The Globe and Mail

 

Blogs

Featured:

Thursday, October 8, 2009 9:18 AM

Private equity buys Livingston International

Andrew Willis

The CPP Investment Board teamed up with a U.S. private equity fund Thursday to pick off customs brokerage firm Livingston International Income Fund for $273-million, the latest in a series of income trust takeovers by pension funds.

CPP Investment Board struck an alliance with Sterling Partners, a $4-billion fund that focuses on service business holdings, to make a friendly bid for Livingston. The deal comes after a strategic review of the income trust’s options, with Livingston chairman Peter Valentine saying in a press release: “This transaction delivers significant value and liquidity to our unitholders, and strengthens Livingston's future growth prospects.”

The takeover is pitched at $8 a unit, a 29 per cent premium to where Livingston last traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It requires unit holder approval. A number of income trusts, which tend to generate steady cash returns, have been snapped up by private equity funds since the federal government announced a new tax regime for the sector in 2006.

The planned Livingston purchase is likely the start of a consolidation play, with the new owners backing acquisitions by the Livingston management team. Mark Wiseman, senior vice-president and head of private equity at the CPP Investment Board, said: "We look forward to working with Livingston to build its leading market position in the Canadian customs brokerage industry."

Scotia Capital advised Livingston on the transaction, with Stikeman Elliott as legal counsel. Across the table, CIBC World Markets Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities worked with the private equity funds, along with law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt.

Latest Comments

Most recent posts from the Streetwise blog

CPPIB takes a big stake in Progress 6:11 PM EST

BMO lures back deal-maker 3:11 PM EST

Bombardier locks in $1-billion 3:01 PM EST

Intrawest asset sales continue 6:04 PM EST

Most recent posts from the Streetwise blog

More business and investing posts

Number Cruncher

Upstart exchanges complicate stock pricing 7:53 PM EST

Market Blog

The close: Greece rescue hopes lift stocks 6:14 PM EST

More business and investing posts

Streetwise Contributors

Andrew Willis

Andrew Willis joined The Globe and Mail in September of 1995. His career has included stints at a number of publications, including The Financial Post, The Financial Times of Canada, Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, and MacLean's magazine. He also did freelance writing for Investment Executive magazine. He appears on television for BNN TV and CBC Newsworld.

Andrew has co-written a book, The Bre-X Fraud, with business journalist Douglas Goold.

Read Streetwise Tuesday through Friday in the pages of Report on Business.

 
Boyd Erman

Boyd Erman

Boyd Erman is a long-time business journalist who has worked at Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and the National Post before joining the Globe and Mail. Over the years, his areas of coverage have included economics, monetary policy, debt markets and corporate finance.

In addition, he is a regular commentator and guest host on Business News Network.

 

Steve Ladurantaye

Steve Ladurantaye wrote about technology companies in Ottawa before reporting for the Peterborough Examiner and Kingston Whig-Standard, where he won a National Newspaper Award for explanatory journalism. After joining the Globe and Mail in 2007, his work has regularly appeared in Report On Business and Globe Investor Magazine.

 
Globe and Mail reporter Tara Perkins

Tara Perkins

Tara Perkins has been a business reporter since 2004, following a brief stint as overnight editor of globeandmail.com. She has been writing for the Globe's business section since the spring of 2007, covering the banking sector during the course of the financial crisis. Prior to that, she worked for the Toronto Star. Tara has a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Guelph.

 
May 28/ 2009 - Jeff Gray is photographed for logo in Toronto, Ont. May 28/2009. Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail May 28/2009

Jeff Gray

Jeff Gray joined The Globe in 1998. After stints as a reporter in sports and as a copy editor in news, he helped relaunch globeandmail.com as a breaking news website in 2000. He moved to The Globe's Toronto city hall bureau in 2004, writing a weekly column about traffic and public transit. He has also worked for the world desk of the BBC's news website in London and for CBC News. He covers legal affairs for The Report on Business.

 
Jacquie McNish

Jacquie McNish

Jacquie McNish has been a business writer with The Globe and Mail since 1988. Prior to that she was a reporter with The Wall Street Journal.

During her time at The Globe and Mail, she has served as the paper's New York correspondent and won three National Newspaper Awards. She is the author of The Big Score: Robert Friedland and The Voisey's Bay Hustle and Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black, for which she and co-author Sinclair Stewart won the National Business Book Award. She is a co-host of Market Morning on the Business News Network.