Monthly Archives: January 2013

Calgary, Alberta-based Kanata Energy Group Ltd. has established itself as a new midstream infrastructure and service company with the closing of a C$330 million financing from a consortium of Canadian and US private equity firms. ARC Financial Corp., the Dallas, Texas-based Energy Spectrum Capital, and Teachers' Private Capital jointly backed the Kanata management team, which has a track record in Western Canada's energy industry and in building and operating midstream infrastructure assets.

Oroco Resource Corp., a Vancouver, British Columbia-based portfolio company of private equity firm Pinetree Capital, has agreed to sell 100% of the company's interest in the Cerro Prieto Project, a gold and silver project located in Sonora, Mexico, to Goldgroup Mining, Inc. The total consideration for the acquisition, which is expected to close by June, 2013, is US$18 million. Goldgroup Mining, a gold production, development and exploration company, is also based in Vancouver.

The Board of Directors of Val-d'Or, Québec-based Aurizon Mines Ltd. has urged shareholders to reject a C$780 million acquisition bid by Alamos Gold, Inc., announced earlier in January. The unsolicited takeover offer, which was described by Aurizon directors as "financially inadequate and opportunistic," will remain open until February 19, 2013. Aurizon is a gold producer focused on developing existing projects in the Abitibi region of north-western Québec.  The company has in past received investments from the Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ).

Canadian pension fund manager the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has extended a C$50 million term loan to Cogeco Cable Inc. that will assist in the company's purchase of PEER 1 Network Enterprises Inc., a Vancouver-based internet infrastructure supplier specializing in managed hosting and cloud services. The recently-closed PEER 1 acquisition, valued at C$635 million, provided the Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group with an exit, generating an internal rate of return of 40%. Clairvest first invested in the company in 2009.

TC Media, a brand of Montréal's Transcontinental Inc., has acquired Groupe Modulo, a publisher of French-language educational resources and materials and a subsidiary of the Scarborough, Ontario-based Nelson Education Ltd. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nelson is a portfolio company of Apax Partners and OMERS Private Equity. The British and Canadian buyout firms jointly acquired Nelson and its US affiliate Cenage Learning Inc. from Thomson Corp. (now Thomson Reuters, publisher of peHUB Canada) as part of a US$7.75 billion transaction in 2007.

To end your Thursday, we have news that Apple is discontinuing MacPro in Europe, DOJ sues to stop AB Inbev from buying Grupo Modelo and Beyonce vows to sing live at the Super Bowl. And so much more!

Santen, an Emeryville, Calif.-based subsidiary of Japan-based Santen Pharmaceuticals, has entered into a research collaboration agreement with Clearside Biomedical of Alpharetta, Georgia, a company in which Santen, along with other financial backers, is also making an investment. Specifically, Clearside's "microinjection platform," which provides access to the retina and choroid, just attracted $7.9 million in fresh funding from Santen, Mountain Group Capital, Hatteras Venture Partners, Georgia Research Alliance Fund, and Kenan Flagler Business School Private Equity Fund.

Bright Horizon Resources, a newly formed oil and natural gas exploration and production company, has received a $300 million equity commitment from Denham Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm focused on energy and resources.

Tony James, the Blackstone Group's president, called 2012 the best year for the global buyout shop since it went public in 2007. But the deal scene? That's another issue.

Nearly one in three companies listed on the nation's stock exchanges have little or no analyst coverage, and most of these are small caps, with market capitalization of less than $250 million, according to a report from Keating Capital.