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Cross Border Activity - July 2008

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There were 5 Canadian financings that involved participation by investors from the United States. The American investments included capital injections into cleantech and cleantech-related software companies.  There were three cross border M&A deals; two of the transactions were strategic acquisitions in the software space, while the third deal was the billion dollar private equity buyout of Hudson’s Bay.

 

Details of July’s cross border activity are listed below. 

 

 

U.S. Activity in Canada

 

California’s NGEN Partners made a $5 million investment in Carbonetworks, a BC-based provider of enterprise greenhouse gas emissions management software.

 

The Quercus Trust of Costa Mesa (California) led a $15 million investment in Cyrium Technologies, an Ottawa-based company developing next-generation solar cell technologies.  The Canadian participants in the deal were Pangea Ventures, BDC Venture Capital and Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital.  

 

Massachusetts’ Saturn Asset Management was one of the financiers participating in a $13 million raise by Kingston’s Performance Plants Incorporated.  The Canadian investors providing financial support to the agricultural biotech company were Ceres Global Ag Corp (TSX: CRP.UN), Endurseaux Inc (Montreal) and Eastwood Capital Corporation.

 

A Vancouver-based oncopharmaceutical company, Celator Pharmaceuticals, raised $12.5 million to close out its third round at $22.5 million.  The round was backed by Domain Associates (NJ), Quaker BioVentures (PA), TL Ventures (PA) and Healthstone Investment Ltd, as well as Canada’s Ventures West Management, GrowthWorks and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

 

Halogen Software, an Ottawa-based provider of web-based software aimed at employee performance and talent management, raised an undisclosed amount of financing from Baltimore’s JMI Equity.

 

 

Cross Border M&A

 

July’s big news entailed New York’s NRDC Equity Partners paying more than $1 billion for Hudson’s Bay and combining it with one of the other retailers in their portfolio, Lord & Taylor.

 

ION Geophysical (NYSE: IO), a Houston-based company providing software and services to the oil and gas industry, paid $350 million for a Calgary-based provider of seismic recording systems, ARAM Systems Ltd, and its affiliate company, Canadian Seismic Rentals.

 

Quebec’s Eedo Knowledgeware Corporation was acquired by Boston’s OutStart Incorporated, combining the two companies’ software expertise in the learning content management space.  Eedo was a Wellington Financial Fund III portfolio company.