^Occam's Razor at it's finest.
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FYI, as it has been mentioned above, Patriot Coal (PCX) is also located in the StL metro. They list their headquarters as "St. Louis," but show Olive Rd. as their listed address.
Therefore, two of the companies listed would be StL related companies.
BTU, ACI, and PCX are all StL based.
Therefore, two of the companies listed would be StL related companies.
BTU, ACI, and PCX are all StL based.
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arch city wrote:Hearing Berkshire Hathaway Looking to Acquire US Coal Company
The Rumor:
Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU), Walter Energy (NYSE: WLT) Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) were among companies being mentioned as possible acquisitions of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B).
A spokesperson for Walter Energy said he was aware of Buffett's interest and added that there is no better commodity to own than hard coking coal. He would not comment specifically on a deal involving his own company. A Berkshire spokesperson was not available for comment.
Walter Energy closed at $61.55 Thursday, a gain of 3.10% on average daily volume.
Peabody Energy closed at $31.71 Thursday, a gain of 5.38% on twice the average daily volume.
Patriot Coal closed at $6.56 Thursday, a gain of 3.96% on 1.6 times the average daily volume.
(Source)
I think Peabody is in the top few, but not the top. I could be wrong, but I believe a company in India is the largest in the world.
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You know, when I first looked over some of this, I thought that it may just be a whole lot of smoke but no fire. After all BTU is the largest coal company in the US, and if it isn't tops already, it's surely one of the world's largest. It's giant acquisitions in Australia earlier this year prove its capacities for continued expansion.
However, looking at the charts, it's possible something big could happen soon.
BTU shares have gone down over 50% in the last year. This owes much to the Ozzie acquisition's costs taking away from earnings. Still, while it wastrading in the 70s a year ago, it's now in the upper 20s. That's actually quite amazing.
Further, here's a sound read on why BTU is undervalued:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/476311- ... ndervalued
Total market cap is still just shy of $8B, and that would be one helluva purchase order. Still, I could very easily see Berkshire Hathaway make a significant investment but not take it private, like it's done before with GS and WFC. Even though Warren Buffett might tick off his friends in DC by buying a major interest in an "evil" coal company, it sure could make his investors a boatload.
However, looking at the charts, it's possible something big could happen soon.
BTU shares have gone down over 50% in the last year. This owes much to the Ozzie acquisition's costs taking away from earnings. Still, while it wastrading in the 70s a year ago, it's now in the upper 20s. That's actually quite amazing.
Further, here's a sound read on why BTU is undervalued:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/476311- ... ndervalued
Total market cap is still just shy of $8B, and that would be one helluva purchase order. Still, I could very easily see Berkshire Hathaway make a significant investment but not take it private, like it's done before with GS and WFC. Even though Warren Buffett might tick off his friends in DC by buying a major interest in an "evil" coal company, it sure could make his investors a boatload.
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$8B is pocket change for BRK, especially when compared with their aquisitions of BNSF and General Re. I think Lubrizol might have been around that same amount.gone corporate wrote:Total market cap is still just shy of $8B, and that would be one helluva purchase order. Still, I could very easily see Berkshire Hathaway make a significant investment but not take it private, like it's done before with GS and WFC. Even though Warren Buffett might tick off his friends in DC by buying a major interest in an "evil" coal company, it sure could make his investors a boatload.
Given his preferences of buying the entire company when possible, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
St. Louis is now home to the 15th largest corporation in the country:
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
Anybody have an opinion on AT&T selling off a portion of its yellow page business and impacts to downtown? Private group might want to stay put and take advantage of St. Louis cost where as AT&T might have consolidated to other offices is one way to look at it. The other way to look at it, Cerberus runs with the idea that anything/anybody associated with dot.com has to be located in a high profile location such as Silicon Valley and the rest of the sales people can be located in a non-descript warehouse location shopped out to the best tax credit deal that jobs can buy these days.
AT&T selling majority stake in Yellow Pages to Cerberus
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
On a different not, My wife works for AT&T and her office was in AT&T tower before our move out west. Like AT&T tower downtown her office in San Ramon, CA is half filled with empty cubicles. A big part being telecommuting which she does every chance she can in California (traffic, traffic and more traffic). However, in St. Louis case she got to see AT&T make a big outsource push first hand. A lot of people went from secure programing/IT development jobs with AT&T to contract jobs with Amdocs and the likes or retire outright. I believe your going to see AT&T looking for only half the space at most and a sweet tax deal to stay around as soon as their lease is up.
AT&T selling majority stake in Yellow Pages to Cerberus
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
On a different not, My wife works for AT&T and her office was in AT&T tower before our move out west. Like AT&T tower downtown her office in San Ramon, CA is half filled with empty cubicles. A big part being telecommuting which she does every chance she can in California (traffic, traffic and more traffic). However, in St. Louis case she got to see AT&T make a big outsource push first hand. A lot of people went from secure programing/IT development jobs with AT&T to contract jobs with Amdocs and the likes or retire outright. I believe your going to see AT&T looking for only half the space at most and a sweet tax deal to stay around as soon as their lease is up.
