World Business Briefing: Canada: Jefferies Acquires an Advisory Unit
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The Jefferies Group said it had acquired the Putnam Lovell investment banking business, a provider of merger advice to asset managers and broker dealers, from National Bank Financial Group of Canada. Terms were not disclosed. Jefferies, an underwriter and merger adviser to midsize companies, said this is the fifth industry-focused M.& A. group it has acquired in less than five years. The purchase will expand Jefferiesâ ability to make deals in the asset management sector.
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BCE Inc, Canada's largest telecommunications group, on Saturday accepted a C$51.7 billion ($48.5 billion) offer from a group including the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, and said it would be the largest buyout in Canadian corporate history.
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Goodman Global, a maker of heating and air-conditioning equipment, agreed to be acquired by affiliates of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for about $1.8 billion in cash.
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The Royal Bank of Canada agreed to buy a money manager J. B. Hanauer & Company of New Jersey, in its sixth acquisition in the United States in the last year. Details of the purchase, which is expected to be completed in May, were not disclosed, Royal Bank said. J. B. Hanauer, created in 1931, specializes in fixed-income and wealth management services. The company, based in Parsippany, has five offices in three states, with about 300 employees including 147 financial consultants, and almost $10 billion in assets under administration.
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Ferris, Baker Watts, a Washington investment bank whose roots date back more than a century, will be acquired by Royal Bank of Canada, giving Canada's biggest bank a foothold in the mid-Atlantic.
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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ is looking to add real-time capabilities to its data integration software by buying Canadian firm DataMirrorÂ for about C$170 million (US$162.3 million). The two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire all outstanding DataMirror common shares for C$27 per share, they announced Monday. IBM's offer represents a premium of 19.4 percent compared with the average trading price of DataMirror's common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange over the last 20 days. In Monday midmorning trading, DataMirror's shares rose 4.2 percent on the news, up from Friday's close of C$22.50. Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal is set to close in the third quarter of this year. DataMirror's Transformation Server software identifies and captures data that has been added, updated, or deleted, and it enables the changed information to be delivered in real time to processes, applications, and databases. IBM previously partnered with DataMirror, pointing customers to the vendor whenever they needed heterogenous real-time change data-capture software. However, recently, it became clear that IBM needed to own the technology since more and more of its users required it. "DataMirror's capabilities are very important for our Information on Demand strategy," said Michael Curry, director, product strategy and management, information platform and solutions at IBM. Having the ability to note data changes as they occur and react accordingly is vital for users of dynamic warehouses, master data management, and service-oriented architecture, he added. Information on Demand is designed to give users access to all kinds of data regardless of where it's stored in their enterprises. A key piece of that strategy isÂ Information Server, data integration software IBM released last year, based on technology it acquired through the 2005 $1.1 billion purchase of Ascential. IBM plans to continue offering DataMirror's data integration, auditing, high availability, and data replication software as stand-alone products as well as incorporating them into Information Server, Curry said. "We've already seen very strong traction for Information Server," he added. Acquiring DataMirror is testimony to the fact that the Information Server business is growing so well that IBM continues to invest in the product, Curry said. IBM expects to release a more detailed road map for DataMirror once the acquisition has closed. DataMirror will become part of IBM's Information Management Software unit, which is headed up by Ambuj Goyal. IBM was particularly attracted to DataMirror by its very broad support of different types of data, Curry said. The Canadian vendor provides data integration on Windows, Unix, IBM's System i servers and mainframes and supports databases from IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase. DataMirror also has its own Java database called PointBase. There's no real overlap between DataMirror's technologies and what IBM already has, Curry said. IBM already provides some data capture capabilities but they're limited to its DB2 database. IBM intends to continue DataMirror's partnerships with other vendors, notably BEA Systems, Business Objects, Microsoft, and Oracle. Such relationships are vital to ensure that IBM can be effective in offering heterogenous data integration, Curry said. With its headquarters in Markham, Ontario, DataMirror has around 2,200 customers. IBM hopes to retain all of the firm's 220-plus staff, Curry said.
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The Manulife Financial Corporation, a Canadian life insurance company, said it would buy the Berkshire-TWC Financial Groupâs mutual fund and securities dealerships to bolster its Canadian wealth management business. Manulife said the deal would double its number of Canadian wealth management advisers and triple its assets under administration in that business. The deal is part of a plan by Manulife of Toronto to expand its mutual funds unit. The takeover creates a sales force of 1,500 independent advisers and a business with about 19 billion Canadian dollars ($17.7 billion) in assets under administration. The price was not disclosed.
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PITTSBURGH Mellon Financial Corporation has agreed to acquire The Providence Group Investment Advisory Company, a private investment firm.
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WORLEY Group became a true global player in mining services yesterday with the acquisition of an American partner. The $US245 million ($A350 million) purchase of US-based Parsons E&amp;C will turn Worley into a near billion-dollar business.
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A Canadian banking group has reached an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the parent of Evergreen Bank of Glens Falls.
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Johnson &amp; Johnson (J&amp;J) agreed yesterday to acquire Guidant Corporation for $25.4 billion (R147 billion), adding electrical devices for treating heart disease to
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BCE Inc , Canada's largest telecommunications group, on Saturday accepted a C$51.7 billion ($48.5 billion) offer from a group including the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, and said it would be the largest buyout in Canadian corporate history.
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TORONTO (CP) - Canadian door maker Masonite International Corp. is being acquired by a US buyout company in a friendly deal worth $3.1 billion.
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The Jefferies Group, the brokerage firm, has agreed to pay about $9.7 million to settle charges that it gave $2 million worth of gifts, travel and entertainment to equity traders employed by Fidelity Investments to win business, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday.
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The Onex Corporation, Canadaâs largest investment firm, has joined the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board in its bid for Bell Canada, the countryâs largest telephone company. Onex will bring additional capital to the bid and help ensure that the pension fundâs bid meets Canadian ownership requirements for telecommunications companies. Others in the bidding group include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Caisse de DÃ©pÃ´t et Placement du QuÃ©bec, that provinceâs biggest pension fund. Bell, which changed its name from BCE last week, has formally recognized two other bidding groups, one led by the Ontario Teachersâ Pension Plan, Bellâs largest stockholder with 6.3 percent of its shares, and the other led by Cerberus Capital Management working with unnamed Canadian investors.
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Bangalore: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) acquired a Canadian off-shore oilfield in West Australia yesterday, its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Subir Raha, announced today.
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InfoWorld - IBM&#160;is looking to add real-time capabilities to its data integration software by buying Canadian firm DataMirror&#160;for about C$170 million(US$162.3 million).