Blog Entries tagged 'deals'

CFOs finally may stop sitting on all that cash

annearf@aol.com — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100

CFOs around the world are feeling good--good enough to start spending some money.

But they're going to do so carefully.

First of all they seem to feel better than they have in four years. That's according to a study of senior finance executives globally conducted by American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor.

Specifically, 75 percent foresee economic expansion over the next 12 months, the highest level in the four years the s [...]

Default rate way down this year

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100

In the past week alone, two companies completed distressed exchange offers--US-based Liz Claiborne and Canada-based Cinram International.

This brings the total number of corporate defaults so far this year to six, including four based in the US, according to Standard & Poor's.

Don't despair. The overall default trend is way down from recent year.

Last year at this time, 30 global corporate issuers had already defaulted. Of that total, 21 were US-based i [...]

More companies say bad ethics cost them business

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Potential ethical issues are playing a major role among US companies that conduct business overseas.

According to a new survey, the number of companies claiming to have lost business due to competitors acting unethically has surged to 40 percent from just 10 percent as recently as 2009.

In addition, more than 55 percent of companies are delaying or avoiding working with global business partners due to concerns about corruption liability in foreign markets.

These are am [...]

Moody’s encourages Limited to borrow

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Limited Brands said it will sell $750 million in 10-year notes. The company said it intends to use the proceeds to repurchase $500 million of stock under a new share repurchase program and for general corporate purposes.

The move seemed to surprise some commentators. But investors applauded the move, bidding up the stock by more than 1 percent when it began trading Tuesday morning.

The transactions, however, were seemingly encouraged by Moody's Investors Service.

A [...]

Why three-way proxy battles are rare

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Three-way proxy battles are very unusual. In fact, they are so unusual dissidents frequently go out of their way to avoid them.

This is what happened in a single day last week.

Casablanca Capital withdrew its slate of three director candidates for election to the board of Mentor Graphics at the May annual meeting, pledging its support for Carl Icahn's three-person slate.

On that same day, Immersion announced it had settled with Dialectic Capital Management, [...]

Friday night lights out

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:00:00 +0100

It seemingly happens every Friday evening.

Federal regulators announce that some small bank cannot continue on its own and a rival is brought in to take over the assets and continue as if nothing had happened.

Last Friday was no different. At least four more banks were shut down by regulators, including two in California and two in Georgia.

This brings the total for the year to 22. Last year regulators closed down 157 banks due to bad loans and a slowly recovering economy, [...]

Lessons learned from failed foreign bids

denise.bedell@tc-worldwide.com — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:00:00 +0100

As the US outlook brightens and US companies look to spend some of their hoarded cash on acquisitions abroad, they have many things to ponder and prepare for, not least how takeover rules differ in other jurisdictions.

This came to the fore again recently when two UK takeover targets managed to give their respective suitors—one from the US and one from France—the cold shoulder.

For US firms hoping to pick up [...]

Breaking up is easy to do

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Sara Lee is the latest company to break itself into two or more separate companies.

The split announcement comes in the same month that Motorola divided into two separate companies.

Also in January, ITT, the once-gilded conglomerate, said it would split into three separate companies while Marathon Oil said it would split the company in two.

Marathon, of course, was created from a spin-off from United States Steel in 2002.

Sara Lee Friday said its North Am [...]

Venture capital investments creep upward

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

It is not exactly happy days here again in the venture capital world.

Sure in 2010 the number of deals rose by 6 percent, to 2,799 over 2009 and the amount of capital invested in those transactions climbed 11 percent to $26.2 billion, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

However, let's put the numbers into perspective.

In 2009, overall investment slumped 31 percent from 2008. So this year's upward move is from a much lower base.

What's more, the [...]

The "Superman" of Hong Kong

nicholas.c.lord@gmail.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Li Ka-Shing's Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa (known locally as Hutch) always tops the list of the best managed companies in Asia. This is less to do with its operational management and always to do with its financial management. Its success also flies in the face of conventional wisdom that conglomerates dilute shareholder value through a lack of focus.

The Financial Director of the company is Frank Sixt and he has an unrivalled ability to drive shareholder v [...]

