Yum! Brands (YUM) completed the spin off of its Chinese business, Yum China Holdings (YUMC), last fall. Although it’s only been a few months, ny now most people don’t remember that it took a very, very long time to get that point, including a lengthy will they or won’t they actually spin something off. Nudging the company along… Read More »
Columbia Business School publishes an investment newsletter featuring ideas from students and interviews with asset managers. The Winter 2017 edition of the aptly titled Graham and Doddsville was just published and it features a conversation with the managers (incidentally both alums) of Kingstown Capital, a value oriented, special situations focused fund. The interview includes the G&D standard ‘how did you… Read More »
New York, New York. It’s a tune Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) shareholders should get used to humming once the company’s upcoming Washington DC property spinoff is completed. The spinoff will actually be executed via Reverse Morris Trust, with the company spinning out its properties into a separate entity and subsequently merging them into the privately held JBG Properties.… Read More »
Reckitt Benckiser (RBGLY) surprised the markets last week with its $16.6b (or $90 per share) bid for Enfamil maker and 2009 Bristol-Myers Squibb split off Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN). Reckitt is known for owning a hodgepodge of ‘Powerbrands’ such as Lysol, Finish, Durex and Clearasil in the Health, Hygiene and Home sectors so it wasn’t really considered much of a… Read More »
2016 was a busy year for MetLife (MET). Outside of their normal operations, the mammoth insurance company won a huge lawsuit versus the US Government avoiding the dreaded ‘systemically important’ designation. They fired Snoopy and in related news to this site, the company announced the spinoff of part of its retail operations into a standalone entity. The new company… Read More »
Horizon Kinetics is an asset management and research shop founded by Peter Doyle, Steven Bregman and Murray Stahl that has been analyzing spinoffs (and plenty of other things) for decades. Over the years, I’ve always enjoyed the various opportunities I’ve had to hear them speak. The firm even publishes a standalone research report dedicated to spinoffs and has… Read More »
Despite our new President publicly pledging his support for the coal industry, Consol Energy (CNX) is still looking at ways to fully shed its exposure to the commodity. The company sold off a number of its mines in 2016 and the only thing keeping it from being a pureplay E&P entity is its Pennsylvania mining interests. In its… Read More »
Every year Barron’s gathers a group of asset management luminaries for a roundtable discussion. The group collectively manages many many billions of dollars and includes people like Jeffrey Gundlach, Mario Gabelli and Meryl Witmer. While the discourse includes a bit about the overall macro environment, the focus is mainly on each individual’s top investments for the coming year.… Read More »
A few links to close out a busy month: The WSJ notes that since the spinoff of PayPal (PYPL), EBay’s (EBAY) post-earnings stock price volatility has increased dramatically. Prior to last week’s announcement, the name had moved double digit percentages in four of the previous five announcements – that is some serious movement. As possible reasons, the article… Read More »
After a bit of a delay and 17 years after it was spun off from Varian Associates, Varian Medical Systems (VAR) finally completed the spinoff of its imaging component business, Varex Imaging (VREX). Shareholders yesterday should have received 0.4 VREX shares for every one VAR share owned, so one needed to have owned at least 3 VAR shares in order… Read More »
NeuStar (NSR) agreed to be acquired by a group led by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital in a deal valued at about $2.9b. The deal was announced in mid-December and the $33.50 offer price represented a nice premium. Of course, the sale also means that Neustar’s previously announced Order Management and Numbering Services spinoff is off the table.… Read More »
Speculating about spinoffs – it’s not just for us, John Malone and deadline-driven journalists: 1) The Motley Fool handicaps the odds of a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) spinoff in 2017. The basic premise is that JNJ has multiple segments with diverging sales trends (at least recently) so why not set one free. After playing through a few scenarios, the author ultimately suggests… Read More »
Late last year Varian Medical Systems (VAR) pushed back the timing of its Varex Imaging spinoff to January 2017. Now the company’s board of directors is sticking with that target by officially approving the separation of the imaging business and setting January 28th as the distribution date. Varian shareholders as of January 20th should receive 0.4 shares of Varex for every 1… Read More »
Someone sure was busy during the Holidays. On the very first trading day of the new year, Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) announced a number of strategic updates, most of them suggested (and naturally approved) by activist fund Elliott Management. While most of the news was related to its ownership of MPLX (MPLX and worthy of its own post), there was… Read More »
For years, Disney (DIS) shares were propelled upwards by consistently better results at its media network unit including ABC and ESPN. As ‘Event TV’ became live TV’s stand against streaming and recording options, sports became especially lucrative due to the high fees they were able to charge. Of course, things change. Costs went up, NFL & ABC ratings… Read More »