Word: spinnings
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Periods of takeovers followed by sprees of spin-offs are hardly new. M and A activity usually increases as markets and liquidity rise, while demergers often occur after things go bust. "Clearly there is quite a cyclical and fashionable element involved," says HSBC's Russell. That's partly explained by the investment banks' need to make money regardless of market performance. "If you can't do the merger, do the spin-off. In bad times, the spin-off is the easier sell," Minichiello says. Management comes under pressure from investors to "do something," and the investment banks are there with...
Like most market crazes, this one started in the U.S. Sales and spin-offs accounted for 35% of M and A activity on Wall Street last year, up from 21% in 2000. Companies like Tyco International and Citigroup are jettisoning divisions; others, including GE, the Hilton Group and Motorola, are expected to offload units soon. In Europe, the market is smaller, but it's growing exponentially. According to J.P. Morgan, sales and spin-offs represented 8.2% of pan-European M and A activity last year, up from 2.8% in 1999. In the same period, Europe's entire...
...sale, especially if there's enough interest to create an auction - and get a premium price. But buyers are not always available in slow economic times, and some divisions are not appealing to anyone. "If you can't sell it or if it is very large, you do a spin-off," says Paul Gibbs, head of M and A research at J.P. Morgan in London. A spin-off is essentially giving a unit to shareholders. But because spin-offs are tax-free transactions in most European countries, they can pack benefits for shareholders and companies alike. Kingfisher even managed...
Minichiello of Spin-off Advisors says carve-outs enable parent companies to establish a division's market value, a particularly useful exercise if they plan to bail out of it altogether in a few years. Nestlé insists that it has no plans to sever all ties to Alcon, though analysts still expect the food giant to untether the eye-care group eventually. As for Deutsche Telekom, it won't be Europe's first long-distance operator to unload a wireless unit. British Telecom last year spun off mm02, and France Telcom floated a piece of its Orange mobile unit...
...Sweet Smell of Success' destroyed us all," said Mackendrick, who would never again direct a major Hollywood film. But that's press-agent reverse-spin. In the projector lamp of history, no one cares whether the film's makers had a good time or whether the film was a commercial and critical flop. (TIME did put it on its 1957 Ten Best list.) What matters is the creepy, elevated pleasure it gives today. The movie proves how savory and nourishing a cookie full of arsenic...