Every week, we provide an overview of insider trading, investments in local businesses and news from publicly traded companies.
Montreal-based Plusgrade will pay $496 million to acquire Toronto-based Points.com. Founded in 2009, Plusgrade specializes in “upgrade solutions” for the airline industry. The Caisse de dépôt invested $200 million in it in 2018. For its part, Points.com offers a transactional platform used by some fifty airline and hotel chain loyalty programs around the world.
Claude Généreux, who has held the position of executive vice-president of Power Corporation since 2015, bought shares of the Montreal conglomerate for just over $215,000 yesterday. The title gained 3.5% yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but it remains down more than nearly 17% since the start of the year. Mr. Généreux is a former executive of the American management consulting firm McKinsey
The start-up Holos in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, which sells organic muesli cereals to be prepared the day before, has just raised $3 million as part of financing led by the Vancouver investment firm Renewal Funds, which also participated in Fondaction CSN. Founded in 2016 by Charles Sansregret and Samuel Turgeon Scofy, Holos intends to use the funds raised to increase its presence in stores across Canada.
The Montreal manager Presima, specializing in global real estate securities, has just passed into the hands of the Toronto company Slate Asset Management for an unknown sum. Presima had been owned by Australian interests since 2010. A former subsidiary of the Caisse, Presima today manages $1.1 billion in assets.
The Montreal Ecofuel Fund led a round of investment that enabled the young Quebec startup Tengiva to raise $5 million. Inovia, Anges Québec and the Ministry of the Economy have also invested in the company founded in 2018 by Annie Cyr and Carlos Agudelo. Tengiva offers a digital platform that helps fashion designers access sustainably produced textiles.
Tracy Robinson, who took over as the new CEO of Canadian National in February, bought nearly $507,000 worth of shares in the Montreal rail carrier in late April. The first woman to lead CN in its 103-year history, Ms. Robinson is the former VP. responsible for Canadian gas pipelines at TC Energy.
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