Electrical Equipment

Blackstone strikes twice with Emerson carve-out

31 Oct 2022

The buyout firm is taking control of the U.S. industrial group’s heating and aircon division for $4.4 bln. The deal resembles Blackstone’s 2018 purchase of Thomson Reuters’ data business. The buyer flipped that at a profit within a year; a repeat is not out of the question.

Westinghouse deal will overpower immediate fallout

12 Oct 2022

Brookfield Renewable and uranium miner Cameco are teaming up to buy the company for $7.9 bln. Servicing and decommissioning nuclear plants generates steady cash flow, but the market reaction was toxic. There’s plenty of upside in Eastern Europe and the energy transition, however.

Signify Health suitors invite trustbuster pain

22 Aug 2022

The home-healthcare data analysis company has attracted an $8 bln bid frenzy from Amazon, CVS and UnitedHealth. Its role in shaping provider and patient choices could give corporate titans more power. The lawsuit against Change Healthcare’s deal indicates Washington’s attitude.

Toshiba rejig goes long pragmatism, short vision

7 Feb 2022

The $18 bln Japanese titan now intends to split into two, not three. Ditching its earlier plan as too costly makes some sense, while buybacks and more asset sales may somewhat placate its most vocal critics. What’s lacking, though, is a longer-term strategy – and leadership.

Toshiba clears path for big 2022 Japanese buyouts

22 Dec 2021

The $18 bln conglomerate plans to split, but a takeover bid betrayed private equity’s voracious appetite in the country. A few dozen chunky companies suit the LBO financial model, per a Breakingviews analysis. Closer inspection suggests a tempting target among them is Ricoh.

Booze to batteries will measure China’s transition

21 Dec 2021

Distiller Kweichow Moutai overtook lender ICBC as the country’s biggest company by market cap in 2020. President Xi Jinping’s policy upheaval, along with rapidly changing investor attitudes, augur a new champ for 2022. Look for CATL to ride the electric-vehicle craze to the top.

Telenor dials up another promising Asian deal

23 Nov 2021

Following its jumbo Malaysian merger, the Norwegian telecom operator plans to combine its Thai unit with a rival owned by conglomerate CP. There’s a 25% premium on offer to sell, but $2 bln of intended synergies from the first transaction suggest sticking around is a better call.

GE’s audit switch wipes away another layer of dust

22 Jun 2020

The company is switching to Deloitte after a century with KPMG, exiting a club of audit lifers that includes U.S. Steel and P&G. It took too long and a radical new approach is unlikely given auditing remains an oligopoly. Still, fresh eyes should make for sharper housekeeping.

GE institutionalizes outsider executive culture

15 Jun 2020

John Slattery is the first non-legacy GE employee in decades to run Aviation, the U.S. firm’s crown jewel. It’s a bold move by fellow outsider, CEO Larry Culp. Among Slattery’s challenges is to manage GE’s ties with Boeing – which just snatched another job from under his nose.

GE boss’s options are to shine or shrivel

27 Apr 2020

Larry Culp’s recent goal of reducing the company’s $59 bln of debt to a manageable level this year is toast: It relied on cash flow from the airlines unit. He could hunker down, but that risks making GE weaker. Selling, say, a stake in the healthcare business would be wiser.

Jack Welch created a myth for his moment

2 Mar 2020

The ex-GE boss, who helped forge the twin cults of the American CEO and shareholder value during the 80s and 90s, has died at 84. His ballyhooed management methods generated startling share-price gains and, later, falls. Sustained performance takes more nuance – and a village.

GE’s Larry Culp makes mediocre the new awesome

29 Jan 2020

Earnings at the struggling $100 bln industrial conglomerate remain low. But its aviation unit is performing well and the boss beat his cash-flow targets, cut debt and even sounded upbeat about 2020. Culp’s task now is to keep the momentum going.

Osram M&A traps hedge funds in prisoner’s dilemma

3 Dec 2019

Speculators now own up to 45% of the German lighting group. If they can be enlightened enough to work together, there’s a way to make would-be acquirer AMS pay more than $5 bln. But if they revert to self-interested type, the deal will fall through and they will all lose money.

Emerson settlement with Shaw would be win for both

30 Oct 2019

The clock is ticking for the hedge fund to start a proxy battle at the $44 bln conglomerate. Emerson needs a makeover, and D.E. Shaw wants to burnish its activist cred. A deal that shakes up the board and slashes fat without an immediate bust-up would be a victory for everyone.

Emerson Electric is only half as bad as Shaw says

16 Oct 2019

The $42 bln conglomerate sports crummy governance, excess fat and a retro penchant for private jets. But there are good reasons the market hasn’t bought into relative newcomer to activism D.E. Shaw’s argument that a breakup would unlock $20 bln of value.

AMS has tricky route out of M&A cul-de-sac

15 Oct 2019

The Austrian sensor maker has no good options after its failed bid for lighting group Osram. But German regulators have given it a least-bad exit via a sneaky loophole. It’s not perfect but is better than selling down its Osram stock at a loss or ditching its strategic ambitions.

Breakdown: California blackouts ring climate alarm

14 Oct 2019

The most technologically advanced state in the richest country on earth can’t keep the lights on. There’s plenty of blame to go around. California can fix human incompetence, foolish laws and consumer behavior – but these pale beside the challenge of climate change.

GE-style pension tweaks blend finance and fear

14 Oct 2019

Asking future retirees to cash out early from defined-benefit pensions can help close funding holes like the $27 bln one at the U.S. conglomerate. Two things could help GE get the better end of the deal: falling interest rates, and uncertainty over the success of its turnaround.

PG&E faces judicial bankruptcy brownout

10 Oct 2019

Just as the California utility cut off customers to avoid wildfire risks, a judge opened the door for creditors to seize power over its restructuring. They are offering more to fire victims, and less to equity holders. Running the agenda matters: PG&E stock fell another 30%.

GE makes its own old age a bit more comfortable

7 Oct 2019

The indebted $75 bln U.S. conglomerate’s halt on defined-benefit pensions will make 20,000 employees’ retirements less flush. CEO Larry Culp’s transfer of value from workers to investors is awkward, but necessary – it makes GE’s debt more predictable as well as more manageable.