Investors who have long been anticipating Valero’s(VLO) spinoff of retail division CST Brands(CST) won’t have to wait much longer. According to Convenience Store News, Valero Chief Financial Officer Mike Ciskowski said at a recent luncheon that the company was just waiting for an IRS ruling that the transaction would be tax free to shareholders, and for final Board… Read More »
In December, Harvard Bioscience(HBIO) filed for an IPO of Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technologies(HART). Last week, the company announced that the tax free spinoff was approved by the IRS, and that an IPO of 17% of the company would be conducted in early April at an expected price of $10-$12 per share. The company will spin off the remaining… Read More »
A quarter has passed since its spinoff from Elan(ELN), and Prothena(PRTA) continues to lumber forward with its development as an independent company. Prothena issued two announcements last week. In the first, it announced the expansion of its management team, with the appointments of Dr. Martin Koller as Chief Medical Officer, and Tran Nguyen as Chief Financial Officer. “Marty… Read More »
In 2006, Verizon(VZ), spun off its declining directory business as Idearc, saddled with billions in debt. Just 28 months later, the company filed for bankruptcy, Idearc has since restructured and reemerged as SuperMedia(SPMD), but trustees for the debtors are continuing their fight against Verizon for the repayment of debt. On Friday, the trustee for the creditors filed suit,… Read More »
Last January, Sears Holdings(SHLD), controlled by Eddie Lampert, spun off Orchard Supply Hardware(OSH). At the time, we were bullish on Orchard. We were wrong. Unfortunately, while the stock has plummeted, we held onto our small stake. Lampert, however has been smarter, as he has cut his stake in half over the past year. Orchard has struggled to maintain… Read More »
Another day, another story about a large shareholder pushing for a breakup. The latest target is pork company Smithfield Foods (SFD) which received a letter from one of its larger shareholders, Continental Grains, urging the company to hire an outside adviser and to consider ‘strategic changes’ including the possible breakup into three separate companies. Continental argues that since… Read More »
A quick update on a recent spinoff. Leucadia (LUK) completed the spinoff of Crimson Wine Group (OTC:CWGL) a few weeks ago and the new company has jumped around a bit as an independent company. A lot of people were down on the company and many of the comments on our earlier articles pointed to the company’s poor recent earnings, expected… Read More »