The boom in spinoff activity over the past few years has been aided greatly by the boom in activist investing. In this edition of Odds & Ends we check in on some activists. Other hedge funds may be shuttering, but it seems this segment remains hot! When something works, the financial industry knows how to milk it, but… Read More »
To everything there is a season, and the season for magazines has passed and will not return. In the summer of 2014, Time Warner(TWX) spun off Time, Inc.(TIME), its magazine publishing division. Joe Ripp, the CEO who presided over the spinoff, valiantly tried to cut costs and move to digital, but his efforts fell short. This summer, he… Read More »
ConAgra’s (CAG) planned spinoff of its potato product business, Lamb Weston, is making progress. The most recent milestones achieved were the filing of the company’s initial Form 10 and the naming of its top executives. Thomas Werner, currently President of ConAgra’s Commercial Foods business, will become CEO and Tim McLevish, currently a consultant, will become Executive Chairman. Sean… Read More »
A few links to help get through this hump day: ValueWalk links to a frank interview with JANA Partners co-founder Gary Claar, who now heads up his own shop Claar Advisors. Within, Mr. Claar discusses some of the investments he was involved with at JANA, including McGraw-Hill as well as some of his new fund’s ideas. Additionally, he… Read More »
Back in April, Jana Partners took a large stake in Qualcomm (QCOM) and urged the company to consider splitting up by separating its chip unit from its patent licensing business. Ultimately, the two parties ended up settling after the company agreed to add several Jana-picked directors and explore its strategic options. The idea wasn’t entirely new and in fact,… Read More »
Despite being independent for a mere five months, Civeo (CVEO) has sure generated a lot of excitement. Many anticipated that the company, a spinoff from Oil States International (OIS), was destined to become a REIT in order to better distribute its income. REIT status would also theoretically offer the company a more premium market multiple, boosting its price.… Read More »
At the beginning of the year, QEP Resources (QEP) unveiled a few strategic initiatives including the sale of its non-core assets and the spinoff of its midstream business, Entrada Midstream. The plan was concocted amidst activist pressure (Jana Partners recently exited QEP though) and the idea was to increase the company’s focus on its upstream business and deliver better… Read More »
Only a few scant months ago, Civeo (CVEO) was born, spun out of Oil States International (OIS) after activist pressure from Jana Partners and David Einhorn. The plan was for the workforce accommodations firm to convert to a REIT, as we described in this May post: Looking ahead, Civeo is studying the possible conversion to REIT status however,… Read More »
We are big fans of Jana Partners here. Although the fund describes its investment approach as ‘value plus catalyst’, it’s not afraid to get vocal and create its own catalyst. Just ask Agrium’s (AGU) management team. While that situation didn’t achieve the desired result, the firm has notched numerous activist victories including the spinoffs (or possible spins) at… Read More »
Oil States International’s (OIS) board of directors approved the spinoff of its accommodations business, Civeo Corporation. The new company will trade on the NYSE under the ticker ‘CVEO’ and OIS shareholders will receive 2 shares of CVEO for every OIH share owned. The distribution is expected to take place on May 30th to shareholders as of the close on… Read More »
People often focus on the larger, more macro implications of the recent commodity boom. As a result, it’s very easy to forget about the nitty gritty, day to day lives of the people actually working in far flung locations up in Canada or South Dakota (well, there goes our South Dakota reader). Thousands of people descend on these… Read More »
These pages have frequently highlighted the many victories notched by activists pushing for breakups. We are big, big fans of those guys. Of course, like all good battles, the other side doesn’t just sit back and wait to be ambushed. No, new tactics are drawn up, plans laid and in this case that means talking to lawyers. About… Read More »
We recently highlighted an increasingly tense standoff between Agrium (AGU) and its largest shareholder, activist hedge fund Jana Partners. The situation has evolved since then, but in short, Jana is pushing for the company to spin off its retail unit into an independent company in order to unlock significant shareholder value. The company has resisted the move and Jana is… Read More »
Activist investors have been notching so many wins recently that victory over management almost feels inevitable. Have corporate executives just thrown in the towel? Don’t be so quick to write them off, as Agrium (AGU), the Canadian fertilizer company and Jana Partners’ most recent target, is fighting back. Before delving any deeper, it is worth noting that Agrium… Read More »
We have recently noted that activist investors have notched a bunch of wins recently. For example, Jana Partners (involved with Marathon and McGraw-Hill) recently cleaned up with a well-timed investment into Barnes & Noble (BKS) that led to quite the ‘victory lap‘ for managing partner Barry Rosenstein who said that “there is no point in fighting us,” and… Read More »