Here are the top reads on deals and financial services over the last 24 hours,
Why Mawer Investment Management is mulling a sale – and other firms will too: The news that Mawer Investment Management Ltd., which oversees $50-billion of client money, has hired bankers to consider a sale isn’t all that surprising. The number of large-scale independent firms in Canada’s money management industry is shrinking, and the buyers – namely the Canadian banks – have been willing to pay up. Story (Tim Kiladze, for subscribers)
Dream real estate companies enter venture finance with $40-million partnership: Toronto real estate mogul Michael Cooper and his portfolio of Dream real estate companies have become the latest big-name Canadian corporate players to invest in the booming technology business. Story (Sean Silcoff, for subscribers)
GMP Capital CEO forecasts turnaround for oil sector: The chief executive of GMP Capital Inc. is betting on a rebound for Canada’s energy sector, but even at today’s deeply discounted crude prices he doesn’t foresee having to trim staff. Story (Alexandra Posadzki, for subscribers)
Financial markets can suffer from the blues, too: Have markets got you down this fall? While you may well know that gloomy financial markets can depress your mood, it turns out your mood can also influence markets. Opinion (Lisa Kramer)
Dragons’ Den star raises $70-million for startup that finances e-commerce retailers: Michele Romanow started to notice a pattern as she sat through pitch after pitch as a star of TV’s Dragons' Den earlier this decade. While Ms. Romanow didn’t want to invest in many of the e-commerce businesses appealing for her money, she did think she could provide them with capital in a more effective way by temporarily underwriting their online advertising in exchange for a cut of revenues. After doing about 10 such deals with her life partner, Andrew D’Souza, the two successful serial entrepreneurs had a business idea of their own to pitch. On Monday, their three-year-old Toronto company, Clear Finance Technology Corp. (operating as Clearbanc) is set to announce it has raised US$70-million to offer a new financing alternative for young e-commerce businesses. Story (Sean Silcoff, for subscribers)
Montreal software firm Lightspeed prepares for initial public offering: Montreal software firm Lightspeed POS Inc. is gearing up for an initial public offering, with the firm selecting banks to lead the deal and adding new directors with experience inside publicly-traded technology companies. The company sells software to the retail and restaurant sectors. Story (Sean Silcoff, for subscribers)
Canada’s banks doing fewer deals, draining bonus pool: Canada’s banks closed the books on their financial year at the end of October, and when it comes to deal-making in their capital markets divisions, 2018 goes down as a year to forget. The value of stock sales for Canadian companies dropped significantly over the past 12 months, and independent investment dealers grabbed a bigger slice of a smaller pie. Story (Andrew Willis, for subscribers)
MORE DEALS NEWS
Conglomerate asset sale: General Electric Co will sell assets with “urgency” to reduce its high debt, Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp said on Monday, as GE shares tumbled as much as 10 per cent and the cost of insuring its debt hit a six-year high. Story
Tech sector: German business software company SAP has agreed to buy Qualtrics International for $8-billion in cash, pre-empting a planned stock market listing by the U.S.-based company which specialises in tracking online sentiment. Story (for subscribers)
IPO: SoftBank Group Corp has won approval to conduct a 2.4 trillion yen (US$21.04-billion) initial public offering (IPO) of its domestic telecoms business, in a deal that will seal the group’s transformation into a top global technology investor. Story (for subscribers)
The Streetwise newsletter is Tuesday to Saturday. If you’re reading this on the web, or if someone forwarded this e-mail to you, you can sign up for Streetwise and all Globe newsletters on our signup page.