RSS feedM&A
A grandee speaks up for Little England
To the Said Business School, Oxford, to hear departing Cadbury chairman Roger Carr talk about hostile takeover bids – a timely address, given the Kraft deal…
Carr, we can report, had clearly topped up on the theobromine ahead of his speech.
CIC takes on the world
After a low-key year, China Investment Corporation really has come back out swinging. After last week’s news of its nifty deal with Apax Partners in Europe, a (US) SEC filing by the Chinese sovereign wealth fund gives an intriguing glimpse into how it is using exchange-traded funds to take positions on sectors ranging from healthcare to consumer services and gold.
DE Shaw eyes distressed assets
DE Shaw, the world’s third-largest hedge fund with about $28bn under management, has established a special in-house team to buy up portfolios of distressed assets – particularly so-called “side-pcketed”
Xstrata ’sees value’ in Glencore
Xstrata, the Swiss-based mining group, has acknowledged that a merger with Glencore, the privately held commodities trader, could create value. The prospect of a merger with Glencore, which owns 34% of Xstrata,
Kirin, Suntory seek new deals
Japan’s Kirin and Suntory on Monday said they would each continue looking for M&A opportunities after the collapse of a deal to create the world’s fifth-largest beverage and food group by sales.
Abbey, Bungle & Leicester
Why is Santander considering a flotation of its operations in the UK? According to the spin in the weekend press, it is so that the Spanish bank can buy the 318-strong branch network that RBS is being forced to sell as a condition of the state aid it has received.
Kirin terminates Suntory talks
Kirin Holdings said on Monday it had terminated talks with Suntory Holdings after Japan’s two top beverage makers were unable to agree on a merger to create the world’s fifth-biggest foodmaker, reports Bloomberg.
EMI – a (on)going concern? (updated)
Maltby Capital Limited, the vehicle Guy Hands used to acquire EMI for £4.2bn shortly before the credit markets collapsed a couple of years ago, has filed results and financial statements for the year to March 31,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- Model-oggling Macquarie banker keeps his job.
- The Devil really does wear Prada, or how luxury changes people.
- What happened the last time the UK defaulted?
- A scary subprime chart.
D Telekom mulls T-Mobile IPO
Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest US wireless provider, is exploring an IPO or spinoff of the US business as it seeks to jump-start the carrier and assuage disenchanted shareholders,
Resolution eyes RBS branches
Resolution Group, the vehicle set up by UK investor Clive Cowdery, and US buy-out group Blackstone, are in the running to join National Australia Bank in a potential bid for the 318 branches being sold by RBS.
Abu Dhabi to take Gatwick stake
The owners of Gatwick have sold another stake in the airport, this time to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. The move comes days after news that South Korea’s National Pension Service would take a 12% stake in Gatwick for just under £100m.
“A fraud against the American people”
The banker backlash continues – and in some style.
Thursday afternoon, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo’s has taken the case against Ken “we’re good at this” Lewis public.
Reuters flashes report Cuomo is charging the former Bank of America CEO in connection with his role in Bank of America’s troublesome acquisition of Merrill Lynch,
Kontrast and Kompare
Preliminary guidance for Kraft’s bond seems to be out.
The below is courtesy of Marc Ostwald at Monument Securities
Just for fun, Ostwald provides details of a new Lithuanian 10-year bond:
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Meet the market’s biggest losers.
- Goldman departures: if you left Lloyd, he’d find you…
- That Macquarie Bank picture aftermath.
- Revenue beat rate: this earnings season.
Kraft to sell $4bn of bonds
Kraft Foods is planning to sell a minimum of $4bn in bonds in four parts on Thursday to help finance its $18.7bn acquisition of British chocolatier Cadbury, reports Reuters. The sale is expected to include 3.25-year,
Axa puts Spotless up for sale
Spotless, the French maker of laundry and cleaning products, could become the latest “pass-the-parcel” deal between private equity groups, after Axa Private Equity put it up for sale with a €600m-€700m price tag after withdrawing the company from sale two years ago amid the financial crisis.
Liberty offloads pension fund
Liberty International, the FTSE100 property group, has joined a handful of UK companies to end their exposure to defined benefit pension schemes after it signed a £61m buy-out deal with Pension Corp. Under the deal,
Paying for Cadbury
Just a day after its offer for the British chocolatier was declared unconditional, Kraft is looking to refinance the £7.1bn bridge loan it took on to fund the £11.7bn cash-and-scrip bid.
The US food company is planning a “jumbo”
Groups circle Dubai assets
Istithmar, the investment arm of the troubled Dubai World conglomerate, has put Inchcape Shipping Services, the UK-based port and shipping agent, up for sale for $600m-$700m, in a deal that has drawn interest from buy-out groups including Advent International,
BNY Mellon to buy PNC arm
Bank of New York Mellon on Tuesday announced it would pay $2.31bn to acquire the back-office operations of PNC Financial Services Group, fuelling expectations that more financial firms will shed businesses to shore up capital and repay bail-out funds.
Korea’s NPS and the ‘overlap’ factor
One thing we know about the South Koreans — they have reversed course in recent years to become big spenders and poor savers. They have also become much bolder investors, after decades of adhering to a more cautious approach.
A New Look?
New Look has wheeled out the big guns for its proposed flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Cazenove and Lazard are all on the ticket. (And that’s just the lead mangers – Barclays,
Korea’s NPS swoops on Gatwick
South Korea’s National Pension Service will next week take a 12% stake in Gatwick airport, in a further push to expand its international portfolio from $240bn to $400bn by 2014. The deal follows NPS’s acquisition last year of HSBC’s headquarters at London’s Canary Wharf for £773m.
CME eyes Dow Jones index arm
The CME Group, the world’s biggest futures exchange, is in talks to buy Dow Jones’s index business from News Corp for as much as $700m – in a further sign that international financial exchanges are looking to diversify their sources of revenue.
The little bucket shop of horrors
The high risk nature of small cap shares is demonstrated in the sample of transactions reviewed, which covered 19 different small cap stocks. Analysis has shown that the value of these stocks has decreased significantly since the point of purchase to December 2009.
Volcker rule hits JPM’s Sempra deal
Ah, the Volcker rule: a godsend for non-bank associated market makers and trading houses — including the big physical commodity trading business — but not so good for trading divisions found within commercial banks.
[Mining Indaba 2010] Preview (Frank Timis update)
By Matthew Kennard, our man-on-the-ground at the mining industry’s annual jamboree in South Africa.
Welcome to the Mining Indaba 2010; I’ll be your guide through the biggest industry junket of the year taking place in sunny Cape Town over the next week.