VF Corp(VFC) will be spinning off its denim business in the first half of next year. The business includes such venerable brands as Wrangler and Lee. So when the company needed a name for the new independent entity, the choice was obvious. Bypassing such staid and uninspired choices as Wrangler or Lee, the company chose Contour. Or rather,… Read More »
Well over a century ago, brothers Gustav, Otto and Edward Mallinckrodt founded a chemical company. Today, the company that still bears their name plans a spinoff to try to recreate some of the value that has been lost in the last few years. Mallinckrodt(MNK) today is a second generation spinoff. Grandfather Tyco executed a spinoff of Covidien in… Read More »
In the latest episode of Tribune Publishing’s(TPCO) long running drama, the company formerly known as Tronc has rejected a $16.50 bid from McClatchy(MNI), Bloomberg reports. After ending its conflict with shareholder Patrick Soon-Shiong by selling him the Los Angeles Times in June for $500 million, the company, mercifully, changed its name back to Tribune Publishing in October. Tribune Publishing… Read More »
Genuine Parts Company (GPC) announced last month that it will spin off its business products division, S.P. Richards, and immediately merge the new entity with Essendant (ESND) via the tax efficient Reverse Morris Trust. The deal will allow GPC to more fully focus on its ‘core’ automotive (via NAPA) and industrial products, areas in which it has been… Read More »
Grab your cup of coffee and kick off the week with some Odds and Ends: Late last year, Pfizer (PFE) announced it was considering its ‘options’ for its consumer health division. The early buzz was all about a sale though and the maker of Advil and Centrum has since been running a sales process with a rumored desired… Read More »
Tenneco (TEN) has agreed to purchase Federal Mogul from Carl Icahn for the hefty price of $5.4b. The total tag includes the assumption of debt and a mix of both cash and stock. Mr. Icahn is expected to remain a shareholder of Tenneco into the future and will own approximately 36% of the company. The deal is expected to… Read More »
Grab your coffee and get over hump day with a helping of idle spinoff speculation in this edition of Odds and Ends. Who knows? Maybe these spins could be coming to your portfolios one day soon! Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas thinks GM (GM) should spin off its Cadillac business. He thinks it could be worth $15b as a… Read More »
Pentair’s (PNR) completed the spinoff of its electrical business, nVent Electric (NVT), after the close yesterday. The new company will commence trading on the NYSE today and shareholders should have received one share of NVT for every PNR share owned. Pentair CEO John Stauch wished his colleagues at nVent much ‘success’ and believes Pentair is now ‘well positioned… Read More »
Hedge fund TCI is going ‘active’ at Altaba (AABA), urging the company to liquidate if it can’t do a better job narrowing the fund’s discount to NAV. For those that don’t remember, Altaba is just a collection of assets left over from Verizon’s (VZ) 2017 purchase of Yahoo. The real value rests mainly in two pieces: a large… Read More »
That was quick. Whitbread’s (WTBCF) CEO Allison Brittain caved to activist pressure in seemingly record time, announcing the spinoff of Costa Coffee less than two weeks after Elliott Advisors unveiled a ~6% stake in the company. Of course, Whitbread doesn’t believe it caved and in the press release announcing the demerger (British for spinoff), the company notes that… Read More »
Before trade war news jumped to the front pages, China was making headlines for cracking down on its financial firms’ leverage by forcing them to unload some of their overseas holdings. Anbang and its CEO received a lot of headlines, but other companies, such as HNA, were impacted as well. A few years ago, HNA went on a… Read More »
A storm began brewing last winter for Whitbread plc (WTBCF) and its CEO Alison Brittain. Activist investor Sachem Head took a 3.4% stake in the company and began pushing for a breakup of the company. With Paul Singer’s Elliott Advisors becoming the company’s largest shareholder, it’s probably safe to upgrade that storm to hurricane status, category 5. I’m… Read More »
Last year, we discussed Pentair’s(PNR) spin off of nVent(NVT) and commented on how much the strange capitalization was likely to add to the value. With the spinoff now set for the end of the month, it turns out that Pentair gave nVent more than just a bad name. As we had speculated, nVent borrowed $1 billion and will… Read More »
It’s been awhile since we last posted so lets share a few links to ease ourselves back in. We hope to be back at it in two weeks from now. Spinoffs that go bust often lead to lawsuits, in many cases by its creditors. We recently highlighted an example at Noble (NE), but it’s not the only one… Read More »
It’s a part of the economy that is not visible to many consumers, but if you have ever bought a used car, there is a good chance it passed through KAR Auction Services(KAR) at some point. Last year, the company sold approximately 5.6 million vehicles at auction. KAR consists of two distinct auction businesses. Adesa, its wholecar auction… Read More »