Summer Of Spin: TEGNA Ascends From Gannett And Three More Tales

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The ‘Summer Of Spin’ kicked off yesterday with Gannett transforming itself into the bizarrely titled TEGNA (TGNA). The ‘New Gannett’ (GCI), containing the publishing assets, was spun off to shareholders who should have received 1 share of new Gannett for every 2 shares of the old Gannett owned. Prior to the spin, the companies revealed separate buyback and dividend plans with New Gannett launching a three-year $150m buy back and a $0.64 dividend. TEGNA’s dividend will be $0.56 per share and the company will authorize a $750m buyback over three years. ‘New Gannett’ will join the S&P Smallcap 600, while TEGNA will keep Gannett’s spot in the S&P 500.

Yesterday was all about the completion of the spin though which meant the new CEO’s were just gushing about the future. Here is what TEGNA’s CEO and President, Gracia Martore, had to say:

Today is the culmination of relentless focus and hard work over the past three and a half years to transform our businesses. We have added significant scale through the strategic buildup of high-performing broadcasting and digital assets which are leaders in their respective industries. With terrific competitive positioning in growing sectors, strong leadership and a more sharply focused strategy, we are ready to hit the ground running and we couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.

Gannett’s CEO, Robert Dickey, was just as effusive:

With more than 4,000 journalists across digital and print publications in more than 110 markets across the U.S. and U.K., plus the national reach of USA TODAY, Gannett is uniquely positioned as a next-generation media company…Together, we are moving forward as one unified organization with a commitment to strengthening and forging connections in every community that we serve. Over the next year, we will continue to innovate and invest in this network, push the boundaries of storytelling and how it’s experienced and diversify our offerings. We are proactively building a future in which media feels more personal, drives action and adapts to ever-evolving technologies and needs.

Ah the optimism of Day 1.

On the docket for today is three more spinoffs:

  1. Masco (MAS) will separate its installations and services into TopBuild (BLD)
  2. TriMas (TRS) will spin off its former Cequent units as Horizon Global (HZN)
  3. Babcock & Wilcox (BWC) will change its name to BWX Technologies (BWXT) and spin off its power generation unit as Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (BW)

so it should be another exciting day!

Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned.