A man mails a letter into a mailbox in front of a post office in Tokyo Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015.Shizuo Kambayashi/The Associated Press
DEAL OF THE DAY:
Japan Post pops on public market debut
Shares in Japan Post Holdings Co. jumped 26 per cent in its public market debut in Japan.
The privatization of the Japanese postal service was years in the works. Japan Post raised the equivalent of $12-billion (U.S.) and was sold mainly to individual investors in an effort to encourage people to invest a bigger portion of their savings.
Canada will soon be host to the partial privatization of a public utility when Hydro One Inc. makes its debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The Ontario electricity utility, which raised $1.8-billion from investors, is due to start trading on Thursday. Story
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Edgefront REIT buys properties for $12-million
Calgary-based Edgefront Real Estate Investment Trust announced it is buying two industrial properties, one in British Columbia and the other in Saskatchewan, for $12.1-million.
Edgefront is paying for the acquisition using $6.8-million in cash and $5.3-million in units. The real estate investment trust currently owns 17 properties. Press release
Expedia snaps up HomeAway for $3.9-billion (U.S.)
Online travel behemoth Expedia Inc. is buying HomeAway Inc., a competitor in the online vacation sector, for approximately $3.9-billion (U.S.).
Expedia is offering HomeAway shareholders $10.15 in cash and 0.2065 of an Expedia share. Press release
INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS
California construction services company files for Nasdaq IPO
Shimmick Construction Co., a California-based construction services company, filed on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $86-million (U.S.) in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange.
Shimmick was founded in 1990 and had approximately $470-million in sales last year. FBR Capital Markets is leading the deal. Story
INSIGHT
Bay Street gives new Finance Minister a thumbs-up
Bay Street is giving its blessing to Bill Morneau, Canada's new Finance Minister. In conversations with senior capital markets figures, Mr. Morneau was consistently described as being well liked and a smart strategic thinker. Story
SPACs vs. private equity
You could call it a SPAC smackdown.
Earlier this week, Simon Romano, the lawyer who spent years "Canadianizing" the special-purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), faced off against a skeptic or two during a lively panel discussion at the Capital Connection Conference in Toronto.
Five SPACs – publicly traded shell companies that first emerged in the United States in the 1990s – hit the market this year in Canada and raised more than $1-billion. Each has approximately two years to make an acquisition or return the money to shareholders.
"T-bill return, plus a warrant, plus a call on the business. … To me it's like a double-juiced deal," Mr. Romano, a partner with Stikeman Elliott LLP, argued on the merits of investing in SPACs. Story
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