Harbert Private Equity Fund II has sold PWI Holding to KAR Auction Services Inc. KAR is the holding company for ADESA, Insurance Auto Auctions and Automotive Finance Corporation. ADESA is a provider of wholesale used vehicle auctions with 67 North American locations and its subsidiary OPENLANE provides an Internet automotive auction platform.
Peterson Partners has acquired Angoss Software Corporation for $8.4 million. Angoss delivers predictive analytics to businesses looking to improve performance across sales, marketing and risk.
The Norweigian partner in Hansen Protection Canada Ltd., Hansen Protection AS, which last year established the Canadian operation in a joint venture with Darmouth Nova Scotia-based Helly Hansen Canada Ltd., has been sold for an undisclosed price by Montagu Private Equity. The buyer was another European private equity firm, IK Investment Partners. Hansen Protection Canada specializes in the development of survival suits. Teachers' Private Capital took a majority position in Norway's Helly Hansen AS in 2012.
Toronto-based North American Palladium Ltd. (NAP), a precious metals producer focused on its Lac des Iles mine in Ontario, has obtained a US$130 million senior secured term loan from Brookfield Capital Partners, the private equity group of Brookfield Asset Management. NAP will use the proceeds of the debt financing, which matures in 2017, to repay senior secured notes, fund capital expenditures related to expanding the company's Ontario mining project, and for general business purposes.
Sycamore Partners said Wednesday it closed its buy of Hot Topic. The deal is valued at about $600 million. Guggenheim Securities advised Hot Topic. Sycamore announced its buy of Hot Topic, a teen retailer, in March.
Brookfield Property Partners LP (BPY), the recently spun-out commercial real estate platform of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, has joined with its institutional partners to acquire U.K.-based EZW Gazeley Ltd., a developer of logistics warehouses and distribution parks. The seller in the undisclosed deal was Economic Zones World, part of the state-owned Dubai World. BPY will take an approximate 30% stake in the company.
The LongRiver Partners consortium, comprised of Borealis Infrastructure Management, the infrastructure investment arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, Kuwait Investment Office and the British Universities Superannuation Scheme, "walked away empty handed" in its bid to acquire U.K.-based water company Severn Trent PLC, reports Reuters. The consortium's third proposal, which was estimated to value US$8.2 billion, was recently turned down by Severn Trent. The deal's deadline, established by British regulators, was on June 11th.
Kensington Global Private Equity Fund, which is managed by Toronto's Kensington Capital Partners, has made a $1.6 million direct investment in CGL Manufacturing Inc., a Guelph, Ontario-based supplier of machined castings and components, fabrications and assemblies. The Kensington fund was created as a mutual trust fund to give Canadian individuals and other investors access to a diversified portfolio of global private equity investments.
Rochester, New York-based Carestream Health Inc., a medical imaging systems provider, and portfolio company of Onex Corp., has raised US$2.4 billion of debt to fund a US$725 million distribution to shareholders. The new debt will also help refinance existing debt facilities and pay recapitalization expenses. Combined with prior distributions, Onex will have received approximately US$1.2 billion in total, representing a 2.6X gross multiple of invested capital and a 22% cash-on-cash rate of return, and will continue to own approximately 91% of Carestream.
Brampton, Ontario-based Par-Pak Ltd., a designer and manufacturer of plastic packaging with manufacturing facilities in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, has been acquired by U.S. private equity firm Olympus Partners and its portfolio company The Waddington Group Inc. of Covington, Kentucky. While the transaction value was not disclosed, estimates cited by peHUB in May have put it at over US$300 million. Waddington was acquired by Olympus Partners in October 2012.