Vinci’s stake in Paris airports shouldn’t make it favourite buyer 2 Jan 2008 The French construction company has bought a 3% stake in stateowned airport operator ADP, hoping to muscle in as the favoured buyer if and when the company is privatised. The French government should make it clear other contenders will have a chance.
In a crunch, company books are unreliable memoirs 3 Dec 2007 Financial groups the world over are writing down structured finance assets. Meanwhile, Lennar is the latest homebuilder to take a haircut on its land holdings, to the tune of a whopping 60%. Book values, at times a reliable floor for valuations, aren t trustworthy right now.
Wendel likely to turn up pressure on Saint-Gobain 27 Sep 2007 The French investment fund has built up a E1.6bn, 6% stake in building materials group SaintGobain. It says the surprise move is friendly. But Wendel s stated strategy has always been to "control" the companies it invests in. Saint Gobain s sleepy days are over.
Infrastructure leverage boom may haunt investors 17 Sep 2007 Investments in assets like toll roads and bridges are said to be safe because of the stability of their cash flows. But easy debt markets fuelled leverageladen deals and have left them little room for a hiccup in growth. This could spell trouble.
Saint-Gobain pays Maxit price for strategic re-focus 7 Aug 2007 This is pricey. But after good results in the first half, the new CEO can show what he means by his new stronggrowth strategy. The French building materials company is spending more than E2bn to acquire HeidelbergCement s industrial mortar division Maxit.
French watchdog hands Sacyr a E10bn bill 27 Jun 2007 This is the price the Spanish construction group is facing if all Eiffage investors tend their shares to the new bid it has to launch. Sacyr s attempt at a creeping takeover was clumsy. It must now explain to its own shareholders how it will finance the deal.
Interest in Tarmac shows Lafarge is back in shape 4 Jun 2007 The cement giant is on a roll after 18 months of restructuring led by a new CEO backed by Albert Frere, its dominant shareholder. The stock is up 70% and the company is on the lookout for acquisitions. And Frere may be raising money to up his stake in the company.
HeidelbergCement overpays with £8bn Hanson bid 15 May 2007 Given the punchy price and the antitrust issues other obvious bidders would face, the risk of an interloper looks low. The price isn't just over 12 times 2007 ebitda. Counting synergies, Heidelberg will earn a 5.4% return, well below Hanson's cost of capital.
High prices settle into basic industry 4 May 2007 It s not clear what HeidelbergCement might pay for Hanson, a £7.5bn UK materials group. But the shares are now at 11.6 times ebitda. Vulcan paid that high a price for Florida Rock in February. That deal looks to have set a trend in this consolidating industry.
Sacyr faces hefty bill if forced to all-cash Eiffage bid 25 Apr 2007 French courts could force the Spanish contractor to make a cash offer for it French rival. The E8bn price tag would be hard to swallow. The company is already highly leveraged amidst fears the Spanish real estate bubble is about to burst. Spanish banks might pull the rug.
Spanish slowdown shows urgency of Sacyr bid 23 Apr 2007 You certainly can t fault the Spanish builder for the audacity of its hostile E9.5bn allshare offer for France s Eiffage. Yet the bid may be driven as much by fear as by bravura. Spain s construction boom is showing signs of slowing sharply.
Sacyr teeters on threshold for full Eiffage bid 5 Apr 2007 The Spanish group owns 33.2% of the French construction group, but it doesn t want to launch a full bid. It says it just wants board seats. Eiffage has been right to turn it down. That has avoided a creeping takeover. But a standalone defence may have reached its limits.
Persimmon should bulldoze homebuilder merger 28 Mar 2007 Scale and price are two reasons why the UK housebuilder might try to break up the planned £5bn merger of rivals Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow. Woodrow, the less efficient of the two, could be the more attractive. Offering a better deal than the one on the table wouldn t be too hard.
Housebuilders put up for sale sign with £5bn merger 26 Mar 2007 The allshare tieup between Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey may make sense in a consolidating market. But shareholders' best hope may be that a third party breaks in and offers at least one participant a proper premium.
Eiffage needs more than defensive strategy 23 Mar 2007 The French construction group has done the right thing for shareholders by fending off the advances of Spain's Sacyr. Now it needs more. Rival Vinci also has an unsolicited shareholder to deal with. A merger of the two could make sense if it s not purely defensive.
Saint Gobain restructuring has further to go 26 Feb 2007 The French building materials giant has launched the E4bn sale of its noncore packaging unit, part of a move to focus on shareholder value. The shares are up 17% this year and the company has accelerated its restructuring. But it shouldn t stop there.
Pinault makes E1bn Plan B move on Vinci 19 Jan 2007 The French mogul hasn't been able to assemble a team to go for Suez, but this hasn't dimmed his interest in infrastructure conglomerates. Vinci has a bundle of attractive assets, and was the subject of bid interest last year. A breakup of the E24bn group is not inconceivable.
Eads needs to rethink structure 21 Jun 2006 The aerospace giant s intensely political codecision making process didn t necessarily cause the problems with the A380. But the crisis has exposed its shortcomings. Talk of changing the shareholder and management structure is right on the money.
KKR forced to cut German crane IPO price 20 Jun 2006 The private equity group has slashed the offer price of Demag Cranes by about 30% to E22 per share and cut the size of the deal. The flotation is the latest victim of the recent market volatility. But at this price, KKR should have little trouble getting it away.
Veolia’s Vinci approach misconceived from start to finish 19 Jun 2006 An "acquisition risk" discount may now be baked into the price. As for Vinci, the construction and tollroad operator looks more vulnerable. Investors are left wondering whether the French water utility needs to do a deal and if the next one will be as unappealing as the last.