British engineering firm WS Atkins and WSP Global are vying for control of Balfour Beatty's U.S. engineering and design business Parsons Brinckerhoff, according to the Sunday Telegraph, Reuters reported. WS Atkins and WSP are also understood to be competing with two private equity firms for the business. Based in Montréal, WSP is backed by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In April, they helped fund the company's $366 million purchase of Focus Corp, a Calgary provider of engineering and geomatics services.
Res-Care Inc, which provides home care services to the elderly and disabled, is in the early stages of exploring a sale that could fetch more than US$1 billion, sources told Reuters. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company, which is owned by Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, is working with investment banks Goldman Sachs Group and Jefferies on the potential sale. Onex has backed Res-Care since 2004.
U.S. private equity firm Sycamore Partners is considering a bid for Sears Canada Inc, sources told the New York Post, Reuters reported. Eddie Lampert, who owns a controlling stake in Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O), expects up to US$2 billion for the 176-store chain. In May, Sears Holdings said it was looking to sell its 51 percent stake in Sears Canada and will hire an investment bank to explore options.
Toronto-based secondaries intermediary Setter Capital has estimated global secondaries market volume in the first half of 2014 at about US$22 billion. Setter is estimating a 47 percent increase over the first half of 2013. It is also predicting full-year volume of US$45 billion, which would be a 25 percent increase over the total US$36 billion volume that it estimated last year.
Calgary's Seven Generations Energy has hired the Royal Bank of Canada and Peters & Co to help arrange an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported. Sources said that the energy company is seeking to raise more than $500 million in an IPO sometime before the end of 2014. Should this happen, the event will provide exit opportunities to the company's private equity backers, which include ARC Financial Corp, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, KERN Partners, Natural Gas Partners and ZBI Ventures.
Canadian media and cable company Shaw Communications Inc said it would buy data center services provider ViaWest Inc from U.S. private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners and others in a deal valued at US$1.2 billion on an enterprise basis, Reuters reported. Shaw said the deal would accelerate the development of its Canadian data center platform. Oak Hill acquired the Greenwood Village, Colorado-based ViaWest in partnership with the company's management team in 2010.
BlackBerry Ltd is buying a privately held German company that specializes in voice and data encryption in a bid to burnish its credentials with highly security-conscious clients such as government agencies, Reuters reported. The Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker did not disclose the terms of its deal to acquire Secusmart GmbH, a specialist in encryption and anti-eavesdropping services. Secusmart has in past received investments from European venture capital firms.
ONCAP, the mid-market arm of Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp, is selling Mister Car Wash after more than seven years, peHUB reported based on banking sources and a recent FTC filing. U.S. private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners is buying the Tucson, Arizona-based car wash company for between US$400 million to US$500 million. ONCAP acquired the business in April 2007.
Clairvest Group has closed its fifth partnership, Clairvest Equity Partners V LP (CEP V), at its $600 million hard cap. By all measures, fundraising this time around has surpassed past efforts by the Toronto-based mid-market private equity firm. CEP V is by far the largest third-party partnership in Clairvest's 27-year history. CEP IV, which closed in 2011, raised $467 million.
Czech gas pipeline operator Net4Gas is in the final stages of overhauling its capital structure with equity financing, bonds and bank loans, Reuters reported. Investors Allianz and Borealis Infrastructure bought into the pipeline company last year, paying German utility RWE US$2.15 billion, and have taken advantage of favourable debt markets to seek better terms for the company's capital structure. Borealis is the infrastructure investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).