Looking across the pond, industrial group Cookson (LSE:CKSN) announced that it has hired an investment bank to examine the possibility of spinning off its electronics division. The unit, which is now known as ‘Performance Materials’, makes components for gadgets such as the iPad and according to some analysts has “few, if any” synergies with the company’s larger ceramics… Read More »
Kraft Foods (KFT) has filed its initial Form 10 detailing the separation of its North American grocery business, which will retain the Kraft Foods Group name, from its global snacks business (soon to be known as Mondelez International). While the snacks business is quite larger with sales of ~$35b and a popular portfolio of brands including Oreos and… Read More »
A whopping 99.14% of NovaGold (NG) shareholders voted in favor of the company’s spinoff of its Ambler copper project known as NovaCopper at a shareholder meeting earlier this week. Not much of a surprise given the support of several large proxy firms and the lack of any vocal opposition. The spin is expected to be completed ‘on or… Read More »
Tired of reading about new names? Out of luck because Sara Lee recently recently unveiledD.E. Master Blenders 1753 as the new name for its international tea and coffee business. What is that name? Well, Douwe Egberts (the D.E.) is a name long (like since 1753 long) associated with coffee and that was apparently exactly what they were going… Read More »
Whew! Time to exhale as the drama is finally over. Peyton Manning is signed, Tebow was traded and now Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG) will shed several business units in order to increase its focus on its profitable property & casualty business. While the group benefits and mutual fund businesses will also be retained, the annuity business will… Read More »
After covering Kraft’s (poor) choice in naming its spinoff, we now move onto mocking examining Abbott’s (ABT) choice of the name AbbVie for its new pharmaceuticals company. Sadly, this now means that journalists will have to stop referring to the company as ‘Costello’ which would have been quite the humorous, although ill advised pick. The new name was… Read More »
Since Kraft(KFT) announced last year that it planned to spin off its North American Foods business from its Global Snacks business, anticipation has been high to discover what the two new companies would be named. Well, the wait is over. The company undertook a long and deliberate process Last fall, the company invited employees from around the world… Read More »
It has been a long time since Pfizer (PFE) initiated a strategic review of its business units and in the meantime, there has been much speculation regarding which units the company would ultimately divest and the method of any such divestiture. After months of waiting (kind of reminds me of the Dwight Howard situation, except far less interesting),… Read More »
More spinoff news from the energy space. Atlas Energy (ATLS) recently completed the spinoff of its E&P MLP, Atlas Resource Partners, by distributing ~19.6% of the company or ~5.24m common units on March 13 to shareholders as of February 28th. The new company trades under the ticker ARP. In addition to the remaining 78.4% of ARP’s common units,… Read More »
Mario Gabelli appeared on CNBC yesterday, and among other things, spoke, as he often does, about spinoffs. The CEO of Gamco Investors spoke about his success with recent spins such as Fortune Brands Home & Security(FBHS), Beam, Inc.(BEAM) and Xylem(XYL). Gabelli also spoke about Pepsi(PEP) as a potential split that he likes. Gabelli explained why he likes spinoffs… Read More »
What do you do when your letters and pleas get ignored? Turn them into a presentation of course because pictures and charts are just so much harder to ignore. That seems to be superstar hedge fund manager John Paulson’s approach for turning up the heat on Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG). After having no success writing letters to… Read More »
Activism is alive and well these days. A little while ago, we noted that Barnes & Noble (BKS) was considering its options for its cash burning yet growing Nook business. It seems the company wasn’t alone in that thinking and is now being publicly egged on by Michael Glickstein, CIO of G Asset Management and one of BKS’… Read More »
Who says you have to be a mega-conglomerate in order to pursue a spinoff? Galena Biopharma (GALE), a $46m market cap biotech company, announced that it will spin off RXi Pharmaceutical via stock dividend sometime in the coming months. While the board has not set a final payment date, the date of record will be March 8, 2012… Read More »
Came across a note in Barron’s this weekend that Furiex Pharmaceuticals (FURX) CEO Fredric Eshelman upped his stake in the company by 17,359 shares to a total representing ~12.1% ~21.1% of the company. In case you don’t remember, Furiex was spun out around the time of our site’s launch and we noted some bullish followers of the stock.… Read More »
NovaGold (NG) recently provided an update on its planned spinoff of its Northern Alaska Ambler copper deposits. Since that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, the new company will be known as NovaCopper. Click here for our earlier article on this topic. Shareholders of NovaGold will receive 1 share of NovaCopper for every 6 shares of NovaGold owned. More… Read More »