Altas Partners, a pioneer of long-life investing, will soon conclude its busiest quarter to date, wrapping up three transactions — two of them years in the making. Before the year is out, the Toronto private equity firm will have closed acquisitions of, or investments in, commercial-roofing contractor Tecta America, insurance brokerage Hub International and physical-therapy school University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, bringing Altas' platform deals done since 2012 to seven in all. This many closings in a three-month span is rare for Altas, which maintains a slow and deliberative investment pace as part of its long-term strategy.
Warren Buffett is getting out of the Canadian mortgage business after a nifty trade that helped a company that had been on the ropes, Reuters reported. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is “substantially” exiting its stake in Home Capital Group Inc after selling shares back to the company, the mortgage lender and Buffett said. Berkshire bought a 20 percent stake in Home Capital last year and extended a $2 billion credit line after the company suffered a deposit exodus after being accused of, and then admitting to, concealing mortgage fraud. Berkshire could see a profit of more than 70 percent for the shares it bought for about $9.55 apiece and sold back at $16.50 per share.
Canadian mining private equity firm Waterton Global Resource Management has urged Hudbay Minerals Inc to replace its CEO and said it would nominate several candidates to the miner’s board, Reuters reported. Waterton, which raised its stake in the company to nearly 10 percent from 7 percent, also reiterated that the Toronto-based miner avoid any near-term acquisition or joint venture. Hudbay, which said in October it would buy the remaining 86 percent of Canadian miner Mason Resources Corp, is in talks to buy Chilean miner Mantos Copper SA, according to media reports.
L Brands said it would to sell its luxury lingerie brand La Senza to an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm Regent LP, capping a months long effort to sell the loss-making business, Reuters reported. The company has been facing stiff competition, forcing it to sell its non-core assets and focus on brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. As part of the deal, Regent would assume La Senza’s liabilities and would have to pay L Brands if it sells or monetizes any part of the brand. L Brands bought Canadian chain La Senza for about US$700 million in 2007 and expects it to incur an operating loss of US$40 million in the year.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the world’s biggest institutional investor in private equity, is reorganizing its program to access a broader set of PE opportunities in a challenging market environment. The initiative was set in motion nine months ago, when Senior Managing Director Shane Feeney was appointed global head of PE. Feeney’s job, a new one at the $368 billion pension fund, marked the end of two investment departments and created an amped-up PE platform that unites the once divided areas of direct investing, funds, secondaries and Asian investing. It amasses assets worth $80.3 billion and brings together more than 100 investment pros located worldwide.
Family office Serruya Private Equity partnered with Lion Capital in acquiring the owner of Great American Cookies, Round Table Pizza and other retail food brands. Last month, Lion and SPE acquired Global Franchise Group from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Based in Atlanta, GFG owns several major brands in the U.S. quick-service restaurant industry. That puts it right in the wheelhouse of SPE, which invests on behalf of a Canadian family that made its name and fortune by building and buying food ventures. Brothers Michael and Aaron Serruya, both SPE managing directors, began their careers in the 1980s as the founders of frozen yogurt retailer Yogen Früz.
Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) could present a new sale and purchase agreement before the end of December for the sale of the Transportadora Associada de Gás (TAG) pipeline, after a Brazilian Supreme Court injunction in July stalled the sale, Reuters reported. The sale of TAG, which operates natural gas pipelines in Brazil, could fetch Petrobras as much as US$7 billion. A consortium comprising Engie and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec were in talks with Petrobras to buy TAG before the injunction. A group comprising EIG Global Energy Partners and Mubadala, and a second team made up of Macquarie, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and GIC, previously expressed an interest.
Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management will be the largest single commercial property owner in New York City after its US$11.4 billion buy of Forest City Realty Trust Inc closes in coming days, Reuters reported, citing a Brookfield official. Its New York assets will top 36 million square feet after the Forest City deal closes, surpassing Vornado Realty Trust, according to data from CoStar Group Inc and Brookfield. Brookfield, which historically has been known for office holdings, now has a sizable slice in the retail and apartment sectors, a growing presence in hotels, logistical and warehouse assets, student housing and manufacturing housing.
Thomson Reuters Corp said it will cut its workforce by 12 percent in the next two years, axing 3,200 jobs, as part of a plan to streamline the business and reduce cost, Reuters reported. The company, which is focusing on its legal and tax businesses following the sale of a 55-percent stake in its Financial & Risk (F&R) unit to U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, declined to say where the job cuts were being made. The company aims to grow annual sales by 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent by 2020, excluding the impact of any acquisitions. It has set aside US$2 billion of the US$17 billion proceeds from the Blackstone deal to make purchases to help grow its legal and tax businesses.
Telecoms and cable group Altice Europe said its French unit had agreed to sell a 49.99 percent stake in its SFR FTTH fibre optic business to three investment funds for 1.8 billion euros (US$2.05 billion), Reuters reported. Allianz Capital Partners, AXA Investment Managers and OMERS Infrastructure were investing in the unit, Altice said, in a deal that valued the division as a whole at 3.6 billion euros. The consortium was led by OMERS Infrastructure, the infrastructure investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). Earlier this month, Reuters reported several groups were bidding for the Altice France fibre network business, including one led by KKR.