logo-loader

Wall Street deals mask otherwise indifferent start to week

Published: 00:27 29 Jul 2014 AEST

wall_street350_53d65e5861cab

Wall Street’s army of corporate brokers and advisors must be enjoying a bright summer, as the M&A merry-go-round continues to spin.

Monday was another day of deals in New York with several takeover headlines in the news – including transactions among cut-price retailers, real estate firms and food producers.

One deal sees the combination of two of America’s biggest deep-discounting ‘dollar store’ chains, with Dollar Tree buying Family Dollar.

Dollar Tree isn’t getting money-off a bargain, however, as unlike the respective product inventories the deal is priced at a premium – valued at US$9.2bn, with US$8.5bn paid in cash, the Family Dollar offer is pitched US$ 23% above Friday’s close.

Real estate marketers Zillow and Trulia will merge, via a US$3.5bn deal, which will see the pair continue to trade under separate brands but receive savings and efficiencies from the combination.

America’s largest meat processor Tyson Foods, meanwhile, revealed its Mexican and Brazilian poultry businesses are being plucked for US$575mln by international rival JBS. This deal comes amid a wave of sector consolidations, which has included Tyson’s own US$7.7bn takeover of Hillshire Brands.

Tyson said the proceeds of this sale would help it cover Hillshire deal costs.

In other poultry news, McDonalds said it would no longer use a Chinese chicken supplier of following the most recent hygiene scandal (a TV investigation recently revealed unsanitary practices).

Elsewhere, Richard Branson’s Virgin America airline revealed plans for a float in New York.

Across the broader market sentiment is somewhat mixed at the start of a week that will bring a number of key economic releases – reaching a climax with July’s non-farm employment stats on Friday.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones was 40 points (0.23%) lower at 16,921 while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ both dipped around 0.35%.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

13 hours, 37 minutes ago