Alliance Techsystems (ATK) is set to complete its merger with Orbital Sciences (ORB) today and just prior to the combination, the company will spinoff its outdoor sports segment, Vista Outdoors, in a tax free transaction. The new company will trade on the NYSE under the ticker ‘VSTO’ and ATK shareholders will receive 2 share of VSTO for every 1 share of ATK owned. Post spinoff, Vista will join its parent company in the S&P Midcap 400 index, so there will be no index movement (and thus no forced selling of that ilk) as a result of this transaction. The addition of Vista to the index will cause oilfield services operator CARBO Ceramics (CRR) to drop into the S&P Smallcap 600 and tobacco leaf processor Alliance One International (AOI) will get dropped entirely. For what it’s worth, Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group has been a longtime shareholder of AOI. Finally, the elimination of Orbital will free up a slot in the Smallcap 600 index which will be filled by the hotel focused REIT, Summit Hotels (INN).
Check out all of our coverage on the upcoming Alliance/Vista spinoff here.
Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned.