Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Canada’s fourth largest pension system, increased activity in the global private equity market last year, deploying $6.3 billion. The outlay, noted last week in PSP Investments’ fiscal 2019 report, is up 43 percent from the $4.4 billion disbursed in fiscal 2018. That helped push PE portfolio assets to $24 billion. PE investments also generated a one-year return of 16.1 percent in fiscal 2019, exceeding a benchmark of 12.3 percent. These data indicate PSP is continuing to reap the rewards of a four-year strategy that changed the way it invests in PE and infrastructure, in part by doing more direct deals.
Altas Partners has named a pioneering businesswoman to the newly created position of chair. Kathleen Taylor, the former CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, took on the role this month, Managing Partner Andrew Sheiner told PE Hub Canada. As part of the job, Taylor will provide advice and support to companies in the portfolio, Sheiner said, drawing on her more than three decades of experience as a senior executive. “We expect Katie will be an excellent resource, sounding board and thought partner for our CEOs as they manage and grow their businesses,” he said.
A group of shareholders of Hudson’s Bay Co, including Executive Chairman Richard Baker, has offered to take the Canadian department store operator private, according to a news release. The proposed deal reflects a purchase price of $9.45 per unit in cash, representing a total value of $1.74 billion, Reuters reported. The group, which owns a combined 57 percent interest in Hudson’s Bay, includes U.S. private equity firm Rhône Capital, which in 2017 agreed to invest US$500 million in the company. The deal is conditional on the sale, announced today, of Hudson’s Bay’s stake in its German real estate joint venture, and divestment of its related retail joint venture, to Signa for $1.5 billion.
CAI Capital Partners initially closed its sixth lower-mid-market fund, targeted to raise $100 million, the Vancouver private equity firm said in a news release. The amount of capital committed to the first close of CAI Capital Partners VI was not released. The money came from new and returning limited partners, CAI said, anchored by Export Development Canada, a first-time investor. Other LPs included high-net-worth individuals, family offices and institutions. Along with Fund VI’s initial close, the firm expanded its partnership team to include Rob Wildeman, best known for his more than 12 years as an investment pro with Parallel49 Equity and its predecessor Tricor Pacific Capital.
Tricor Pacific Capital wrapped up the inaugural deal of its new diversified investments strategy, acquiring a provider of maintenance welding solutions. The Canadian family office bought Rockmount Research and Alloys, a Vancouver, Washington, maker and distributor of branded consumable industrial welding-alloy tools and accessories, for an undisclosed amount. Tricor Principals Chuck Cosman and Mark Townsend told PE Hub Canada Rockmount is attractive because of its hard-to-replicate position in North America’s niche maintenance and repair welding space. Tricor, a longtime private equity brand that returned to the market in 2018 as a family office, unveiled the diversified strategy last October.
Vector Capital is selling Corel Corp again and this time the buyer is KKR, according to a source. Corel is expected to fetch more than US$1 billion ($1.3 billion), the person said. Corel is the Ottawa provider of graphics and office productivity packaged software, known for consumer-focused products like CorelDraw, WordPerfect, WinZip, PaintShop Pro and WinDVD. Vector, the San Francisco technology-focused private equity firm, first invested in 2003. The company went public three years later, raising US$104 million in 2006. But Corel’s stock under-performed, and in 2010 Vector took the company private again.
Jon McCarthy, a 12-year veteran of OMERS Private Equity, left the firm at the beginning of May, a person with knowledge of the matter told PE Hub Canada. McCarthy, a member of OPE’s Toronto team, joined in 2007 as an associate and went on to become one of the group’s 12 managing directors. His focus was the North American market. McCarthy was responsible for several platform investments, including Caliber Collision Centers, a Lewisville, Texas, auto-collision-repair business, which OPE sold earlier this year to Hellman & Friedman. He was especially active in healthcare investments, a longtime area of OPE specialization.
Altas Partners, a pioneer of long-life investing, has raised close to its US$2.5 billion target and could hold a final close this quarter, a person with knowledge of the firm told Buyouts. Whether Fund II has a cap is unclear. A spokesperson for Toronto-based Altas declined comment. Andrew Sheiner, a former senior Onex Corp executive, formed Altas in 2012. The firm invested deal by deal before raising its first fund, which closed on US$1 billion in 2016. Altas was an early adopter of the long-life philosophy in PE. Other firms that followed include funds raised by Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and KKR.
Clairvest Group held the first and final close of its sixth mid-market fund, securing about $1.1 billion (US$850 million) in committed capital. Clairvest Equity Partners VI, the largest fund in the Toronto private equity firm’s 32-year history, reached its hard cap after less than four months of fundraising, according to a news release. Clairvest, a listed firm, was CEP VI’s largest investor, committing US$230 million alongside US$620 million from limited partners. The LPs were not identified. Prior Clairvest funds were backed mostly by North American institutional investors, such as pension systems, insurers and family offices.
Wynnchurch Capital has closed its 12th platform investment in Canada, buying a maker of products used in home and commercial hardscaping projects. The mid-market private equity firm said today it acquired Alliance Designer Products, a Mirabel, Québec-based maker of polymeric sand and installation products sold mainly to contractors, dealers and manufacturers. Terms weren’t disclosed. The seller was the Tutino family, including President George Tutino and Senior Vice President Jack Tutino, brothers who founded the business in 2003. Alliance’s market focus and strategy proved a draw for Wynnchurch, which will support the company’s “next stage of growth,” Managing Director Morty White told PE Hub Canada.