DW Healthcare Partners has signalled an interest in doing more deals in Canada’s healthcare industry with the close of its fourth private equity fund. The Toronto and Park City, Utah, investor today announced DW Healthcare Partners Fund IV raised US$295 million in committed capital. It is the firm’s largest fund to date, exceeding by 11 percent the US$265 million secured by Fund III in 2013. Some 31 limited partners joined Fund IV, Managing Partner Andrew Carragher told PE Hub Canada.
CVC Capital Partners is selling German metering and energy management group Ista, which could be worth up to 4 billion euros (US$4.3 billion), sources told Reuters. Pension funds, insurers and infrastructure investors are expected to show interest. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which already owns a minority stake in Ista, is tying up with Borealis Infrastructure to make a bid, while Allianz, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, are also likely to show their interest, the sources said.
Despite a number of disruptive events in 2016, or perhaps because of them, private equity funds remain the favoured access point for institutional investors looking for a return from their private investments. For this reason, the fundraising environment has arguably never been better for general partners. But how does a GP stand out from the pack in a crowded market in 2017? In a PE Hub Canada feature article, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Partner Mary Abbott offers 10 useful tips to PE fundraisers.
India's Bharti Airtel said it sold a 10.3 percent stake in its telecom tower unit Bharti Infratel to U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for more than 61.9 billion rupees (US$952.75 million), Reuters reported. Bharti Airtel sold 190 million shares in Infratel to KKR and CPPIB at 325 rupees apiece, the country's top telecom operator said in a statement, adding that the funds will primarily be used to reduce its debt. The deal will leave Bharti's stake in Infratel at 61.7 percent, with the remainder owned by a slew of fund managers.
Dominion Diamond Corp, the target of an unsolicited US$1.1 billion approach by U.S. billionaire Dennis Washington, said it will launch a formal sales process, Reuters reported. The Canadian company's stock rose on speculation that global miners including Rio Tinto and Anglo American's De Beers unit may now make a bid. Analysts have also speculated that Russia's Alrosa and private equity players could be interested in Dominion, which owns the Ekati diamond mine in Northwest Territories and is the world's third-largest diamond producer by value.
Advent International became a news-maker in 2016. Not because of its successful US$13-billion fundraising, but because the venerable firm’s latest fund was oversubscribed at a reported US$20 billion despite not featuring what has been to date a mainstay of private equity funds: the “hurdle” or “preferred return”. In an exclusive PE Hub Canada feature article, Mary Abbott, a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, asks: is this the start of a trend?
Canada plans to have its infrastructure bank, a key initiative set up to facilitate private financing for infrastructure projects, open for business by the end of the year, Reuters reported, citing Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who delivered his federal budget this week. However, Morneau's budget contained few other new details on the new agency, which the Liberal government committed to set up last year to provide access to $35 billion to help fund major projects that might not otherwise get built. It plans to supplement public investment with funding from private investors, such as pension and sovereign wealth funds.
Canadian miner Royal Nickel Corp is teaming up with private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management to buy, develop and operate undervalued nickel assets, Reuters reported. The venture will have US$35 million to acquire nickel mines and projects, said the companies, and Waterton will pay US$22.5 million for a 50-percent stake in Royal Nickel's Dumont nickel project in Québec, which the partnership will own. The venture, which has earmarked US$5 million to advance development at Dumont, is currently eyeing four to 11 targets that are relatively low-cost and do not need major capital to develop.
A push by Canadian companies and pension funds to aggressively pursue overseas acquisitions is helping global investment banks to win a bigger share of M&A advisory mandates and prompting once-dominant domestic rivals to beef up their international operations, Reuters reported. Canada's outbound M&A volume hit a record US$128 billion last year. Bankers expect the trend to continue as sluggish economic growth at home, and a highly-concentrated market, make domestic M&A less appealing.
OPTrust has greatly expanded its private equity program, deploying a strategy that gives the mid-sized pension fund access to opportunities usually available only to larger institutions. OPTrust, which invests on behalf of OPSEU Pension Plan, saw a net return of 20.6 percent from its PE portfolio last year. These results cap a major increase in OPTrust’s PE allocation since 2012, driven by an increased emphasis of direct deals and co-investments.