Global distressed asset buyers such as J.C. Flowers & Co and Apollo Global are flocking to India, where banks have been ordered to clean up an estimated US$120 billion of bad and troubled loans, Reuters reported. Investors drawn to potential deal opportunities include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which recently partnered with India's Kotak Group to invest up US$525 million in stressed corporate and financial assets in the country.
Investment and private equity funds, including Singapore's Temasek and Rothschild Group, are competing to invest in Argus Media in a deal that could value the energy-market data provider at more than US$1.3 billion. Sources told Reuters that U.S. buyout fund Hellman & Friedman, and a consortium comprising British private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), are among the contenders for the London-based company.
Australia’s Qube Holdings Ltd and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management are raising a US$753 million loan to help pay for the ports business of Asciano Ltd, in a carve-up of Australia’s largest ports and rail operator, sources told Reuters. Five banks – Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citigroup, National Australia Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp – are providing financing on a club basis, the sources said. Qube and Brookfield unveiled a US$6.8 billion plan earlier this month to split up the ports and rail giant into two units.
Crosbie & Co this month released a new report on North American private equity deal-making and what recent activity tells us about trends in Canada's M&A market. In a PE Hub Canada exclusive, Crosbie Managing Director Richard Betsalel shares some of the report's findings, which suggest much opportunity, especially if you're in selling mode, but also a few challenges that seem oddly familiar.
Alaris Royalty Corp earned almost triple the money it invested in LifeMark Health, a Canadian physiotherapy- and rehabilitation-services provider acquired by Audax Private Equity in January. Alaris, a Calgary-based alternative-equity firm, said this month it had redeemed the last of a $74 million investment in LifeMark following the sale to Audax. With that redemption, the firm counted up total proceeds of about $217 million, Alaris President and CEO Steve King told PE Hub Canada.
American investors are a major force in Canada's private equity market, Torys LLP's Amanda Balasubramanian and Jonathan Wiener write. But when they undertake deals in Canada, U.S. investors encounter big differences in debt terms relative to south of the border. Balasubramanian and Wiener discuss these differences and what they mean for future deal-making.
Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA is considering selling control of fuel distribution unit BR Distribuidora SA after bidders failed to emerge for a minority stake, sources told Reuters. BR Distribuidora, recently estimated at US$10 billion in value, has drawn bids from private equity firms and other investors, including Canada's Brookfield Asset Management, GP Investments and Advent International, one source said.
British private equity firm Terra Firma has rejected bids from a Chinese company for leasing group AWAS worth up to US$2.2 billion in the latest evidence of attempted deal-making in the aircraft financing business, sources told Reuters. China's HNA Group made two offers for the group, the sources said. Terra Firma and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) invested in Dublin-based AWAS in 2006. The deal gave CPPIB a 25 percent stake in the company.
Ottawa-based Mitel Networks Corp is in talks to merge with U.S. peer Polycom Inc, in a deal that would combine the voice and telephony equipment providers and heed the demands of U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, sources told Reuters. Elliott has been calling for the two companies to merge since October, when the US$23 billion fund disclosed a 6.6 percent stake in Polycom and a 9.6 percent stake in Mitel.
Australia's Asciano Ltd has agreed to a A$9.1 billion (US$6.8 billion) buyout by two consortia after a seven-month bidding war for the port and rail giant, Reuters reported. Asciano said it supported a joint bid from local rival Qube Holdings Ltd, Canada's Brookfield Asset Management and a host of backers from China to Qatar. Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board is among the investors that will get Asciano's railways business.