The beginning of the New Year is often a time of hope. A fresh start. A clean slate. A new beginning. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always go as planned and the first quarter of 2019 was particularly rough on commodity giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Profit plunged over 40% due to a confluence of events including the ongoing trade… Read More »
We discussed one scrapped spinoff earlier this week – Brunswick’s Life Fitness – but, alas, it wasn’t an isolated incident. In this edition of Odds & Ends we catch you up on the latest in abandoned spin plans: 1. Thyssenkrupp’s Elevator Spinoff thyssenkrupp (TKAMY) shocked the markets with a stunning strategic about face ‘reset’ last week. Seven months… Read More »
Brunswick (BC) announced earlier this week that private equity firm KPS Capital Partners will acquire its fitness business for $490m in cash, ending the unit’s planned spinoff. Brunswick paid over $300m for the business back in 1997, but sales have been declining over the past few years. Brunswick CEO David Foulkes noted that ‘with the sale of the… Read More »
Months after the spinoff of its transportation unit and its subsequent merger with Wabtec(WAB), GE(GE) has sold 25.2 million shares of Wabtec stock in a public offering at $73.50 per share. The offering had originally been set at 12.5 million to 14.375 million shares but was quickly upsized, presumably due to robust interest. GE continues to own around… Read More »
It seem like just last month that DowDuPont(DWDP) completed the spinoff of Dow(DOW). As was planned from the moment Dow and DuPont merged just a few short years ago, DowDuPont has one more spinoff to complete before it changes its name back to DuPont(or DuPont de Nemours, Inc., to be precise), and its ticker back to DD. DowDuPont’s… Read More »
Lets kick off the week with a new edition of odds and ends catching up on some old items: Disney (DIS) acquired 21st Century Fox last month, but a new, slimmed down Fox Corporation (FOX) was spun off just prior to the deal closing. The new Fox is still controlled by the Murdoch family, but it is a… Read More »
That’s what it’s all about. How do you sell off part of your business and not pay taxes? The answer, of course, is a reverse Morris Trust transaction. Ingersoll-Rand(IR) is an Ireland-based industrial conglomerate with a $30 billion market cap and 49,000 employees. Ingersoll Rand is no stranger to these pages, having spun off its security business as… Read More »
Until this week, VF Corporation’s (VFC) upcoming Kontoor Brand’s spinoff only had the vague timetable of ‘sometime in May’. Finally, we have some closure and some concrete details on the jeanswear company’s upcoming independence. The board of directors has now formally approved the spinoff which will take place after the close on May 22nd with shareholders expected to… 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 Some big spinoffs in April. April 1st – after several years of merger integration work, DowDupont (DWDP) began breaking itself up last month with the spin off… Read More »
We thought it was unusual that Dow and Dupont merged into DowDuPont(DWDP) with the plan from the start being to break back up into three companies: Dow(DOW), DuPont, and Corteva. Yet here we are not a month later discussing a similar situation. Last year, Tenneco(TEN) purchased Federal Mogul from Carl Icahn with plans to spinoff the combined aftermarket… Read More »
Mohnish Pabrai may be best known to the world for his hedge fund or for his books such as The Dhando Investor, but on this site it’s for his relatively new Spinoff Portfolio. Unfortunately, despite strong backtested results, 2018 was a rough year for the portfolio. Four of out five names finished in negative territory for the year,… Read More »
When last we left Versum(VSM), the Air Products(APD) spinoff was insisting it was sticking by its merger agreement with Entegris(ENTG), come Hell or high water. Versum had dismissed Merck KGaA’s(MKKGY) all cash $48 a share bid, and Merck was preparing to go hostile. Fast forward a month, and the hostilities have ended with Versum firmly in Merck’s arms… Read More »
Earlier this month DowDuPont (DWDP) began its ‘slim down’ phase with the spinoff of the new Dow Corporation (DOW). The new company received lots of love from the index community. It replaced DowDuPont in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is also a member of the S&P 500 index. Now it is seemingly also the darling of the… Read More »
Last week, Novartis(NVS) completed its spinoff of Alcon(ALC). Less than a decade ago, Novartis had purchased Alcon from Nestle(NSRGY), but new leadership decided to reverse the transaction. In an article this weekend, Barron’s suggests that there is more than meets the eye to Alcon. Barron’s notes that, on the surface, Alcon looks expensive. For now, Wall Street is… Read More »
What the VF(VFC)? The clothing conglomerate moved closer to completing the spinoff of its denim business as Kontoor Brands recently with the filing of a Form 10. Kontoor will comprise the Wrangler®, Lee® and Rock & Republic® brands, and the VF Outlet business. Kontoor stock is expected to trade under the KTB ticker symbol. The spinoff, which is on track to be completed… Read More »