After the close of business on April 30, Phillips 66(PSX) will be distributed to shareholders of ConocoPhillips(COP). Phillips 66 will receive refining, marketing, midstream and chemicals businesses from the integrated oil company. ConocoPhillips shareholders will receive 1 share of the new Phillips66 for every 2 shares they own. At the same time, the new Phillips 66 will join… Read More »
Despite previous speculation that the company might sell, rather than spin, its Education business, in today’s earnings announcement, McGraw-Hill(MHP), provided an update on the spinoff plan, and stated that it “remains on track to establish two separate industry leaders by year-end.” The company “has received a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service agreeing to the tax-free status for… Read More »
In a famous Saturday Night Live sketch, a young Steve Martin promised that “You too can be a millionaire, and not pay taxes.” While the advice he proceeded to give was ineffective, using a reverse Morris Trust, your favorite company can sell off a division and not pay taxes. How you ask? Simple. First, borrow as much debt… Read More »
The big news out of South America this week is that on Monday, the government of Argentina pulled a Chavez and nationalized YPF, its largest oil and gas company. YPF had been majority owned by Spain’s Repsol (look at that Euro clout). The Argentinian government appears increasingly less investor friendly and now it looks like the energy industry,… Read More »
In an earlier post, we noted that Galena Biopharma’s (GALE) planned spinoff of Rxi Pharmaceutical was still awaiting approval and that the actual distribution date had yet to be determined despite a date of record being established. You can scratch that date off your calendar as the company filed an 8-K on April 10th announcing that it had… Read More »
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 »