The oil price crash of the past year and a half is forcing Canadian investment banks and corporate law firms that profited from mergers and acquisitions, and financing deals during good times to focus instead on restructuring and asset sale work, Reuters reported. The trend is reshaping the staffing makeup at these firms, with bankruptcy expertise in high demand.
Australian port operator Qube Holdings Ltd said a Chinese sovereign wealth fund was taking part in its US$6.3 billion bid for rail giant Asciano Ltd, Reuters reported. Qube revealed the participation of China Investment Corp as it made the binding cash-and-share offer, which narrowly bests an offer from Canada's Brookfield Asset Management.
American International Group Inc said it would spin off its mortgage insurance unit, cut jobs and sell its broker-dealer network as part of a sweeping overhaul promised to shareholders to fend off activist investor Carl Icahn, Reuters reported. AIG agreed to sell AIG Advisor Group to U.S. private equity firm Lightyear Capital LLC and Canada's PSP Investments.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s public pension funds are creating a first-time allocation to alternative assets with the help of Caledon Capital Management, a Toronto-based portfolio management and advisory firm. Newfoundland and Labrador Pooled Pension Fund, which oversees $9 billion in assets, decided on a market strategy in 2013 that called for a target allocation of five percent each for private equity and infrastructure.
U.S. activist hedge fund Livermore Partners is calling on Canadian and U.K. media firm Entertainment One to slow down its pace of deal-making and improve its cash flow, Reuters reported. Entertainment One's biggest investor is Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which acquired a stake in the Toronto-based company from Marwyn Investment Management in 2015.
Therapure Biopharma, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company owned by Catalyst Capital Group, has set the terms of its previously announced initial public offering. Therapure is seeking about $130 million, according to an IPO prospectus amended earlier this month. The offering includes a secondary sale by Catalyst.
The Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) and Thomson Reuters will publish their reports on Canadian private equity market activity from 2015 in the coming weeks. PE Hub Canada has in the meantime compiled a list of the likely top 10 (disclosed) buyout and other PE deals of the past year.
A string of leveraged buyout deals have stalled in recent weeks as the financing from banks dried up, in one of the biggest challenges for the private equity industry since the 2008 financial crisis, Reuters reported. While the recent plunge in equity markets is making valuations more attractive for buyout firms, the tumult in the debt markets is set to prevent many deals from getting done.
The Colombian government sold its 57.6 percent controlling stake in power generator Isagen to Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management for US$1.99 billion, Reuters reported. The deal represents the largest privatization in the country in nearly a decade. Another bidder, Chile's Colbun, withdrew from the process earlier this week.
The biggest-ever Chinese acquisition of a German company was announced on Monday, with a consortium led by state-owned China National Chemical Corp buying industrial machinery maker KraussMaffei Group for about US$1 billion, Reuters reported. The seller in the deal is Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, which acquired KraussMaffei from Madison Capital in December 2012.