Today we look at Worldpay, Gemalto, Clariant, Stada, Dropbox, GE, Baker Hughes, EQT, and are hoping it is hasta luego, rather than adios at Corbion.
The Day in M&A kicked off with coverage of Worldpay (WPG.L) as the next domino to fall in the payments mini sector after the Nets A/S story on Friday, which was confirmed the next day. However, those reading the Worldpay exclusive here on Wall Street Wires had only to wait for a couple of hours to find out that the theory it could be the next FTSE 100 takeover situation became a reality. After opening around 3% up the stock has settled up around the 20% mark.
All of this helped recent Wall Street Wires contender Gemalto NV (GTO:AS) which rose 3%, still rebounding from the lukewarm Goldman Sachs note on the company to start this week.
Elsewhere things were a little more subdued courtesy of the US Independence Day celebrations. The action was mostly centred around this side of the channel. For instance, we saw Corvex and 40 North attempt to spoil the party as far as the Clariant-Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) deal, by taking a 7.2% stake in Clariant (CLN:VTX).
German generic drugs maker Stada (ETR:SAZ) looks as though it could be on the receiving end of a fresh bid from the combination of Cinven and Bain Capital, as the former two companies seek to obtain regulatory permission to do so.
Although the financial media are reporting the cloud storage group Dropbox is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP). and its Snapchat IPO, one might suggest that at least Dropbox has an identifiable business model. According to Wired.com we are in the run up to the IPO, but rather unhelpfully, it does not name the day.
It seems rather strange that the completion of the GE (NYSE:GE) merger of its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) would happen on a day when the country from which they are both from is on holiday. But as is reported on www.energy-business-review.com (EBR) this is the case.
Indeed, this venerable source of information, EBR, also reveals that hedge fund Jana is trying to block EQT’s (NYSE:EQT) deal to buy Rice Energy (NYSE:RICE). It is doing so by buying a 5.8% stake in EQT in an activist fashion.
Finally, there was good news and so far bad news as far as Corbion (AMS:CRBN), as reported in Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf. Here it was reported that the shares are off 4% as multiple private equity firms and a possible US strategic partner have taken a look and decided against a deal. The good news is that speculation regarding a possible deal turned out to be true. Perhaps this is a flush out before someone actually steps up to the plate?
