Bank towers are shown from Bay Street in Toronto's financial district, on Wednesday, June 16, 2010.
Stelco Holdings Inc. plans to raise $150-million in an initial public offering, money that the Hamilton, Ontario-based company will plow into production of high quality steel for auto makers and construction. Story (Andrew Willis and Greg Keenan)
For Metro Inc., the Quebec-based grocery chain, a takeover of pharmacy operator Jean Coutu Group could help inoculate itself against the effects of the growth of Amazon and any other e-commerce entrants. Story (Jeffrey Jones)
DAILY DEALS
Grocer Metro Inc. is in talks to acquire pharmacy retailer Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. for $4.5-billion amid rising consolidation in the grocery and drugstore segments and tough new drug reforms that are squeezing retailers' profits. Story (Marina Strauss)
Alstom SA's merger with the train-making arm of Siemens AG will mark the end of a bitter rivalry as the European rail industry's biggest adversaries unite in an effort to fend off the challenge from China and Japan. Story
Klue has announced $5-million in new funding to help sales teams equip themselves with useful competitive intelligence. The Vancouver-based company's funding round was led by OMERS Ventures, along with BDC Venture Capital, Vancouver Founder Fund and SK Ventures. A few angel investors also kicked in funds, including the CEOs of Hootsuite and Helpful. Techvibes
Toronto-based Zoom.ai has announced the acquisition of SimplyInsight, an automated data analysis and visualization startup. SimplyInsight's platform integrates data from a wide-range of sources that's ready to be analyzed by a built-in data bot. Techvibes
Toronto-based Analytics 4 Life has raised a $25-million (U.S.) Series B to support its mission of using AI to disrupt medical imaging. Betakit
Novacap has closed the largest technology deal in the firm's 35-year history, teaming up with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to back a payment processing company. Novacap and the Caisse today announced their investment in Pivotal Payments, a payment and merchant services specialist based in Montréal. The deal values the business at about $525.-million. PE Hub
Playbuzz has raised $35-million (U.S.) in funding from investors including Disney for its sponsored social content. Venture Beat
Fast-growing Atlanta software startup CallRail announced today that it has raised a $75-million (U.S.) growth capital round from Sageview Capital and Leaders Fund. Venture Beat
ELSEWHERE IN FINANCE
Bombardier Inc.'s euro-denominated bonds maturing in 2021 have declined the most in more than two years after the U.S. imposed import duties of 220 per cent on the company's C-series plane, threatening to upend deliveries of more than $5-billion to Delta Air Lines Inc. next year. Story
Many less-wealthy home buyers could be shut out of the housing market and forced to continue renting if proposed mortgage stress-testing rules are adopted by Canada's banking regulator, an association representing Canadian credit unions has warned. Story (Janet McFarland and James Bradshaw)
Fortum Oyj has cornered Uniper SE's management and ordinary shareholders. The Finnish power generator suggests that its deal to buy 47 percent of its German peer from E.ON SE is friendly. However welcome to E.ON, Uniper's other shareholders will be less than thrilled. Bloomberg
Private trades in Spotify shares are valuing the music streaming company at about $16 billion, according to people familiar with the deals, raising the prospect of a bumper flotation next year. Reuters
Italian tiremaker Pirelli has lowered the maximum valuation it expects in its initial public offering (IPO) by 19 percent to 6.7 billion euros ($7.9 billion), a notice to investors reviewed by Reuters showed on Wednesday. Reuters
Regulators in the United States and Europe have imposed $342-billion of fines on banks since 2009 for misconduct, including violation of anti-money laundering rules, and that is likely to top $400-billion by 2020, a research report said on Wednesday. Story
WHAT WE'RE READING
The Massive Hedge Fund Betting on AI: Initially wary of the technology, Man Group was soon persuaded by the returns from algorithm-centric funds Bloomberg
Around three million members of U.K. defined benefit schemes have only a 50 per cent chance of receiving their full benefits in retirement unless pension schemes make big changes that include consolidation, accord to research published Wednesday. Institutional Investor
Thirty-million-dollar seed and angel rounds are in stark contrast to what you might expect for those stages. But based on the growth in VC funding, could they become the norm? Pitchbook
Scandinavian regulators are warning finance professionals that they're unlikely to get the clarity they crave on MiFID II before it takes effect in just over three months. Bloomberg