Author Archives: Inelegant Investor
Barry Sternlicht of Starwood Capital has a long history of real estate success. Nearly two decades ago, he built Starwood Hotels(HOT) from scratch into one of the world’s largest hotel companies. More recently, as Chairman and CEO of Starwood Propert Trust(STWD) he has assembled the country’s largest commercial mortgage REIT. The firm has financed some of the most… Read More »
Canadian Tire Corporation(CTC-A) announced plans yesterday to spin off its real estate as a REIT. The company anticipates selling 10-20% of the new REIT in an IPO this fall, and retaining the rest. The new REIT will have approximately 18 million square feet of real estate valued at approximately C$3.5 billion. The company has no announced plans to… Read More »
In 2007, it was all smiles as Peabody Energy(BTU) spun off Patriot Coal(PCXCQ). But loaded with debt and retiree health and pension obligations, Patriot filed for bankruptcy in July 2012. Now, Patriot and its creditors, led by the United Mine Workers of America, are investigating whether the spinoff was a fraudulent transfer which might give Peabody back the… Read More »
In 2006, Sara Lee, now Hilshire Farm(HSH), loaded up HanesBrands(HBI) with lots of debt and spun it off. Seven years later, after weathering a financial crisis, steadily paying down debt and improving profitability, the company has announced it will pay a quarterly dividend of $.20, beginning in June. The dividend will be paid on June 3, to shareholders… Read More »
We love all our posts equally, really we do. It’s just that some posts are more equal than others. We take a guilty pleasure in writing up nanocap stocks that have decided to pursue a spinoff. While we have seen many nanocaps with value(and we own significant stakes in several), we have yet to see a spinoff in… Read More »
Thanks to several alert readers who point out that, while we were asleep at the wheel, Valero(VLO) announced the final details of its CST Brands spinoff. It was just last week that we reported the company was two steps away. Those steps are now complete. Valero issued a press release on April 4, confirming that it had received… Read More »
Investors who have long been anticipating Valero’s(VLO) spinoff of retail division CST Brands(CST) won’t have to wait much longer. According to Convenience Store News, Valero Chief Financial Officer Mike Ciskowski said at a recent luncheon that the company was just waiting for an IRS ruling that the transaction would be tax free to shareholders, and for final Board… Read More »
In December, Harvard Bioscience(HBIO) filed for an IPO of Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technologies(HART). Last week, the company announced that the tax free spinoff was approved by the IRS, and that an IPO of 17% of the company would be conducted in early April at an expected price of $10-$12 per share. The company will spin off the remaining… Read More »
A quarter has passed since its spinoff from Elan(ELN), and Prothena(PRTA) continues to lumber forward with its development as an independent company. Prothena issued two announcements last week. In the first, it announced the expansion of its management team, with the appointments of Dr. Martin Koller as Chief Medical Officer, and Tran Nguyen as Chief Financial Officer. “Marty… Read More »
In 2006, Verizon(VZ), spun off its declining directory business as Idearc, saddled with billions in debt. Just 28 months later, the company filed for bankruptcy, Idearc has since restructured and reemerged as SuperMedia(SPMD), but trustees for the debtors are continuing their fight against Verizon for the repayment of debt. On Friday, the trustee for the creditors filed suit,… Read More »
Last January, Sears Holdings(SHLD), controlled by Eddie Lampert, spun off Orchard Supply Hardware(OSH). At the time, we were bullish on Orchard. We were wrong. Unfortunately, while the stock has plummeted, we held onto our small stake. Lampert, however has been smarter, as he has cut his stake in half over the past year. Orchard has struggled to maintain… Read More »
Earlier this year, Siemens(SI) shareholders overwhelmingly approved the spinoff of 80.5% of Osram at the company’s annual meeting. Or did they? Though it was reported that 98% of shareholders who cast votes were in favor of the spin off, a group of shareholders has now stepped forward to challenge the vote. While this lawsuit is pending, the company… Read More »
We wrote previously about the planned spinoff by Leucadia(LUK) of Crimson Wine Group(CWGL). There was much discussion and speculation as Lucadia’s managment are among the most successful investors of the last few decades, this was their personal project being spun off as a result of the merger with Jefferies(JEF), the distribution ratio of 1 share of CWGL for… Read More »
Earlier this week, Demand Media(DMD) announced plans to split into a domain registration business and a content business. Though the opportunity seems promising, it was difficult to evaluate without the numbers for the business broken out, which, to our knowledge, the company had not done publicly. We were pleased, then, to read the transcript of the conference call… Read More »
When United Online (UNTD) first announced plans to spin off its FTD floral business last summer, the company anticipated it would be completed this quarter. In November, the company hoped to complete the transaction by August. Yesterday, the company released its fourth quarter earnings, and now hopes to complete the transaction by the end of the third quarter.… Read More »