ADVERTISEMENT

Canadian Builder Aecon Hires Bank Advisers to Explore Sale

Construction Firm Aecon Is Said to Hire Advisers to Explore Sale

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc. confirmed Friday as its shares skyrocketed that it has hired advisers to explore a potential sale.

Aecon, which helped build Toronto’s CN Tower, is working with Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal on the sales process.

Trading of the company’s shares was temporarily halted Friday after Bloomberg News reported the potential sale. After rising more than 26 percent, its shares were up 24 percent to C$17.79 at 2:47 p.m. in Toronto, giving the company a market value of more than C$1 billion ($800 million).

The company could attract interest from Chinese bidders, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because it’s private.

“Any transaction would be intended to create shareholder value and enhance the company’s capabilities and growth potential,” Aecon said in a statement. “There can be no assurance that this process will result in any agreement or that a transaction will be consummated.”

Shares of Aecon had fallen 23 percent in the past year through Thursday. The company could be worth about C$24.96 a share in a takeover based on recent transactions in the sector, Maxim Sytchev, a Toronto-based analyst with National Bank Financial, wrote in a June 4 note to clients. That would provide a 74 percent premium to Aecon’s closing price Thursday.

Activist investor Eric Rosenfeld of New York-based Crescendo Partners was nominated to Aecon’s board in June. Rosenfeld held 214,000 shares as of July 7, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Aecon has been without a permanent chief executive officer since November, when executive chairman and founder John Beck replaced Terrance McKibbon on an interim basis. The company said in July it’s still searching for a CEO.

Infrastructure Boost

Beck said on a conference call last month that Aecon, despite its share slump at the time, was well positioned to benefit from the new C$35 billion Canada Infrastructure Bank. The bank was launched by the federal government to help develop Canadian infrastructure projects.

“Aecon is currently pursuing projects at the bidding or qualification stage and have total capital costs in excess of C$25 billion,” Beck said then. “We are very positive on the impact this level of investment and pipeline of projects will have on Aecon’s growth and margin profile."

Aecon operates companies across the mining, infrastructure, energy and services industries, building projects from factories, roads and sewers to theaters, book stores and hotels, according to its website.

To contact the reporters on this story: Vinicy Chan in Hong Kong at vchan91@bloomberg.net, Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha