Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fortune Brands Stub Beam, Inc. Raises Dividend 8%

Beam, Inc.(BEAM), the former Fortune Brands after its spinoff of Fortune Brands Home & Security(FBHS) in October, has announced that it will raise its dividend 8%, from an annual rate of $0.76 to $0.82. The company also declared the next quarterly dividend of 20.5 cents per share, which will be payable on March 1, 2012 to shareholders of… Read More »

Sara Lee Takes Another Step Towards Spinning CoffeeCo

We are entering the final months of the Sara Lee(SLE) conglomerate.  The empire, which once included Coach(COH) handbags and Hanes(HBI) underwear, is aiming spin off its Coffee & Tea business(CoffeeCo) in April or May, though no final date has been set.  As the date finally approaches(this was first announced a year ago), the company is taking steps to… Read More »

New CEO Says RIMM Has No Plans To Split Itself In Two

Research In Motion(RIMM) has long been viewed as a company in freefall. Market share has been in decline, with both iPhone and Android showing impressive gains. Among others, RBC’s Mike Abramsky suggested last summer that the company would be more successful splitting into a hardware company and a network operations company. The network part of the business could… Read More »

Local Paper Interviews Marc Baker, CEO of Orchard Supply Hardware

The Mercury News interviewed Marc Baker, CEO of Orchard Supply Hardware(OSH), which was recently spun off from Sears Holdings(SHLD). There’s nothing really new here, but it’s always interesting to see how a CEO views and spins his company. Some highlights: Q Where does Orchard fall in terms of the hardware store landscape? A We think of ourselves as… Read More »

SunCoke Completely On Its Own At Long Last

It was way back in June 2010, when Sunoco(SUN) first announced its intention to spin SunCoke(SXC) into a separate company. One year later, in July 2011,  the company conducted an IPO of SunCoke shares. This week the company completed the process on January 17 by distributing the 80.9% of SunCoke shares it owned to shareholders at a rate… Read More »

Checking In On Howard Hughes Corporation – Over A Year Later

With General Growth Properties (GGP) completing another spinoff,Rouse(RSE) last week, it is worth checking in on how its first spinoff, the Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC), has fared. Here is a recent chart detailing HHC’s stock price since inception (apologies for the charting software – on vacation): It has been quite a wild ride for the company – a relatively… Read More »

Swire Pacific Shares Decline In Trading After Spin Off Of Swire Properties

Swire Properties was spun off from Swire Pacific and began trading in Hong Kong today. The newly-independent property unit is trading at HK$17.42 far below its adjusted book value of $HK29.20. Former parent Swire Pacific, which also owns Cathay Pacific airlines, offshore vessels, and is a Coca Cola bottler, traded down 2.7% to HK$76.80 on the distribution. Disclosure:… Read More »

Ralcorp Sets Dates, Ratio For Post Spin

Ralcorp’s(RAH) spinoff of Post(POST) is finally coming into view.  Ralcorp announcedthis morning that Post shares will be distributed on February 3 to Ralcorp shareholders of record as of January 30.  Investors will receive 1 Post share for every 2 shares of Ralcorp they own.  Approximately 34.5 million Post shares will be outstanding following the distribution.  Post shares are… Read More »

Rouse Distribution Tax Information For GGP Shareholders

General Growth Properties(GGP) released informations to help shareholders who received Rouse(RSE) shares in the recent spinoff calculate their tax liabilities. The press release: CHICAGO, Jan. 17, 2012  /PRNewswire/ — On January 12, 2012, General Growth Properties, Inc.  distributed (the “Distribution”) its shares in RPI to the shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 30, 2011… Read More »

Tricky Tax Treatment For Orchard Supply Preferred Shares

We’ve written before about the puzzle of Orchard Supply Hardware Preferred(OSHSP). This preferred issue was spun off from Sears Holdings(SHLD) together with Orchard Supply Common(OSH).  While we’re still not sure how to value them, thanks to Laurie Frederiksen, COO of bivio.com for pointing out some tricky tax treatment for their distribution. It seems that unlike most spinoffs which… Read More »

Ralcorp Still Posting Post Spin At End Of January, Announces New Boards Of Directors

We’ve previously discussed Ralcorp’s(RAH) plans to spin off Post Cereal(POST) here, here and when it was announced in July.  The company issued a press release yesterday, reiterating that it is on track for completion at the end of January, and announcing the Boards of Directors for each company. Brief biographies as provided by Ralcorp: The following are brief biographies of… Read More »

Not Enough Love For Spins? Who Cares?

One of the more interesting (and attractive) attributes of spinoffs is that they don’t typically get a lot of attention from the media or ‘The Street’. Much rather talk about a birth (IPO) or a marriage (M&A) than a breakup. That has changed a bit over the past year though as several high profile companies announced spinoffs, which… Read More »

Pepsi To Buck Spinoff Fad, Hold On To Snack Foods, For Now

Despite calls by some investors to spin off its Frito-Lay snack food division, Pepsi(PEP) appears ready to continue to remain a single entity. The company has languished during CEO Indra Nooyi’s tenure, rising just 1% in 5 years. The WSJ reports that “A breakup of the company appears unlikely, although the board has looked at the idea.” Instead,… Read More »

Expedia President Resigns After Just 14 Months

Confirming reports from Geekwire, AllThingsD learned from an Expedia (EXPE) spokesperson that Company President Scott Durchslag has resigned after 14 months on the job. The company said that CEO Dana Khosrowshahi would assume the additional role of President. Expedia CFO Michael Adler recently left after the completion of the TripAdvisor (TRIP) spinoff. Durchslag had previously held senior positions… Read More »