The boom in spinoff activity over the past few years has been aided greatly by the boom in activist investing. In this edition of Odds & Ends we check in on some activists. Other hedge funds may be shuttering, but it seems this segment remains hot! When something works, the financial industry knows how to milk it, but… Read More »
Last month, Arconic(ARNC) announced suddenly that it had failed to find a buyer willing to pay enough for the whole company and was ending the sale process. Now, it is trying a different approach, announcing that it plans to spin off one of two businesses: Engineered Products & Forgings or Global Rolled Products. It will also attempt to sell… Read More »
Let’s kick off the week with some deal talk. Last week we touched on Apollo’s (APO) potential buyout of Arconic (ARNC) and if completed, it would just be another example of spinoff/parent company being taken out. Once the separation announcement is made or even the ‘strategic alternatives’ one, the market knows that a sale is possible. In that vein,… Read More »
The WSJ is reporting that Arconic (ARNC) is nearing a deal with private equity firm Apollo Global Management (APO) to be taken private. While the exact deal value is unknown right now, estimates peg Arconic’s value at over $10b or between $21 and $22 per share. The price represents a modest premium to recent close, but the name… Read More »
That was quick. Whitbread’s (WTBCF) CEO Allison Brittain caved to activist pressure in seemingly record time, announcing the spinoff of Costa Coffee less than two weeks after Elliott Advisors unveiled a ~6% stake in the company. Of course, Whitbread doesn’t believe it caved and in the press release announcing the demerger (British for spinoff), the company notes that… Read More »
It’s been a rough year for Akzo Nobel(AKZOY). First, Elliott Management got involved. The activist fund was pushing for a breakup of the Dutch chemicals company. However, when US rival PPG(PPG) showed up with an offer to buy the whole company, Elliott began pushing the offer over management’s resistance. AkzoNobel was successfully able to leverage Dutch protectionism to… Read More »
We didn’t really cover this saga, but last year Hess Corporation (HES) was embroiled in a heated proxy battle with Paul Singer’s Elliott Management. The fund argued (and put together a nice presentation) that the company was poorly managed, had lousy governance (too many cronies on the board) and was undervalued on a sum of the parts basis.… Read More »