CBS Corporation (CBS) continues to make progress in its three step plan for outdoor advertising company CBS Outdoor Americas (CBSO). The first milestone was achieved last month with CBSO’s successful IPO and now CBS has received a favorable private letter ruling from the IRS regarding the conversion of CBSO into a REIT. According to CBS CEO and President Les… Read More »
The excitement level was high when Exelis (XLS) announced that it would create a new ‘brand’ for its upcoming military and government services spinoff. To better understand why, lets jump back a few years and remember how the name Exelis came about: ITT Exelis is an energetic name that is derived from the word “excel,” which is rooted… Read More »
Land’s End (LE) is now in control of its own destiny. The well-known retailer was spun off from Sears Holdings (SHLD) after the close on Friday and began trading regular way on Monday. Sears shareholders should have received 0.300795 shares of LE for every SHLD share owned. Investors haven’t been too thrilled with the new company and shares… Read More »
Just a few months after spinning off its low margin paper and pulp automation business, Metso (OTC:MXCYY) confirmed that it received an ‘unsolicited approach’ from the Weir Group (OTC:WEIGY) about a possible combination. Although the financial terms of the offer were not released, Metso’s shares still spiked over 20% after the rumors came out. Weir’s Board believes that ‘there… Read More »
Roughly a year ago CBS Corp (CBS) decided to shed its outdoor units. Its Asian & European units would be divested and were ultimately sold to private equity firm Platinum Equity for an estimated $225m last fall. The company had grander plans for its North American outdoor segment though. Much grander plans, including an IPO, followed by a spinoff… Read More »
The dance is finally over and Safeway (SWY) has found its suitor. After a lot of speculation, the grocer agreed to be acquired by Cerberus owned Albertson’s for ~$9b. While that would normally put the company in the hands of merger arbitrage players, the company still has some unfinished spinoff business. Back in 2012, the company announced plans… Read More »
After following the space for a few years, you start to notice a few companies which are best described as ‘serial spinners’. These companies have a rich history of spinoffs and some have even passed that tradition on to their kids leading to a few ‘grandchildren’. It would be interesting to come up with a ‘Spinoff Power Rankings’… Read More »
Dover Corporation’s (DOV) spinoff of Knowles is set for tomorrow and S&P recently announced the resulting changes to its indices. Dover will remain in the S&P 500, but post-spin, Knowles will ‘drop’ to the S&P Midcap 400 where it will replace Apollo Investment (AINV). Interestingly, Apollo is getting the boot due to S&P’s new methodology rules excluding business development companies from… Read More »
That didn’t take long. Just a month after first publicizing his position, Carl Icahn fired another salvo in his campaign to break off PayPal from EBay (EBAY). Mr. Icahn sent an open letter to EBay shareholders informing them that he has uncovered ‘multiple lapses in corporate governance’ at the company and that ‘the complete disregard for accountability at eBay is… Read More »
Tribune’s (TRBAA) upcoming publishing spinoff is on track to be completed later this year and as part of the transaction, the new company will issue new debt in order to fund a dividend to the parent company. While not an uncommon feature of spinoff transactions, the move is drawing a lot of negative attention from news outlets and… Read More »
Noble Corp (NE) has finally unveiled the new name for its upcoming standard spec drilling unit spinoff. No fancy consultants used here, no Russian sex act, no Portmanteau. Instead the company went bold and set the bar high by naming the new company Paragon Offshore. No surprise coming from a company with the name Noble. In fact, the… Read More »
After Murphy Oil (MUR) announced a spinoff in late 2012, Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Sankey had a few ideas for whom the next spinoff candidates in the energy space might be. His top picks? Hess Corporation (HES) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY). Congrats Mr. Sankey, you deserve a nice pat on the bac,k because not one, but both companies… Read More »
Last September we noted that Tribune (TRBAA) was following the industry playbook and spinning off its publishing assets into a separate company. According to a recent article, the company is eyeing to complete the transaction sometime in the middle of the year, either Q2 or early Q3. At the time of the announcement, the company estimated that the… Read More »
For some reason, spins tend to cluster around the end of the month, and January 31st witnessed some impressive action with the completion of two separate transactions. First off, ONEOK (OKE) completed the spinoff of its natural gas distribution business ONE Gas (OGS). The new company is trading under the ticker ‘OGS’ and shareholders of ONEOK should have… Read More »
When I say furniture, you say…electronics manufacturing? Such is the odd pairing at Kimball International (KBALB) which currently operates two pretty distinct segments: furniture and electronic manufacturing services. Apparently, this diverse lineup was just too much for investors to handle, so the company announced that it would break itself up and pursue a spinoff of Kimball Electronics. I… Read More »