Late last month, Procter & Gamble(PG) announced that it would be divesting its Duracell business. At the time, its preferred outcome was to spin off the division to shareholders. The second step is the exit of the Duracell business. Although no decision has been made on the form of the exit, P&G’s current preference is a split-off of… Read More »
A subclass of spinoff that has proven popular, especially under activist pressure has been the spinoff of real estate assets into a publicly traded REIT. Civeo’s (CVEO) spin from Oil States (OIS) was one example, though the company has now opted against REIT status, as was Penn National Gaming’s (PENN) spin of Gaming & Leisure Properties (GLPI). Now,… Read More »
We wrote last week about Madison Square Garden Company’s(MSG) plan to explore a spinoff of its sports and entertainment business. The company is in the early stages of planning this transaction and there still remain many unanswered questions. Capital New York reports that CEO Tad Smith confirmed on last Friday’s earnings conference call that the company has not… Read More »
Crimson Wine Group (CWGL) dropped a 134 word bomb today with the news that as of November 3rd, CEO Erle Martin was ‘no longer an employee’ of the company. The company slipped the news in a brief 8K filed with the SEC and offered no additional details on the move, and issued no press release. The board is… Read More »
Kimberly-Clark (KMB) officially completed the spinoff of its health care business, Halyard Health (HYH). The new company began trading ‘regular way’ on the NYSE today under the ticker ‘HYH’ and Kimberly-Clark shareholders as of the date of record should have received 1 HYH share for every 8 KMB shares owned. While the parent company’s press release was pretty muted,… Read More »
Less than a month after being spun off from Automatic Data Processing (ADP), CDK Global (CDK) has already attracted the interest of an activist investor. Sachem Head Capital Management, a firm led by Bill Ackman protege Scott Ferguson, has amassed a 9.8% stake in the company and is ‘seeking talks’ with management. This must be some type of record.… Read More »
Sorry, Mr. Loeb, it looks like it’s only going to be $219 per share for Amgen (AMGN). The biotech leader hosted a business update session yesterday and CEO Robert Bradway wasted no time in addressing the proverbial 800lb gorilla in the room. Within his opening remarks, Mr. Bradway noted that although they understood the pressure to break up, the company… Read More »
The end of the month is jam packed with spinoffs which means that the major indices will be making some changes as well. In this case, two S&P 500 companies, Agilent (A) and Kimberly-Clark (KMB), are spinning off units which will join the S&P Midcap 400: Keysight Technologies Inc. (NYSE:KEYSwi) will replace Universal Corp. (NYSE:UVV) in the S&P… Read More »
Despite being independent for a mere five months, Civeo (CVEO) has sure generated a lot of excitement. Many anticipated that the company, a spinoff from Oil States International (OIS), was destined to become a REIT in order to better distribute its income. REIT status would also theoretically offer the company a more premium market multiple, boosting its price.… Read More »
The Dolan family is at it again. Perhaps inspired by the master of the spinoff, fellow cable mogul John Malone, 2010 Cablevision(CVC) spinoff The Madison Square Garden Company(MSG) has announced that it is exploring spinning off its Media and Sports business from its Live Entertainment business. The company’s Board Of Directors unanimously approved the plan to explore the… Read More »
Speculation began almost immediately after Dan Loeb’s Third Point impressively raised $2.5b in just two weeks this summer. Who would the new targets be? Existing investments? Foreign companies? One new mark was just identified in the fund’s most recent quarterly letter as Amgen (AMGN), the $100b+ market cap biotech giant. The letter, which is worth a read in its entirety, suggests that… Read More »
At the beginning of the year, QEP Resources (QEP) unveiled a few strategic initiatives including the sale of its non-core assets and the spinoff of its midstream business, Entrada Midstream. The plan was concocted amidst activist pressure (Jana Partners recently exited QEP though) and the idea was to increase the company’s focus on its upstream business and deliver better… Read More »
The Babcock & Wilcox Company’s (BWC) board of directors are currently huddled around a spreadsheet filled room trying to figure out if separating its government & nuclear operations from its power generation business makes sense. At least that is how I imagine their ‘evaluation’ process although the reality probably includes a whole bunch of advisors doing most of… Read More »
With spinoffs becoming even more popular, it’s worth remembering that these transactions affect lots of people and are actually quite complicated. We previously some highlighted cultural and morale issues that may arise during the process, but there are plenty more that we haven’t touched on. There is a reason the timeline from announcement to completion is typically 6-18… Read More »
Lexology has a nice overview of tax inversions and the government response to them. Of particular note to us was one practice Treasury has sought to end, known as “spinversions”: No Spinversions. The U.S. entity would not be allowed to transfer its assets to its current foreign subsidiaries and then spin off those subsidiaries to its public shareholders… Read More »