Divestment

Société Générale CEO is pruning a decaying tree

11 Apr 2024

Slawomir Krupa agreed to sell an equipment-financing unit to local French rival BPCE for 1.1 bln euros. It’s a good price, and Krupa is right to clear out peripheral assets that languished under his predecessor. The problem is that the bank’s core isn’t alluring either.

UAE flips own script with $4 bln oil pipeline deal

5 Apr 2024

Abu Dhabi’s $100 bln fund, Lunate, bought KKR and BlackRock’s 40% stake in ADNOC’s infrastructure arm. In recent years the UAE has raised cash from foreign investors by selling minority stakes in its oil giant. The latest deal does the opposite.

Hollywood super-agent casts himself as deal star

4 Apr 2024

Endeavor boss Ari Emanuel was unexpectedly humbled: some of his bonuses went unpaid because the company’s stock price has sputtered. A $13 bln sale to buyout shop Silver Lake fixes the problem. Between equity, royalties and other goodies, he stands to pocket more than $400 mln.

Ben & Jerry’s rocky ESG road bucks vanilla trends

4 Apr 2024

The purpose-driven ice cream brand is being scooped out of Unilever as corporate activism increasingly invites controversy. And yet the maker of flavors like Empower Mint has grown faster than its parent. Social values, especially when authentic, can mix well with financial aims.

Capital Calls: Motorcycle M&A

1 Apr 2024

Concise views on global finance: John Malone’s Liberty Media is buying Dorna, the parent of motorcycling racing championship MotoGP, for 4.3 billion euros. It’s hard to see how the media mogul can make the deal work.

Eni’s green shoots are taking time to blossom

28 Mar 2024

Italy’s $53 bln energy major trades at a discount to rivals. An overhang from Rome’s potential stake sale and falling gas prices are drags. But CEO Claudio Descalzi’s plan to raise cash by spinning off energy transition-focused business units is also yet to fully shape up.

Europe’s IPO window opens slowly for buyout barons

28 Mar 2024

CVC floated beauty retailer Douglas, whose shares fell, while EQT received a warmer welcome for skincare group Galderma. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how to interpret the mixed message for private equity groups sitting on $3 trln of unsold assets.

Capital Calls: Shell and Russia

26 Mar 2024

Concise views on global finance: Russian state giant Gazprom will buy the British energy major’s 27.5% stake in a major Siberian liquefied gas field for the equivalent of $1 bln. Shell is however unlikely to be able to get hold of the cash any time soon.

Unilever’s sweet exit comes with sour aftertaste

19 Mar 2024

The $126 bln consumer giant is splitting off its unit that makes Cornetto ice cream. Doing so cuts exposure to food, and may boost sales growth. But Unilever investors are bearing the costs of the split, and their company remains big in the edible version of stranded assets.

Reckitt slump offers a cue to slim down

18 Mar 2024

The $41 bln Lysol maker’s shares fell sharply after it lost a US court case. One option for Reckitt Benckiser is to separate the nutrition arm, focus of the legal woes. That would ease the hit to the rest of the group, but also leave a new arm that may yet be worth something.

Liberty Global’s buyback has grounds to go large

8 Mar 2024

Shares in the $7 bln telco conglomerate are down 12% since it announced a restructuring of its scattered units last month. After flagging new buybacks for 10% of the stock, CEO Mike Fries joked he was taking the group private very slowly. Maybe he should – but fast.

Bayer’s inertia will make mounting problems worse

5 Mar 2024

The $30 bln seeds and drugs maker has ruled out a rapid breakup. Bayer could have used a consumer health sale to cut debt and offset bigger US litigation costs. Betting instead that it can grow its way out of trouble risks exacerbating a yawning discount to the sum of its parts.

Boeing’s reverse deal thrust augurs small tailwind

4 Mar 2024

Jettisoning supplier Spirit AeroSystems in 2005 benefited the plane-maker, but only temporarily. Financial weakness is now compounding 737 MAX woes and hurting shareholders of both companies. Buying back the $4 bln former subsidiary should generate value in quality improvement.

Vodafone’s Italy exit puts speed before valuation

28 Feb 2024

The UK telco looks poised to sell its hard-pressed local business to Swisscom for 8 bln euros in cash. The price tag is lower than a previous Iliad offer. But it’s a cleaner exit, and advances boss Margherita Della Valle’s goal of prompt M&A to make her company less sprawling.

DSM’s China de-risking plan hinges on booster shot

15 Feb 2024

Shares in the $30 bln Dutch firm surged 14% on plans to hive off its unit that makes vitamins for cattle. DSM is right to steer away from a business hurt by Chinese competition. But management needs it to recover to justify investors’ enthusiasm.

Capital Calls: Lyft

14 Feb 2024

Concise views on global finance: The US ride-hailing firm mistakenly forecast 500 basis points of margin improvement for 2024, causing its stock to surge some 60% before it came back to earth.

Unilever is test case for ‘edible stranded assets’

2 Feb 2024

The $123 bln consumer goods group relies on brands that look vulnerable to sugar taxes and changing eating habits. Like oil majors facing lower demand, Unilever and others like Nestlé may have to write down the value of these assets. Unfortunately, the problem defies easy fixes.

Holcim split cements deglobalisation trend

29 Jan 2024

The $43 bln Swiss building materials giant is separating its fast-growing North American arm from its remaining operations in an attempt to unlock value. The striking thing is that investors appear to view Holcim’s global scale as a brake on value, rather than a driver of it.

Paramount suitors chase a Pyrrhic deal prize

11 Jan 2024

Warner Bros Discovery and David Ellison’s Skydance are weighing a deal for the media company. The former could reap $3 bln in savings while the latter would control the movie studio it already does business with. Either way, Paramount lumbers under debt and would be subscale.

Narrow exits will fatten fattest buyout fat cats

10 Jan 2024

Some private equity shops may be forced to start accepting discounted valuations on a record $2.8 trln of unsold investments. Others like KKR and EQT are best positioned to hold out. This disparity should help 25 firms, with 22% of the industry’s firepower, pad their dominance.