Oil & gas, technology are ripe for consolidation

denise.bedell@tc-worldwide.com — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

M&A could see a significant uptick this year as sectors such as oil and gas, technology, and healthcare lead the way, according to Steve Krouskos, Global and Americas Markets Leader for Ernst & Young's Transaction Advisory Services.

US companies were responsible for $773 billion in M&A volumes in 2010, according to the Thomson Reuters full-year 2010 Mergers & Acquisitions review—an increase of 11% over 2009. [...]

US puts export money where mouth is

nicholas.c.lord@gmail.com — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

In the run up to the visit of Chinese president Hu Jintao to the US next week, government officials have been indulging in the usual round of rhetoric about the undervalued Chinese currency and how it seriously harms US business.

Today at a speech to be given at John's Hopkins University, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will again say that the Chinese currency is "substantially undervalued." He goes on to say that if China continues to undervalue its currency, then a [...]

Fees dropping for equity deals

denise.bedell@tc-worldwide.com — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

It is getting cheaper for companies in the US and Europe to access the public equity markets, according to data from Bloomberg.

Although investment banking fees are rising globally, this is mostly being driven by big fee increases in the emerging markets—especially China. In the US equity underwriting fees have been dropping relatively steadily for a decade. However, they are still much higher than elsewhere.

In fact [...]

Deals, deals, deals

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Merger mania is back.

On Monday alone, two announced deals alone were valued at nearly $20 billion. Both of them are characterized as strategic.

In a blockbuster energy deal, Duke Energy agreed to acquire Progress Energy for $13.7 billion. In addition, DuPont agreed to acquire Danisco A/S for $5.8 billion.

Bloomberg points out that last year, there were fewer than 20 deals valued at more than $10 billion compared with nearly 40 during the height of the M&A boom [...]

Mixed year for corporate bond sales

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0100

Global sales of corporate bonds fell 18 percent to $3.19 trillion in 2010, according to Bloomberg.

However, companies whose credit ratings are below investment grade went on a borrowing binge. Junk bond issuance surged by 74 percent, to $367 billion in 2010, according to Bloomberg.

And with interest rates starting to creep up, we may see a mini-boom in the first quarter of 2011 as companies rush to lock in the current low yields, which may not reappear for years.

B [...]

PE investing heating up

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0100

Private equity firms are on the prowl for larger companies.

Armed with near-record dry powder, buyout specialists this year alone have completed 68 deals of at least $500 million, according to PitchBook. This is more than double the 26 deals exceeding $500 million in 2009, bringing the two-year total to 94.

PE firms plunked down nearly $78 billion of capital on the 68 deals.

"The bigger deals this year have been made possible by an increased availability of d [...]

Uncle Sam wants SMEs to export

nicholas.c.lord@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0100

Persuading American companies to export is no easy task. For a start, America is the biggest market in the world and expanding overseas is perceived to make little material difference for most companies. Moreover, exports are risky: issues of non-payment, political risk and language barriers all raise the overall cost of business.

According to official government figures, only 1 percent of US companies actually export, even though 95 percent of the total global population lives o [...]

A new way to value M&A?

denise.bedell@tc-worldwide.com — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0100

With US M&A still going strong both domestically and internationally, bias inherent in traditional valuation methods can lead to incorrect assumptions. Hence it is time to take a new approach to valuation. Or so say the authors of a new M&A methodology out in the Harvard Business Review.

Alexander van Putten— principal at Cameron & Associates and affiliate faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business [...]

Governments making business easier

nicholas.c.lord@gmail.com — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0100

Corporate executives are probably right in thinking that governments are the biggest impediment to their success. Pointless regulation, excessive taxation and now crippling debt burdens all conspire against successful performance.

This Monday, another country (Ireland) wakes up to a bailout that will see crushing austerity imposed on its people to pay for the rank financial incompetence of its political leaders. Companies, rightly, do not think much of governments right now.

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Caterpillar issues Yuan-denominated paper

stephentaub@yahoo.com — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0100

China is slowing making inroads into another major market--debt underwriting.

Caterpillar said its financial services subsidiary raised about $150 million in a yuan (also known as renminbi) denominated medium term note. The issuance was conducted in Hong Kong and bought by institutional investors.

This is just the second non-financial multinational company to tap Hong Kong's yuan-denominated bond market.

Dow Jones points out that several banks have issued bon [...]