Here are the top reads,
Bought deal: Royal Dutch Shell PLC is selling its 8-per-cent stake in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. in a $4.3-billion secondary offering that ranks as one of the largest-ever Canadian share sales.. Story (Jeffrey Jones, for subscribers)
From Globe Investor: Analysts are turning overwhelmingly bullish on Manulife Financial Corp. amid a brightening economic backdrop and the company’s improving financial performance. Is the stock at last regaining the lustre it lost nearly a decade ago? Story (David Berman, for subscribers)
FINANCIAL SERVICES WRAP
Currencies: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Monday said buyers of bitcoin, which he has characterized as “rat poison squared,” thrive on the hope they’ll find other people who will pay more for it. Likening bitcoin demand to the tulip mania in 17th century Holland, Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said the mystique behind the cryptocurrency has driven a surge in its price. Story
Activist exit: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold his stake in American International Group Inc, ending a more than two-year association with one of the largest U.S. property and casualty insurers, according to a person familiar with the matter. Story
DEAL WRAP
Real estate sector: Canadian department store owner Hudson’s Bay Co and joint venture partner RioCan REIT have signed a conditional agreement to sell HBC’s flagship store in downtown Vancouver for about $675 million (US$524.4 million) to an Asian buyer, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Story
E-commerce sector: Walmart is likely to announce its much-anticipated deal to buy a controlling stake in Indian e-commerce player Flipkart before the end of this week, two sources said, in what is likely to be the U.S. retail giant’s biggest acquisition of a business. Story
Telecom sector: Nokia said on Monday it has acquired software maker SpaceTime Insight, which industrial customers use to manage millions of devices and assets across their networks, marking. Story
Canadian venture capital: Kitchener-based Miovision has raised $15 million in a round led by MacKinnon, Bennett & Co. (MKB) and McRock Capital, with participation from new investors BDC Capital and HarbourVest Partners. BetaKit
U.S venture capital: Mesosphere has raised US$125 million in a fourth round of funding for its hybrid cloud platform and announced it has nearly tripled its revenues in the past year. Mesosphere DC/OS automates operations to deliver digital transformation technologies on hybrid cloud infrastructure, and it completely automates operations for container tools like Kubernetes and data engineering and machine learning tools like TensorFlow, Apache Kafka, Cassandra, and Apache Spark. VentureBeat
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Careers: Toronto’s most prominent returnship is Women in Capital Markets’ Return to Bay Street, which works with a broad group of financial institutions to help women relaunch careers. In four years, the initiative has placed 42 women back in the industry. Story
Retail sector: Larry Rosen is finding a new fashion fit in some unlikely ways. The chief executive officer of posh men’s wear chain Harry Rosen Inc. has seen unprecedented upheaval in the business over the past two years. Against that tough backdrop, Mr. Rosen is looking to team up with other players through new joint ventures and acquisitions, amid similar initiatives among other retailers. e="" class="selected-link">Story (Marina Strauss, for subscribers)
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