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 »
A few weeks ago we highlighted Mohnish Pabrai’s S&P crushing Spinoff Portfolio. While the historical results were merely backtested, 2018 has gotten off to a tremendous start. Despite a big decline at Adient (ADNT), the fund was boosted by General Dynamic’s (GD) ~$9.6b (including debt) takeover of government IT services provider CSRA (CSRA). The deal is actually an all cash… Read More »
IDT (IDT) is a serial spinner. Over the life of this blog alone the telecommunications company helmed by former hot dog stand operator/current billionaire Howard Jonas has spun off oil & gas assets (Genie Energy, GNE), ringtones (Zedge, ZDGE) and intellectual property/spectrum assets (Straight Path Communications). Quite an odd assortment of assets for a telecom company, but it… Read More »
Maybe at Alice’s Restaurant you can get anything you want, but Arlo only makes security cameras. The buisness, which Netgear(NTGR) launched in 2014, had revenue last year of $378 million, compared to $1.03 billion for the rest of the company. This was double Arlo’s 2016 revenue, while the rest of the company is flat. Netgear management, wishing to take… Read More »
Hedge funds get rich using OPM (other people’s money) so why not use OPW (other people’s work) to generate some ideas? Might be helpful if volatility is back… Clark Street Value takes a look at two upcoming real estate related spinoffs. The first is Spirit Realty Capital’s (SRC) upcoming ‘bad asset’ portfolio spinoff. It will consist of properties… Read More »
Even before Time Warner(TWX) spun it off in June 2014, Meredith(MDP) was in talks trying to effect a Reverse Morris Trust transaction. Over the subsequent years, Time repeatedly was the subject of buyout discussion, and Meredith was always in the mix. Well after five years, Meredith finally got its prize. On January 31, Meredith closed its $2.8 billion… Read More »
Boats, billiard tables and fitness equipment. Three years after the sale of its iconic bowling business, Brunswick(BC) continues to house a diverse and unconnected set of products. When a company is in such disparate businesses, it is only a matter of time before an activist investor comes along, urging a spinoff. That day arrived for Brunswick last week,… Read More »
It’s a new year (relatively speaking at this point) and some readers are likely evaluating their investment strategies for 2018. If you can stomach a healthy dose of volatility then Mohnish Pabrai has just the thing for you – a concentrated portfolio of spinoffs! For those wondering, Mr. Pabrai founded both the Dhando Fund and Pabrai Investment Funds… Read More »
One year after its Chapter 11 filing and a decade after a private equity buyout, Avaya(AVYA) is, once again, a public company. The company had declared bankruptcy beset by $6.3 Billion in debt and mounting losses. In December, it completed its restructuring and began trading OTC. In January, less than a month later, Avaya stock gained a listing… Read More »
Last week, we noted a few examples of the ‘ugly spinoff’ phenomenon where really ugly looking spinoffs end up performing really well. These businesses often have dim growth prospects, low margins and are often initially larded up with debt or other legacy problems. Despite those challenges, the ‘bad business’ stocks often do well as the companies finally have… Read More »
It’s that time of year again where thanks to sites like Market Folly we mere mortals get to enjoy the vast wisdom contained in hedge fund year end letters. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital is always a good one to read although this past year was a challenging one for the value investor. The fund returned <2% in 2017… Read More »
Lets keep the momentum going and take a look at what is going on in the world of spinoffs: Blackhawk Networks (HAWK), a 2014 spinoff from Safeway (which has since been acquired), is being acquired by private equity firms Silver Lake and P2 Capital Partners for $3.5b or $45.25 per share. P2 Capital is already a shareholder with… Read More »