Travel almost anywhere in North American PE circles and you’ll encounter people who know and speak highly of Rod Senft, founder and managing director of Canadian mid-market private equity firm Tricor Pacific Capital. If you don’t already know Derek Senft, the second of three Senft family siblings, odds are that you will very soon. He is vice president of Pender West Capital Partners, a family office that invests in small and medium-sized companies in Canada and the western United States.
French energy and communications services group Spie plans to raise 500 million euros (US$682 million) in new capital as part of an initial public offering that should be completed by the end of this year, Reuters reported. The group, currently owned by private equity funds Ardian, Clayton Dublier & Rice and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is also expected to sell existing stock in an offering that could value the group at about 4 billion euros (US$5.5 billion). Spie provides mechanical and electrical engineering services to improve energy efficiency.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has been named the world's biggest private equity investor by Private Equity International's PEI LP50. CPPIB received the ranking with an 18 percent allocation to private equity and US$26.2 billion committed to or invested in opportunities over the past five years. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also placed in the report's top ten, while British Columbia Investment Management Corp (bcIMC) was ranked 32nd on the list.
Northern Blizzard Resources Inc, a portfolio company of U.S. private equity firms Riverstone Holdings and NGP Energy Capital Management, is planning to launch an initial public offering, according to a report by Bloomberg. The report said the Canadian oil and gas company is seeking $500 million from the IPO. Riverstone and NGP plan to sell their $150 million of stock through the same offering. Based in Calgary, Northern Blizzard was founded in late 2009.
Driven by brisk activity in the oil, gas and infrastructure sectors, the total value of M&A deals in Canada jumped by 37 percent to US$89.5 billion in the first half of 2014, according to data released by Thomson Reuters, Reuters reported. U.K.-based Barclays led in M&A by deal value, advising on transactions worth US$21.9 billion. Royal Bank of Canada led investment banks in advising on debt and equity issuance.
Lululemon Athletica Inc founder Dennis Wilson's advisers have been talking to private equity firms including Leonard Green & Partners to find out if they are interested in buying the fashionable Canadian yoga gear maker, Reuters reported citing an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal. The buyout would face trouble given the premium that would be needed over the company's US$6 billion market capitalization. Before going public in 2007, Lululemon was a portfolio company of U.S. private equity firms Advent International and Highland Capital Partners.
Mergers and acquisitions in Canada's energy sector have rebounded from a dull 2013 and look poised for a further pickup, driven by the country's rapidly developing shale oil and gas properties rather than its better known oil sands, Reuters reported. Six months in 2014, merger activity in the domestic sector of about US$15 billion has already topped last year's total. The current round of acquisition activity has become more focused compared with prior years, with buyers looking for targets operating in specific geographic regions.
Tuckamore Capital Management, which invests in early- and mid-stage private companies, said on Wednesday it believes a leading proxy advisory firm's recommendation against a proposed management-led buyout of Tuckamore is flawed, Reuters reported. The buyout plan, backed by Canadian private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners, already has faced opposition from shareholders that control close to 30 percent of Tuckamore's shares. Tuckamore announced in May that senior management, with the support of Birch Hill, agreed to acquire the firm in a deal that valued it at about $60 million.
CarProof, a portfolio company of U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, has bought vehicle valuation guide Canadian Red Book Ltd, according to a report by Canadian Auto World. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed. Founded in 2000, the London, Ontario-based CarProof is a supplier of comprehensive used vehicle history reports. Last August, the company sold a minority stake to Hellman & Friedman for an undisclosed sum.
Investor support for large acquisitions and a desire to trump rivals in consolidating markets have led chief executives to strike big transactions so far in 2014, raising year-to-date global deal volumes to their highest level in seven years, Reuters reported. Year-to-date global deal volume as of June 26 surged to US$1.75 trillion, up 75 percent from the year-ago period, according to Thomson Reuters data. That was the highest level since 2007, when deal volume reached US$2.28 trillion.