Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has agreed to buy GE Capital's private equity lending portfolio for US$12 billion, in a deal that will greatly expand the Canadian pension fund manager's lending business, Reuters reported. GE's Chicago-based Antares unit is the leading lender to mid-market transactions in the United States. Over the past five years, it has provided over US$120 billion in financing.
General Electric Co is near a deal to sell its private equity lending unit to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a source told Reuters, as the conglomerate takes a big step in a planned massive pullback from its finance operations. The deal with the Canadian pension fund manager is expected to include GE's Antares Capital business, a middle-market lender for private equity-backed transactions.
Shares of DavidsTea Inc, a specialty tea retailer that has grown rapidly in Canada and the United States since its founding in Montréal in 2008, rose as much as 39 percent in their U.S. debut, valuing the company at about US$600 million, Reuters reported. The company's IPO raised about US$97 million after the stock was priced at a revised US$19 per share. Highland Consumer Partners, DavidsTea's backer since 2012, also sold shares.
Private equity-backed Nelson Education, a Canadian educational publisher, recently obtained creditor protection and is expected to soon yield control of the business to a group of first lien lenders. In a website statement, Nelson said it has agreed with top lenders to create a new entity to acquire substantially all of the company’s assets and obligations. The deal is expected to close in June.
Newly listed Stingray Digital Group plans to spend some $50 million this year to acquire broader distribution for its streaming music channels, its CEO told Reuters. Shares in Montréal-based Stingray jumped 19 percent on their debut, a shot in the arm for Canada's bubbling IPO market, as the company eyed acquisitions to expand across the Americas, eastern Europe and Asia.
Canadian private equity firm Novacap is likely to see a strong multiple from its investment in Montréal’s Stingray Digital Group following the company’s successful IPO on Wednesday. Novacap President and Managing Partner Pascal Tremblay told peHUB Canada he expects to see an eight-fold return from a concurrent secondary transaction that sold most of the firm's 29.4 percent interest in Stingray.
British-based holiday resort group Center Parcs has been bought by Brookfield Property Partners, after previous its owner, U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group, opted to sell the company rather than float it, Reuters reported. The deal's value was not disclosed, however, reports said Blackstone had previously rejected a US$3 billion bid for Center Parcs from another bidder.
TMAC Resources, which is currently developing the Hope Bay gold project in Canada's far north, has begun paperwork on an initial public offering and plans to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange soon, a source told Reuters. The Canadian company, which has privately raised over $157 million since it was formed in 2012, is largely owned by U.S. private equity firm Resource Capital Funds and Newmont Mining.
Private equity firm Graham Partners has exited Infiltrator Water Technologies LLC, a U.S. maker of wastewater products, after a near 10-year hold. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan announced this week it had acquired Infiltrator. Financial terms weren’t announced, but various sources put the deal's value at more than US$500 million.
Canadian e-commerce startup Shoes.com Technologies plans to go public this fall following a private funding round that tapped high net-worth individuals and private institutional capital, Chairman Roger Hardy told Reuters. The Vancouver-based company, which is backed by merchant bank Hardy Capital Partners, raised $45 million earlier this month, valuing it at $320 million.