Food inflation favors corporate strongmen 27 May 2011 Fickle weather, decreasing farmland and more mouths are pushing up prices of wheat and other soft commodities. Companies are now being forced to pass along these costs to consumers. Big brands and proactive market leaders, like McDonald's and Pepsi, stand to brave the storm best.
Nelson Peltz flubbed his $2.3 bln fast-food order 20 Jan 2011 The activist investor wants to unload the Arby's sandwich chain, which he used two years ago to buy rival burgerflipper Wendy's with the promise of extracting juicy synergies. That didn't happen and may have cost shareholders. But he may still wind up with the better business.
Dunkin’s financial story still has holes 16 Nov 2010 Nearly five years after devouring the U.S. doughnut maker in one of the era s most highly leveraged buyouts, private equity owners are refinancing $2 bln of debt and collecting a dividend. Yet strong growth can t glaze over ongoing concerns. Dunkin is still geared to the brim.
Burger King swaps buyout barons for private equity 2 Sep 2010 The capitalists behind Anheuser InBev are relieving TPG, Bain and Goldman of command of the fastfood chain for $4 bln. While the sponsors relied on typical financial engineering, BK's new Brazilian owners have a grander plan: to do for burgers what they did for beer.
Reheating Burger King won’t be another LBO whopper 1 Sep 2010 Buyout houses had it their way with the chain in 2002: a desperate seller and little competition for the necessary turnaround. The equity sliver TPG, Bain and Goldman still own in the $2.5 bln firm is worth nearly four times their whole investment. The next bite looks gristly.
Time to call time on Mitchells & Butlers board 25 Jan 2010 The board of Britain's biggest pub company made a fundamental error. Upsetting a 23 percent shareholder is asking for trouble, and when the holder of another 18 percent agrees with him, the end is nigh. The board will be thrown out on Thursday, and quite right too.
M&B shows how not to run a pub company 14 Jan 2010 The barroom brawl in the boardroom of the UK's biggest pubs group is starting to get nasty. There could be serious injuries at Mitchell & Butler's annual meeting on Jan. 28 unless the spat over the definition of an independent director is resolved.
Punch’s £350m placing is a sticking plaster 15 Jun 2009 The troubled UK pubs company s fiddly open offer should help it deal with its most pressing problem the need to repay £215m of convertible bonds by the end of next year. But Punch still faces an uphill struggle to protect its complex securitised structure as the downturn bites.
Tchenguiz won’t be the last ailing property tycoon 9 Oct 2008 His stakes were sold at a £1bn loss. In better times, leveraged real estate investors in negative equity were safe banks wouldn t repossess properties. But the sector s in tatters. Others will suffer Robert Tchenguiz s fate. And they won t only owe Icelandic banks.
Peltz wins control of Wendy’s – at a price 24 Apr 2008 It s not that the restaurant raider is paying a really juicy price for the burger chain. At $27 a share, or $2.3bn, it comes well below the $41 that Peltz once suggested he d pay. But in swapping Triarc shares for Wendy s, Peltz has had to cede his supercharged voting rights.
Punch also under pressure after Mitchells & Butlers talks end 15 Apr 2008 The UK pub operator has broken off contact with rival M&B over a possible merger or sale of its Spirit pubs. That's a victory of sorts for M&B's pacman defence. Now it's up to shareholders to decide the next move. Punch has as many questions to answer as M&B.
Punch withdrawal won’t fell M&B 28 Mar 2008 The only trade buyer for the pubs group has walked away. But M&B s shareholders needn t mourn too much. The company continues to generate cash and despite its recent woes and a discredited management, M&B still has options without an obvious bidder.
Buyout firms look toothless over M&B 17 Mar 2008 The UK pubs group, its share price laid low by a busted property punt, would once have been the ideal private equity target. But buyout firms are deprived of their traditional supply of cheap debt, so even such cashgenerative, propertyrich companies look rather hard to get.
Bargain hunters should nibble on US restaurants 12 Feb 2008 A glimmer of good news from casual dining chain Darden sparked a feeding frenzy in restaurant stocks. While it is far too soon to expect a turnaround, a lot of bad news has been priced into the sector. The buffet is starting to look tempting.
Punch stages opportunistic swoop on M&B 4 Feb 2008 There s plenty of logic to a deal between the two pub groups. And with M&B s management discredited by its disastrous property punt, Punch s timing is opportune. But financially, things are more complex. M&B shouldn t accept the first offer on the table.
M&B pays price for misguided property punt 29 Jan 2008 The UK pub operator has taken a £274m hit equivalent to all last year s earnings on unwinding hedges associated with a failed property joint venture. Chief executive Tim Clarke may have been badly advised, but he is lucky to be hanging on to his job.
Bain delivers innovative pizza payout 12 Feb 2007 Its Domino s chain plans to issue $1.85bn of assetbacked securities. These have fewer constraints on shareholder payouts than normal debt. This fee franchise securitisation is an innovative way to lever up cheaply and fund a big dividend to Bain and other shareholders.
SAB Miller overhang looms 12 Sep 2004 The lockup on Altria s £3bn stake in the highlyperforming AngloSA brewer comes to an end next June. SAB will need nifty footwork to prevent the overhang depressing its shares and, hence, its ability to do megadeals.
Mad cow will sicken many US investors 24 Dec 2003 The first case of mad cow disease in the US signals a massive blow to the country s beef and fast food industries. Looking at other countries' experiences, the pain will be long and drawn out.
Autogrill shareholders shouldn’t get their hopes up 3 Nov 2003 Shares in the motorway rest stop group have recently been bolstered by takeover speculation. But buyers who could afford to pay the Benetton family a decent premium for its 57% stake look thin on the ground.