What You Need To Know This Week — November 9th, 2019
What You Need To Know This Week
A weekly recap to keep you informed on the most important events this week impacting markets, business, tech and the global economy.
CPPIB ACQUIRES CANADA’S BIGGEST WIND POWER PRODUCER FOR US$6.1 BILLION
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced the acquisition of wind power producer Pattern Energy Group for US$6.1 billion, inclusive of debt. The friendly deal was struck at $26.75 per share, representing a premium of 14.8%. The deal reflects Canada’s largest pension fund’s increasing demand for both renewable power and stable infrastructure assets.
WALGREENS CONSIDERS GOING PRIVATE IN LARGEST LEVERAGED BUYOUT OF ALL TIME
Dow Jones Industrial Average constituent Walgreens Boots Alliance has been in discussions to go private in what could be the largest leveraged buyout of all time. The pharmacy behemoth has been in discussions with several private equity firms for an LBO valued at well over $70 billion. This would be the second time that Walgreens has been taken private, the last time being the 2007 leveraged buyout by KKR.
GFL ENVIRONMENTAL IPO FLOPS
In what was to be the largest Canadian initial public offering in many years, GFL Environmental’s IPO failed to generate sufficient interest and was pulled. Investors balked at GFL’s initial $20.00-$24.00 per share marketing range in addition to the company’s debt levels. The Ontario-based waste hauler has $6.5 billion of debt and is yet to be profitable. The offering was expected to raise as much as US$2.4 billion.
SAUDI ARAMCO LAUNCHES MUCH ANTICIPATED IPO
Saudi Arabia’s state owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, officially moved forward with plans for an initial public offering. The IPO is expected to be the largest of all time, and could value the company as high as $1.5 trillion, making it the most valuable company worldwide. The IPO includes selling 1–2% of the company for an offering size of $15-$30 billion.
Recommended Articles, Podcasts, Books and Tweets
Listen to Dawn Fitzpatrick, CIO of Soros Fund Management, discuss her career and investment process on the Capital Allocators podcast.
AQR’s Cliff Asness makes the case for value stocks given their relative attractiveness compared to historical levels.
Canada lost 1,800 jobs in October as the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5%.
About half of European investors have embraced alternative risk premia strategies (also know as multi-factor long-short investing).
Investing insights derived from Jim Simons, the “Man Who Solved the Market”.
A profile of Jim Simons, the “World’s Greatest Investor”.
Vancouver-based Herschel Supply, a travel accessory brand, has sold a stake in the company for $60 million.
In the midst of a proxy battle, activist investor Carl Icahn has sold nearly one-third of his stake in Occidental Petroleum.
Vancouver-based cryptocurrency exchange Einstein Exchange has gone bankrupt.
Rapper Drake is now a cannabis entrepreneur through his company More Life Growth Co., a joint venture with Canopy Growth Corp.
What should investors expect from private equity? Lower returns than in the past.
Institutional allocations to alternative ETFs will increase two and half times over the next 12 months, from $47 billion to $114 billion.
Canadian Roboadvisor Planswell shut down amidst financing issues.
OSAM looks at machine learning in investing, specifically, clustering for an improved value model.
Burnout: Bay Street cashed in on the cannabis craze, now retail investors are suffering through its downturn.
Institutional investors have overpaid by about 3.0% per year for their non-core real estate funds.
Legendary hedge fund manager Ray Dalio: The World Has Gone Mad and the System Is Broken.
Xerox is considering a bid for PC and printer maker HP worth at least $27 billion.
