WPX Energy Begins Trading Today As Independent Company

WPX Energy(WPX) began trading regular way today following its spin off from Williams(WMB). The company issued a press release to mark the occasion         Shares of WPX Energy will begin trading “regular way” on the New York Stock Exchange today following a successful spinoff from Williams that concluded on Dec. 31. WPX Energy is an… Read More »

Orchard Supply Hardware Common And Preferred Begin Trading Today

Orchard Supply Hardware Common(OSH) and preferred(OSHSP) began trading this morning, following their spinoff from Sears Holdings(SHLD). The newly independent company issued a press release to mark the occasion:         Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corporation, a specialty retailer serving homeowners with repair, maintenance and improvement needs, announced that its spin-off from Sears Holdings Corporation was completed at… Read More »

Ralcorp Buys Post, 4 Years Later Spins It Off, Forgets To Admit Failure

Our friends over at My Investing Notebook recently dug up Ralcorp’s(RAH) comments from its 2007 acquisition of Post Cereals, and compared them to its comments regarding this month’s spin off of Post(POST) as an independent company. We were salivating to buy the stock based on the mouth-watering descriptions of future profits to be had as a result of… both… Read More »

Sears Holdings Completes Orchard Supply Hardware Spinoff

Sears Holdings(SHLD) issued a press release this morning announcing the completion of the Orchard Supply Hardware(OSH) spinoff.  Sears Holdings Corporation (“Holdings,” “we” or “our”)  today announced that it has completed its previously announced spin-off of its interest in Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corporation (“Orchard”).  Orchard is now independent from Holdings and its Class A Common Stock will begin… Read More »

Rouse Moves Down In First Day Of When Issued Trading

Rouse(RSE) began trading on a when issued basis today in anticipation of its spin off next month from General Growth Properties(GGP). The stock, which opened at 14, moved steadily downward and closed the day at 12 on 55,819 shares traded.  This represents a significant discount to book value and is below the $15/share, $200 million post-spin rights offering… Read More »

WPX Energy To Enter S&P 500

When WPX Energy(WPX)is spun off from The Williams Companies(WMB) on December 31 as we discussed previously, it will immediately join the S&P 500, replacing Compuware(CPWR).  Parent company The Williams Companies will remain in the index as well.  This continues a trend of large companies breaking into pieces large enough to themselves be constituents of the premier large cap… Read More »

Severstal To Spin Off Nord Gold In Convoluted Transaction

Alexei Mordashov, who owns 82% of Severstal, is the second-richest man in Russia, and he still dreams of being the richest.  Towards that end, Severstal announceda convoluted plan to spin off its Nord Gold unit.  Severstal had previously hoped to float the unit in London, but pulled the plan when it became clear that the valuation would be… Read More »

Overseas Shareholders To Receive Cash In Lieu Of Swire Properties Shares

We wrote briefly about Swire Pacific’s upcoming spin off of Swire Properties, but didn’t reference Swire’s comprehensive announcement. The record date for the conditional dividend will be January 6, 2012, with distribution in February. Overseas shareholders(non-Hong Kong) will have their shares in the new firm sold and receive cash instead. The distribution is conditional on receiving listing approval,… Read More »

Ralcorp Announces A Few More Details On Post Spinoff

It’s been nearly 6 months since Ralcorp(RAH) announced plans to spin off Post Holdings and not much has changed.  The interest that had been expressed by Conagra(CAG) never materialized into a transaction as Ralcorp management continued to reject buyout offers. Today, the company took the mildly unusual step of issuing a press release noting that it has amended… Read More »

A Bullish Article On Conoco Phillips Split

We’ve previously discussed the Conoco Phillips(COP) split here and here. James Shell posts at Seeking Alpha his case for buying Conoco Phillips this week. Shell projects that the companies trade at a 5% discount as a result of being combined. Is that enough to justify the split? Does the trend to dismantle vertically integrated oil companies make sense,… Read More »

Orascom Construction Industries To Split Fertilizer And Construction Businesses

The largest public company in Egypt will soon be much smaller.  Orsacom Construction Industries(ORSCY) will spin off its construction business to shareholders, retaining its fertilizer business.Nassaf Sawaris, the company’s chairman and CEO explained It has been apparent to us, that there is absolutely no rationale to justify the relationship between the fertiliser business [which exports to Europe, North… Read More »

Is Orchard Supply Worth $10 per Sears Share? Morningstar Seems To Think So

A recent report on Sears Holdings(SHLD) by Morningstar analyst Paul Swinand lowers their fair value estimate for Sears by $10 per share due to the Orchard Supply(OSH) spinoff. Given the distribution ratio of 1 share of Orchard Supply for approximately every 22 of Sears, and Sears’ 80% ownership in Orchard Supply, this would seem to imply a per… Read More »