Word: esmark
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...during the past three years. In June, R.J. Reynolds, maker of Camel and Salem, bought Nabisco Brands for $4.9 billion. That development coincides with consolidation in the food industry. In addition to the Reynolds-Nabisco agreement, there were also mergers between Nestle and Carnation and Beatrice Foods and Esmark during the past 14 months...
...Nestlé-Carnation deal continues a streak of mergers in the competitive food industry. Last month Chicago's Beatrice (Tropicana, La Choy) bought Esmark (Swift, Peter Pan) for $2.8 billion. Two weeks ago, Ralston Purina agreed to acquire ITT's Continental Baking division for $475 million. One reason for the takeovers is that business has turned sluggish as a result of the slowdown in U.S. population growth. Thus the easiest way for food companies to grow is to take over other firms. And as the Carnation purchase indicated, cows that are too contented may find themselves...
...takeover fever that has infected American business continued to burn unabated last week. Beatrice Foods, which owns such brands as Tropicana orange juice, La Choy Oriental food and Swiss Miss chocolate mix, offered $2.8 billion for Esmark, which owns Playtex, Max Factor and Avis. The bid, which Esmark approved, topped by $400 million the offer made only three weeks earlier by the New York investment banking firm of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and was $300 million more than Beatrice's earlier...
...also wants to deflate "golden parachutes," which give special payments to executives if they leave a company after a takeover. If the sale of Esmark goes through, for example, Chairman Donald Kelly, 62, would collect three years' salary and sell his 245,000 shares of stock for $60 a share. Total reward: $17.4 million...
Whether it involves finding a buyer for a company like Esmark or plotting the hostile takeover of an unsuspecting firm, mergermaking has become perhaps the choicest job in American finance. "This is the era of the superstars in the merger and acquisition world," says Ivan Boesky, the merger investment specialist. "You've got perhaps ten men guiding the future of corporate America...