Nelson Peltz is legendary for successfully pushing for structural change at large companies. This has often resulted in spinoffs of disparate divisions. Last week, Peltz’s investment vehicle, Trian Fund Management, disclosed a $3.5 billion stake in Procter & Gamble(PG). Peltz steps into the shoes of Bill Ackman, who several years ago took an activist position in P&G, only… Read More »
The WSJ is reporting that Dow Chemical (DOW) and DuPont (DD) are in advanced merger talks to create a chemical behemoth with leading positions across the chemical spectrum including ag, plastics and a host of other markets. Both companies have been shedding non-core and non-performing assets over the past few years, including some via spinoffs and exchange offers.… Read More »
Despite what appeared to be reasonable improvement in the first quarter since its spinoff from DuPont(DD), The Chemours Company(CC) stock has continued its downward spiral. The company which began when-issued trading at $21 in late June, closed at $6.43 yesterday. As we have discussed previously, the company is burdened with $4 billion in debt, plus unknowable environmental liability.… Read More »
The Federal Reserve formally approved Synchrony Financial’s (SYF) application to become a publicly traded savings & loan holding company. The approval is a key regulatory milestone for the company and its completion will pave the way for GE (GE) to finish separating the business via exchange offer. As its recent earnings report highlighted, GE has shifted its focus… Read More »
A few short hits for the end of the week… The WSJ busted out an activist report card analyzing the results of ‘what happens to large U.S. companies after an activist arrives’. Naturally, the outcome is ‘mixed’. That said, it’s certainly an interesting data set to parse through and one is able to sort by activist or by… Read More »
DuPont(DD) has not been lacking in drama, with a famously noisy battle with activist Nelson Peltz. The company is now in the final stretch of its spinoff of Chemours, with a date and ratio set. The stock will be distributed on July 1 to shareholders as of June 23. Shareholders will receive one share of Chemours for every… Read More »
DuPont (DD) unveiled the future board of directors at its performance chemicals spinoff, Chemour, earlier this week and poor Nelson Peltz didn’t make the cut here either. Surprisingly, the media isn’t covering this board situation in the same manner as last week’s ‘historic’ proxy battle, which witnessed DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman take down Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund at the ballot box. The… 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 »
Titans of the hedge fund industry, including John Paulson, Carl Icahn, Nelson Peltz (and many more), gathered at the Pierre Hotel this past Wednesday for CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference. There was a lot of Fed talk (Stanley Druckenmiller is not a fan), musings on the economy and of course, the proverbial ‘talking up the book’. It took a… Read More »
There are few companies in America with as long a history as DuPont (DD). Started as a gunpowder mill in Delaware in 1802, the company has been a fixture on the American business landscape for over two centuries. DuPont was a force behind the creation and growth of General Motors (GM) and invented many of the signature materials… Read More »
News of Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management ridding itself of all Kraft related positions turned out to be off…very off. In an amended Q4 13F filing released last week, the hedge fund revealed a large stake of over 19 million shares (a bit more than $600m worth) in Kraft’s international snacks spinoff Mondelez International (MDLZ). There was still… Read More »
13F season is always fun as it provides a rare (albeit delayed) glimpse into the thinking of large money managers and hedge funds. Of course, due to the significant time lag (~45 days), the exclusion of certain securities (shorts, derivatives etc.) and varying investment strategies and holding periods, the usefulness of such data is…questionable in many cases. Not… Read More »
Nelson Peltz is a name that comes up not infrequently in the world of spinoffs. We reported in August, that, after protracted discussions, he had gained a board seat at Ingersoll Rand (IR) and was pushing for the company to split into three publicly traded firms. Today, Ingersoll Rand announced that it will be combining its residential and… Read More »
Why not catch up on some news while we await word of the potential ‘spinoff’ of countries from the Euro Zone? Activist investors have recently notched a number of wins by getting companies to agree to break up (McGraw-Hill, L-3 etc.) in order to generate shareholder value. I am sure they also don’t mind the boost in their… Read More »