American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) isn’t considering a spinoff of Aerie, its lingerie brand…at least right now. At least that is the message from AEO’s CFO Bob Madore who told Bloomberg that a spin may come, ‘but not today’. The lingerie brand has been grabbing market share and growing at a rapid clip. With Aerie’s Q4 comps at +23%… Read More »
AP Moller Maersk(AMKBY) is out of the drilling business and its transformation into a pure transportation company is almost complete. On April 2nd, shareholders approved the spinoff (sorry, demerger) of The Drilling Company of 1972. The first day of trading in Copenhagen was yesterday, but as we noted in an earlier piece the schedule makes it seem like Maersk… Read More »
Everyone was focused on DowDupont’s (DWDP) mega Dow (DOW) spinoff yesterday, but it wasn’t the only show in town. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (IRWD) also completed the spinoff of Cyclerion Therapeutics (CYCN) that same day. As we previously discussed, Ironwood shareholders should have received one share of Cyclerion stock for every ten shares of IRWD stock owned. That ratio may… Read More »
Another month is almost in the books so lets recap the recent spinoff activity and also take a look at what spinoffs the next month will bring: Spinoffs Completed Prior Month It’s worth noting that in February’s roundup, this section had nothing listed. Ooops? It was actually quite a busy month so keep checking our site as we… Read More »
Novartis’ (NVS) eye care spinoff Alcon is ready to go. The distribution is set for April 9th and both shareholders and ADR holders as of April 8th will receive one share of Alcon stock for every 5 Novartis shares owned. Alcon will trade in both Switzerland and the NYSE under the ticker ‘ALC’ so a shareholder with 100… Read More »
Despite a history and reputation for outperformance, not every spinoff turns into a winner. I know, shocking, right? In this week’s edition of Odds & Ends we look at a few situations where shareholders have not been rewarded for holding on: FTD Companies (FTD), the flower delivery company, recently warned that it was hovering on life support. The… Read More »
AP Moller Maersk’s (AMKBY) drilling spinoff is set for early April and the new company will be called The Drilling Company of 1972. The name reminds me of Sara Lee’s 2012 DE Master Blenders 1753 spinoff. Must be a European thing or something and in any case, it’s an instant addition to the list of terribly named spinoffs.… Read More »
As we discussed last week, the big Disney (DIS) / Twenty First Century Fox deal is set to close this Thursday. In the meantime, 21st Century Fox shareholders have made their choices about how they want to receive their ‘consideration’ from Disney and apparently too many wanted the cold, hard cash: Holders of 959,919,192 shares of 21CF common… Read More »
Lets close the week with some Odds & Ends. In this week’s edition, we provide some updates on recent and upcoming spinoffs. We also give thanks to a reader for pointing out something we missed – keep it up! Thanks to reader AH for pointing out that we missed Naspers (NPSNY) spinoff of its Pay-TV business, MultiChoice Group… Read More »
Eaton (ETN) recently hosted an investor day and announced that it would be pruning its portfolio of businesses. As part of that initiative, the company will spin off its LED lighting business by the end of 2019. Like its parent, the new lighting company will be domiciled in Ireland (remember when tax inversions were all the rage?), but… Read More »
When we last checked in on Dan Loeb’s Third Point it was mid 2017 and the fund was cruising while also singing the praises of Baxter International (BAX). Unfortunately, 2018 was a rough year for the firm and performance, at -11.3%, lagged the overall S&P 500. Market Folly shares the fund’s recent Q4 mea culpa letter which offers… Read More »
Update on M&A Canyon Capital offered $12/share to acquire student loan processor Navient (NAVI), but the student loan servicing company’s management forcefully and publicly rejected the proposal. Basically, management felt the offer undervalued the company and want a bid more in the $14-15 range. Canyon was apparently surprised by the hostile tone since the offer represented a significant premium… Read More »
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive to last month’s piece so we are going to make it a monthly ‘thing’. As a reminder, although we update our tables as new information is released, we recognize that not everyone is constantly hitting refresh in order to see when a distribution date might get posted (please do so in the future though).… Read More »
Madison Square Garden (MSG) is currently in the process of breaking itself up again, this time into a sports team business (ex. Knicks and Rangers) and a venue/concerts business. Naturally, this has led to more people taking a look at the name and the upcoming catalyst has Barron’s thinking the company offers a lot of upside. The company’s… Read More »
The vision of an independent Alcon is getting closer to reality. As part of its year end earnings release, Novartis (NVS) revealed many more details about the upcoming eye care spinoff which is expected to be completed in the first half of this year. It seems the target is actually sometime in April, but first shareholders will have their… Read More »