estate amid uncertainty over the impact of Britain's planned exit from the European Union, Reuters reported. Canada's second-biggest public pension fund has been an enthusiastic investor in Britain and earlier this year agreed to finance the expansion of London's Heathrow Airport in which it is one of the biggest shareholders. Until recently, London was one of the cities the Caisse was most committed to investing in along with New York and Shanghai.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the country's biggest public pension fund, plans to invest up to US$1 billion to buy oil and gas assets in the United States in a partnership with Encino Energy Ltd, Reuters reported. CPPIB said the partnership, Encino Acquisition Partners, would seek non-core assets being sold by global energy majors and would focus on basins already producing oil and gas. It is looking to buy assets being sold by large energy companies as they spend money on developing red-hot U.S. shale basins like the Permian and the so-called SCOOP and STACK plays in Oklahoma. CPPIB already holds close to $4.5 billion of assets in the energy sector, 80 percent of which are in Western Canada.
The field of prospective bidders for Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp's Swiss-based smart meter group Landis+Gyr has narrowed to two, banking sources told Reuters. The two, Goldman Sachs Group's private equity arm and Canada's Onex Corp, are undertaking due diligence checks, the sources said. A consortium of CVC Capital Partners and Hitachi Ltd had withdrawn its offer, as had Honeywell International Inc. Toshiba bought Landis+Gyr in 2011 for US$2.3 billion jointly with state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan, which holds 40 percent in the company.
Canadian private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group is exploring options for Therapure Biopharma, Bloomberg reported. Catalyst has hired Wells Fargo & Co to find a buyer for the contract development and manufacturing part of its business, the story said. The Therapure unit could fetch $400 million. Catalyst is also interviewing banks to advise on an initial public offering for Therapure’s proprietary products division, Bloomberg said. Toronto-based Therapure is a maker of complex biotherapeutics, and a developer, maker and seller of its own blood and plasma-related therapeutic products. It was established in 2008 by Catalyst.