Tidjane Thiam’s tenure at the top of Credit Suisse (CS) has hardly been a picnic. Big lawsuits, struggling business units and a difficult overhaul has left the stock well below where he inherited it despite strong gains this year. The company is only two years into its grand ‘3 year plan’ which entails cutting costs, reducing the size… Read More »
Way back in 2013, Pfizer (PFE) CEO Ian Read plotted a future course that could have included a spinoff several years down the line. Since then there have been constant rumors and speculations about possible breakups and portfolio changes, but those were ultimately rejected. Last week though, the company shifted gears by formally announcing that it is considering its… Read More »
Delphi Automotive (DLPH) announced it was spinning off its powertrain segment back in May in order to better highlight its burgeoning electronics business. Now the two ‘new’ companies have names and oh boy, they’re ‘good’ ones. Lets start with the electronics business will be called Aptiv and will trade under the ticker ‘APTV’. No, no one is being… Read More »
British energy giant BP (BP) recently announced that it plans on carving out its pipeline assets into a separately traded vehicle via IPO layer this year. The new company, BP Midstream Partners, will be structured as a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) and is expected to trade under the ticker ‘BPMP’. Here is what the new company will own:… Read More »
Autoliv(ALV) is the world’s largest manufacturer of seat belts and air bags. Now, the Swedish company wants to spin off its fast-growing Electronics business. The Electronics business focuses on Active Safety as opposed to Autoliv’s core Passive Safety business. Autoliv stock jumped over 12% on the announcement, as investors anticipated strong value creation in the Electronics division with… Read More »
Lets follow up on some recent articles – A few weeks ago we highlighted a writeup from Yet Another Value Blog advocating for Liberty Braves (BATRK). Part (well, a small part) of the author’s thesis was the unique nature of sports team assets and how their valuations are often underreported. Somewhat buried amidst the tragedy of Hurricane Harvey came… Read More »
In January, under pressure from Elliott Management, Marathon Petroleum(MPC) announced a formal review of the company’s strategic options for its Speedway business. At the time, it seemed that a spinoff was both Elliott’s goal and a likely outcome of the review process. After all, the industry has seen several petroleum companies spin off their convenience store divisions. Marathon… Read More »
A few links for today Bloomberg takes a look at how HP Inc (HPQ) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are doing since their 2015 breakup and to the surprise of the afor today:uthor – and I would guess to absolutely no readers of this site – the ‘runt of the litter’ HP Inc is actually doing well. Newsflash:… Read More »
Over 18 months since announcing plans to merge, Dow Chemical(DOW) and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.(DD) will complete their merger on August 31. The new company will be named DowDuPont and will trade under the new DWDP ticker. DowDuPont will be included in both the S&P 100 and S&P 500, as were both predecessor companies. Don’t… Read More »
Earlier this week, French oil giant Total (TOT) agreed to purchase AP Moller Maersk’s (AMKBY) oil business for $4.95b in equity. The Danish shipping giant will receive Total shares as compensation, but in addition to the shares, the French company will also assume $2.5b in debt and certain decommissioning costs in the North Sea. In an interesting wrinkle,… Read More »
NACCO Industries (NC) announced Monday that it has filed with the SEC regarding “a proposed spin-off… of its housewares-related business to NACCO shareholders.” Remaining in the company would be its mining business — I guess there just isn’t a market for coal-powered blenders. From the press release: Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company, as an independent public company, will… Read More »
If at first you don’t succeed, pay off some debt and try again (a few years later). Sure, it doesn’t sound right, but it does seem to accurately describe the situation at AngloGold Ashanti (AU), the #3 gold producer in the world, which according to Reuters, is once again looking to spinoff its South African mining assets into… Read More »
Let’s kickoff the week with a few links: Yet Another Value Blog takes a look at the Liberty Braves Group (BATRA/BATRK) and sees some nice upside potential. Apparently, he also notes, so does Gabelli. It’s a good piece and among other things, includes a long section (which I tend to agree with) on why sports teams are undervalued. In… Read More »
It’s been a rough year for Akzo Nobel(AKZOY). First, Elliott Management got involved. The activist fund was pushing for a breakup of the Dutch chemicals company. However, when US rival PPG(PPG) showed up with an offer to buy the whole company, Elliott began pushing the offer over management’s resistance. AkzoNobel was successfully able to leverage Dutch protectionism to… Read More »
Following the lead of many of its peers, Wyndham Worldwide (WYN) announced that it would spin off its timeshare business into a standalone entity. The new timeshare company will become the largest timeshare company in the world (at least by revenues – $3.4b) and include both Wyndham Vacation Ownership and RCI, a timeshare exchange program. The hotel company generated… Read More »