Kirk Falconer

Shareholders of Amaya Gaming Group Inc (TSX: AYA) have approved the previously announced US$4.9 billion purchase of Rational Group Ltd by the Montréal-based gaming company. Assets acquired by Amaya include Rational's online poker platforms PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Shareholders also approved the transaction's funding arrangement with GSO Capital Partners, an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm The Blackstone Group. GSO previously agreed to support the acquisition through US$655 million in share subscriptions.

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.

Smiles were brighter at Canadian private equity firm Imperial Capital Group and OPTrust Private Markets Group (PMG) this week as the two organizations completed a joint $121 million majority investment in Dental Corp, a group of Canadian dental care clinics. The investment is the largest in Imperial's 25-year history and its fifth healthcare deal. The transaction also holds significance for OPTrust PMG, which recently flagged an interest in sourcing more direct investment opportunities.

Canadian private equity firm KERN Partners has launched its fourth energy-focused partnership, KERN Energy Partners IV Fund (KEP IV), peHUB sister site peHUB Canada has exclusively learned.

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 Tricor Pacific Capital. Now his son Derek is making a name for himself at Pender West Capital.

Canadian private equity firm KERN Partners has launched its fourth energy-focused partnership, KERN Energy Partners IV Fund (KEP IV), peHUB Canada has exclusively learned. In early July, KEP IV, which is targeted to raise $750 million, completed a first close for an unspecified amount anchored by existing LPs in prior KERN funds. KEP IV has also made its premiere platform investment, backing Steelhead LNG, a Vancouver company focused on liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects that recently announced plans for building a $30 billion LNG export facility on Canada's West Coast.

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.

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.

Canadian private equity firm Auxo Management has completed a minority equity recapitalization of its portfolio company UCIT Online Security, a Mississauga, Ontario-based provider of tailored solutions for security installations, system maintenance and video monitoring. The deal involved a new investment by U.S. private equity firm Egis Capital Partners, which targets opportunities in security and homeland defense sectors. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. Auxo, which invested in UCIT in 2011, said the recapitalization is the first exit of a Canadian search fund. Torys LLP's Michael Akkawi and Sophia Tolias recently discussed the rise of search funds in the domestic market in a feature article for peHUB Canada.

Medicure Inc TSXV: MPH) has bought a minority interest in Apicore, a private developer and manufacturer of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients. The acquisition was made through a US$22.5 million deal involving U.S. private equity firm Signet Healthcare Partners, which provided an equity investment, and Knight Therapeutics Inc and Sanders Morris Harris Inc, which provided debt financing. Under the terms of the deal, Medicure received an option to acquire all of the remaining shares of Apicore within the next three years. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Medicure is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel small molecule therapeutics.