Poor Irene Rosenfeld. The former CEO of Kraft Foods was badgered by Nelson Peltz’s Trian Group into breaking up her empire in 2012 into the slow growing, North American grocery business, Kraft Foods Group, and the international snack food company Mondelez International (MDLZ). She remained at the top of Mondelez and also (rightfully) took a lot of heat for the… Read More »
Janney analyst Mark Kalikowsky is quite bullish on Taco Bell and recently raised his same store estimates for Taco Bell by four (4) percentage points. More interesting for us here is the fact that Mr. Kalikowsky also reiterated his thoughts that the chain should be spun off from its more globally focused parent, Yum Brands (YUM), which itself… 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 »
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 »
We previously wrote about chatter that Pepsi(PEP) might spin off its Frito-Lay snack division, and Pepsi’s subsequent decision not to. But that was before Relational Partners got involved. The firm disclosed that it had accumulated .6% of the company. The company confirmed that “the company had ‘constructive meetings’ with the hedge fund and called Relational a ‘respected institution.’”… Read More »
Mario Gabelli appeared on CNBC yesterday, and among other things, spoke, as he often does, about spinoffs. The CEO of Gamco Investors spoke about his success with recent spins such as Fortune Brands Home & Security(FBHS), Beam, Inc.(BEAM) and Xylem(XYL). Gabelli also spoke about Pepsi(PEP) as a potential split that he likes. Gabelli explained why he likes spinoffs… Read More »
Despite calls by some investors to spin off its Frito-Lay snack food division, Pepsi(PEP) appears ready to continue to remain a single entity. The company has languished during CEO Indra Nooyi’s tenure, rising just 1% in 5 years. The WSJ reports that “A breakup of the company appears unlikely, although the board has looked at the idea.” Instead,… Read More »