Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada's largest pension investment managers, said it planned to expand its London operations, hiring staff and boosting investments, Reuters reported. PSP, which manages $125.8 billion across a range of markets, said it would increase staffing in London to 40 from 28 over the next 12 months. It opened the office in 2015. The team will focus on private equity, private debt, infrastructure and real estate, PSP said, and help it to boost investments across Europe by 20-30 percent over the next five years.
Home Capital Group Inc said a third party intends to buy up to $1.5 billion in mortgages, Reuters reported. The third party has indicated its non-binding intention to buy as much as $1 billion in uninsured mortgages and to buy, or accept, commitments for up to $500 million in insured mortgages, the company said. Earlier this month, Reuters reported several Canadian and U.S. private equity firms were considering bids to acquire Home Capital, a Toronto-based alternative mortgage lender. They included Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Group, Brookfield Asset Management and Fairfax Financial Holdings.
Canada's Hudson's Bay Co has hired a debt restructuring adviser to review potential options for combining its business with debt-laden U.S. department store operator Neiman Marcus Group, sources told Reuters. The move is the clearest indication yet that Neiman Marcus' US$4.7 billion debt pile poses significant challenges to a merger between Hudson's Bay, owner of the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue retail chains, and private equity-owned Neiman Marcus. Hudson's Bay has now tapped investment bank Evercore Partners Inc, and has asked it to come up with ways that the two companies can combine without Hudson's Bay assuming the full burden of Neiman Marcus' debt, the sources said. Ares Management LP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired Neiman Marcus in 2013 for US$6 billion.
Centaur Gaming LLC, a privately owned U.S. casino and horse racing company, is exploring a sale that could value it at more than US$1 billion, including debt, sources told Reuters. Indianapolis-based Centaur is working with investment bank Deutsche Bank AG on the sale process, the sources said. Centaur is backed by Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group, which invested in 2010. Last week, the Toronto firm made its 11th investment in the global gaming industry, putting US$73.7 million to work in Head InfoTech India Pvt Ltd.
SNC-Lavalin CEO Neil Bruce said Elliott Capital Advisors' stake in WS Atkins is not an "obstacle" to buying the British engineering and construction company, after the U.S. hedge fund disclosed a 6.8 percent shareholding last week, Reuters reported. Elliott said in a filing that it acquired the stake in a contracts-for-difference deal on April 21, the day after Atkins agreed to be acquired by the Canadian construction and engineering group. Bruce said SNC still plans to close the deal around the end of July.
Co-investments, in which investors and a sponsor’s primary fund invest alongside each other in an M&A deal, have become a staple of today’s private equity landscape. It’s not hard to see why. Given the importance of having an effective co-investment strategy, and of avoiding potential pitfalls, Torys LLP Partner Stefan Stauder and Senior Associate Jamie Becker have come up with some "how-to" guidelines for investors negotiating and managing co-investment arrangements with PE sponsors.
U.S. buyout firms Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Partners are among potential suitors studying bids for Canada's biggest alternative mortgage lender, Home Capital Group Inc, which sought emergency funding last week, sources told Reuters. Canada's Brookfield Asset Management and Fairfax Financial Holdings are among the other firms interested in buying the company, the sources said. Home Capital said last week it had hired RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets "to advise on further financing and strategic options" and after securing a high-interest $2 billion credit line. The company has a current market value of about US$378 million.
Canada's oil and gas industry has experienced turbulent times as of late. But current trends also present opportunities for companies and investors choosing to go deeper into the domestic energy space at the right price and in advance of a recovery, writes Neal Ross, a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. In a PE Hub Canada feature, Ross looks at current market conditions and highlights some of the ways in which Canadian energy companies are successfully partnering with private equity firms.
Some of the world's biggest pension funds, seeking long-term returns on green investments, are scouting for deals in India's solar power sector, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is targeting US$100 billion in investment in the next five years, Reuters reported. India estimates peak electricity demand will more than quadruple in the next two decades to 690 gigawatt, which would require rapid growth in generation and transmission capacity. That potential, helped by cheaper solar material costs and government efforts to curb pollution, is drawing global investors, including Canada's top pension fund managers: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan.
Shaw Communications Inc is looking for a buyer for ViaWest, the U.S. data centre company it bought three years ago, sources told Reuters, as the Canadian cable company continues to shed assets it considers non-core. Shaw is hoping to fetch for ViaWest well over the US$1.2 billion it paid to acquire it in 2014 from U.S. private equity firms Oak Hill Capital Partners and GI Partners, the sources said, and is working with Toronto-Dominion Bank on an auction. Private equity firms or companies that specialize in data centres, such as Equinix Inc and Digital Realty Trust Inc, have been active buyers of assets.