(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 12/2/14)
By John Kester
13: The number of publicly traded U.S. companies that said they
were going private this year.
Record stock prices have curbed the number of companies that
leveraged-buyout firms want to take private. Just 13 firms have
announced they would go private so far this year. That is the
fewest since 2001, when just 10 public companies announced,
according to data provider Dealogic.
With stock prices up, "bargains are more difficult to find,"
said Richard Peterson, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ.
Take-private LBOs totaled $11.6 billion, down 83% from 2013's
year-to-date total of $68.9 billion.
Instead, private-equity firms are increasingly buying
specialized divisions rather than their larger parent companies,
Mr. Peterson said. Carlyle Investment Management LLC announced it
would buy Johnson & Johnson's ortho-clinical diagnostics
division for $4.15 billion in January.
Low interest rates and high stock prices, Mr. Peterson said,
mean investors are "waiting for the pullback that, you know, never
happens until something cataclysmic happens and then everything
gets swept down."
Some companies are willing to sell only low-performing
divisions, he said, mentioning Procter & Gamble Co.'s agreement
last month to sell Duracell to Berkshire Hathaway for $4.7 billion.
A Procter & Gamble spokesman countered that the deal shows a
"vote of confidence" in Duracell.
Tibco Software Inc. was the largest company to announce its
public departure this year, at $4.3 billion.
Telecommunications-equipment company Riverbed Technology Inc. and
software firm Compuware Corp. will do the same in deals valued at
$3.4 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively.
But those deals are dwarfed by last year's largest. H.J. Heinz
Co. went private in a $27.5 billion leveraged buyout, and Dell went
off the market for $24.4 billion.
Access Investor Kit for Compuware Corp.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US2056381096
Access Investor Kit for Procter & Gamble Co.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US7427181091
Access Investor Kit for Riverbed Technology, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US7685731074
Access Investor Kit for TIBCO Software, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US88632Q1031
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires