Canadian organic food company SunOpta Inc, already under pressure from U.S. hedge fund Tourbillon Capital Partners LP, is being prodded by a second activist shareholder to explore the sale of all or part of the company, sources told Reuters. Canadian hedge fund West Face Capital also wants SunOpta to look at board or management changes if sales don't materialize. West Face's move comes as SunOpta, whose brands include Nature's Finest and Sunrich Naturals, has received interest from private equity firms, some of the sources said.
Canada's Brookfield Asset Management plans to invest about US$1 billion in Indian distressed assets through a joint venture with the largest lender in the South Asian nation where banks are battling a record US$120 billion of sour debt, Reuters reported. Brookfield and State Bank of India have signed a preliminary agreement to set up a joint venture for the investments, the firms said this week. Indian banks, with 11.5 percent of their loans soured, are under pressure from the regulator and the government to clean up their books as higher bad loans choke fresh lending in an economy whose main source of funding is bank credit.
Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group closed its first platform investments in roughly a year, backing a pair of U.S. companies in the digital media and gaming industries. In a release issued to shareholders last month, Clairvest disclosed a US$20.5 million investment in Digital Media Solutions , a performance marketing company. The second investment saw Clairvest acquire a minority stake in video gaming specialist Accel Entertainment for US$32.5 million. The deals illustrate the Toronto-based firm's long history of investing in sectors that leverage its domain knowledge.
Essar Steel Algoma Inc said U.S. private equity firm KPS Capital Partners had backed out of a consortium that made a bid for the Canadian steel maker, but that certain term lenders were still pursuing a bid, Reuters reported. A group that includes shareholders of Essar Global signed a letter of intent with a local unit of the United Steelworkers Union earlier this week to negotiate a deal to buy Algoma for about US$900 million.
U.S. oil and gas company Devon Energy Corp will sell its 50 percent stake in a pipeline in Western Canada for US$1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) to a midstream company backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Reuters reported. Oil prices are yet to fully recover from the slump last year, forcing companies in the sector to sell non-core assets to lower debt and finance new projects. This has given investment firms, including CPPIB, a chance to buy assets at attractive valuations. In the past month, CPPIB has acquired assets from Canadian producers Penn West Petroleum Ltd and Paramount Resources Ltd through companies it holds stake in.
Brookfield Asset Management said it had raised US$14 billion for its new global infrastructure fund, giving it a war chest to hunt for assets around the world, Reuters reported. The fund has so far committed to invest more than US$3 billion in assets, including a portfolio of U.S. hydroelectric facilities, a portfolio of Brazilian electricity transmission projects, a Colombian power generation company, a portfolio of Peruvian toll roads, and a U.S. water infrastructure project developer.
A group that includes shareholders of Essar Global said it signed a letter of intent with a local unit of the United Steelworkers Union to negotiate a deal to buy Canada's Essar Steel Algoma Inc for about US$900 million, Reuters reported. Essar Global said in a statement last month that it did not support a deal to sell Essar Steel Algoma's assets to a consortium formed by U.S. private equity firm KPS Capital Partners. Algoma, bought nearly a decade ago by Indian energy and resources conglomerate Essar Global, had put itself up for sale while operating under creditor protection.
Thomson Reuters Corp said it agreed to sell its intellectual property and science business to private equity firms Onex Corp and Baring Private Equity Asia for US$3.55 billion in cash, Reuters reported. The business being sold provides intellectual property and scientific information and associated tools and services to governments, universities and companies. Toronto-based Onex said the deal is expected to be funded with an equity investment of about US$1.6 billion. Onex’ portion of the investment (about US$1.2 billion) will be made by Onex Partners IV and certain co-investors.
Video conferencing equipment maker Polycom Inc said it agreed to be bought by a U.S. private equity firm for about US$1.7 billion, scrapping a three-month old deal with Canada's Mitel Networks Corp, Reuters reported. The private equity firm, Siris Capital Group, offered US$12.50 a share in cash for Polycom. The deal thwarts a plan by U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management, which bought stakes in both Polycom and Mitel and played a leading role in getting the two to agree to a merger.
Canadian mergers and acquisitions slipped in the first half of 2016, with sluggish activity in natural resource sectors offsetting some large infrastructure deals, Reuters reported, citing data released by Thomson Reuters. Deal volume fell to US$108.2 billion from US$137.9 billion a year ago, the data showed. Goldman Sachs topped the league tables, Barclays Plc ranked second, and Lazard was third. CIBC, Scotiabank and RBC were the strongest performing domestic banks.