Deals

Rocket’s housing deal has foundational cracks

10 Mar 2025

The mortgage lender is buying real estate portal Redfin for $2 bln. The premium is covered by $200 mln of promised cost cuts and revenue bumps. But the seller isn’t profitable, and the housing market is ailing. It’s a fixer-upper merger premised on a lot of hope.

Italy’s great Generali game enters fateful round

10 Mar 2025

Rival investors are battling for control of the $52 bln insurer. A hostile takeover of Mediobanca and a new law could shift the power balance. Rival lender UniCredit might also play a role. The risk is that Generali’s governance becomes even more complex, echoing its past.

Walgreens mega-LBO tests ‘better in private’ maxim

7 Mar 2025

After a decade of failing to solve fundamental problems, the drugstore chain is a mess. A $10 bln buyout makes the usual promise that issues are best fixed out of the public eye. The first benchmark: selling cash-burning primary care. Investors seem to have reasonable doubts.

Dealmakers jazz up glum outlook in New Orleans

7 Mar 2025

Despite a slow $500 bln start to M&A this year, consiglieri clung to optimism at their annual Big Easy conclave. Buyout shops and CEOs may have the money for acquisitions, but expecting policy and the economy to become predictable enough for their comfort is a fanciful notion.

Seven & i’s latest revamp leaves stale aftertaste

7 Mar 2025

Incoming boss Stephen Dacus is keeping plans to sell the $37 bln firm’s superstores and list its US business. What’s new is using the proceeds to buy back $13 bln of stock over five years. That’s no strategy for growth or unlocking value. A sale to Couche-Tard still looks best.

A hostile $7 bln chip deal leans on electric faith

6 Mar 2025

Onsemi, its stock down nearly 60% and sales tumbling as carmaker clients wobble, is pressing to buy rival Allegro. Cost cuts might bump the return to a meager 3%, while tariffs and economic gloom linger. Yet the bidder is going with traffic: cars need more chips, especially EVs.

Panama deal puts CK Hutchison in a sea change

6 Mar 2025

How the Hong Kong conglomerate uses the $19 bln in proceeds from the sale of its global ports will be a key test for Chair Victor Li. His flagship group has been deleveraging and increasing payouts. If geopolitics don't get in the way, the Li empire is overdue a big purchase.

BlackRock gets bargain berth in Panama trade storm

4 Mar 2025

The investing giant agreed to pay $23 bln for CK Hutchison’s port operations along the vital shipping canal and beyond. It helps the Hong Kong conglomerate out of a political jam. A discounted valuation also bolsters boss Larry Fink’s bold but shaky infrastructure strategy.

Austrians dodge Gulf squeeze in plastics megadeal

4 Mar 2025

OMV and ADNOC will merge two plastics units. The Vienna-based $14 bln group had a weak hand because of exposure to high-cost Europe and the fact that the UAE-based giant is a key shareholder. But CEO Alfred Stern emerged with big dividends, decent governance and dignity intact.

Only a takeover will unlock Seven & i’s full value

4 Mar 2025

The Japanese firm's shares rose on media reports it will replace CEO Ryuichi Isaka, then fell 10% on worries it will reject Couche-Tard's $47 bln offer. Isaka once had activist backing and failed to perform. That sets a high bar for Seven & i to go it alone, even with a new boss.

EU banks’ M&A secret weapon nears sell-by date

3 Mar 2025

The ‘Danish Compromise’ lets Europe’s lenders buy insurers while shielding the capital hit. Yet Italy’s battle over $15 bln Banco BPM suggests the tool can also be hard to deploy. If financial groups fear regulators could withdraw the wheeze, maybe it’s no longer much use.

A Chinese Morgan Stanley is worth an M&A shot

3 Mar 2025

CICC may merge with Galaxy, per Reuters. They denied it, but a tie-up would combine a retail broker and an investment bank, as CICC’s Wall Street co-founder did with Dean Witter. It has more logic than earlier state-led deals, though being a global player would remain a stretch.

Verizon static overwhelms Trump trade signal

28 Feb 2025

The telecom giant’s $2 bln US aviation contract and $20 bln broadband merger suddenly confront questions, including over DEI. Such hangups exemplify the chaotic inscrutability CEOs now face. Past regulatory crackdowns may have been frustrating, but were at least predictable.

WPP woe advertises scope for shiny buyout

28 Feb 2025

The $9 bln UK group’s shares fell 16% after it warned sales may flatline in 2025. A shaky backdrop for deals means industry rivals are unlikely to pounce on their discount rival. But if a private equity shop can copy the success of rival Publicis it can make a neat return.

Seven & i hurtles towards a shareholder showdown

27 Feb 2025

The shares fell 11% after the family behind the $42 bln owner of 7-Eleven gave up trying to take it private. Pushy investors are likely to use the upcoming AGM to press the board to justify its weak strategy and engage properly with Couche-Tard, its unwanted Canadian suitor.

Prosus’ delivery M&A makes most sense as a starter

24 Feb 2025

The $105 bln investor is paying $4 bln for Just Eat Takeaway.com. Prosus shares fell, perhaps due to the target’s past struggles and the absence of immediate synergies. But if the Dutch group used its Delivery Hero stake to drive a tie-up with Just Eat it might create more value.

Nissan offers suitors daunting risk-reward trade

24 Feb 2025

KKR has joined Foxconn in mulling an investment, and some Japanese bigwigs may want to involve Tesla. CEO Makoto Uchida’s turnaround plan could roughly triple the carmaker’s valuation. But it means cutting sticky costs, halting sliding sales and hiking prices. It’s a tall order.

Anglo’s self-help plan is working deceptively well

20 Feb 2025

The $41 bln miner’s shares are well below the value of a rejected share-based offer from BHP last year, and CEO Duncan Wanblad is mired in writedowns. But diamond woes are old. And Anglo American’s valuation multiple has at least improved even as its suitor’s stock has dropped.

Backhoe deal unearths big holes in M&A logic

18 Feb 2025

Heavy equipment supplier H&E abandoned an agreed $4.8 bln sale to United Rentals for a sweeter offer from rival Herc. The punchy 138% premium led to a 10% drop in the new buyer’s market value. A sputtering US merger revival also helps expose a variety of acquisition pitfalls.

For TSMC, Trump can make an Intel deal appeal

17 Feb 2025

Taiwan's $840 bln chipmaker might take a stake in its ailing rival's factories at the behest of the US. Such a deal makes no financial sense. But with the president threatening tariffs and more, it may be a small price to pay for the Asian giant to protect its top market.