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It's a dying business. I guess Cerberus figured they could squeeze another 10 years out of it.dredger wrote:Anybody have an opinion on AT&T selling off a portion of its yellow page business and impacts to downtown?
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Ralcorp completes buyout of Petri Baking Products
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... aign=email
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... aign=email
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At a conference in New York, the company's chief technology officer, Robb Fraley (CQ), told investors the company had bought Precision Planting, Inc., based in Tremont, Ill., for $210 million, with a performance-based payment of up to $40 million. The company develops hardware, software and after-market equipment that help farmers plant to precise depths and spacing.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/business/agricu ... z1vmsvJRpO
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/business/agricu ... z1vmsvJRpO
Clayton-based Viasystems is set to acquire DDi Corporation. (Link)
The combined companies, both traded on NASDAQ, will create a $1.4-billion firm.
I believe this could make the combined firm a F1000 firm.
From the article:
Clayton-based Viasystems Group Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAS), led by CEO David Sindelar, reported net income of $28.5 million on sales of $1.1 billion for 2011. It manufactures printed circuit boards and other components for electronic equipment.
DDi Corp. (NASDAQ: DDIC) provides printed circuit board engineering and manufacturing services. It reported net income of $21.8 million on net sales of $263.4 million for 2011.
The combined companies, both traded on NASDAQ, will create a $1.4-billion firm.
I believe this could make the combined firm a F1000 firm.
From the article:
Clayton-based Viasystems Group Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAS), led by CEO David Sindelar, reported net income of $28.5 million on sales of $1.1 billion for 2011. It manufactures printed circuit boards and other components for electronic equipment.
DDi Corp. (NASDAQ: DDIC) provides printed circuit board engineering and manufacturing services. It reported net income of $21.8 million on net sales of $263.4 million for 2011.
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Belden buying Miranda, a Canadian manufacturer of broadcast communications cables, for $360M US.
They are on a mini acquisition spree. Awesome to see.
They are on a mini acquisition spree. Awesome to see.
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Caterpillar HQ study prompts fear of possible movedredger wrote:Looks like the native are getting restive, don't know what to make of it and if their will be any big defections.
Caterpillar: Illinois business climate 'dysfunctional'
St. Louis Business Journal
Date: Friday, December 2, 2011, 7:20am CST
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morn ... iness.html
OK, very unlikely scenario and pure specualtion. However, you could argue that the following makes some sense
1) Sears to Ohio, argument that wabash noted
2) Sarah Lee to Minneapolis, Omaha or St. Louis. All have strong cereal, food processing HQ presence
3) Cat to St. Louis, strong and growing mining/coal HQ presence
4) Chicago commidity exchance/board to St. Louis, very strong Financial sector and will get even stronger if Stifel buys out the MK, Memphis firm
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... z1yxZrVmZC
I really can't get in to the pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking that some people on these boards do, I find speculation and dreaming to be too much of a mental drain when it's not a possibility, but I don't see why St Louis or even St Chuck couldn't try to attract Caterpillar. They are currently located in downtown Peoria with 3,200 employees in that office. The CEO has expressed disdain at Illinois' political and anti-business climate, so Chicago would be out of the question if they were to move. Why not St Louis? We're not Illinois (seriously, look it up), it's only 3 hours from the current location, and it's large metropolitan area with plenty of talent.
Note: My first sentence wasn't a bash on those who do dream, I just said I personally can't get into it.
It would be a waste of time/resources to try to woo Caterpillar. They're not leaving Peoria. They're doing what all other large corps do (CME Group, Motorola, Sara Lee), make some noise, then get a big check for not leaving town. STL going after Caterpillar, would be like Oklahoma City going after Monsanto...completely pointless.juiceinkirkwood wrote: I really can't get in to the pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking that some people on these boards do, I find speculation and dreaming to be too much of a mental drain when it's not a possibility, but I don't see why St Louis or even St Chuck couldn't try to attract Caterpillar. They are currently located in downtown Peoria with 3,200 employees in that office. The CEO has expressed disdain at Illinois' political and anti-business climate, so Chicago would be out of the question if they were to move. Why not St Louis? We're not Illinois (seriously, look it up), it's only 3 hours from the current location, and it's large metropolitan area with plenty of talent.
Note: My first sentence wasn't a bash on those who do dream, I just said I personally can't get into it.
With the court decision on the health care act, Centene could really profit from expanded medicare.
Which would make them a nice target for acquisition...
No sure things, but i would hate to see them bought out.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... f6878.html
Which would make them a nice target for acquisition...
No sure things, but i would hate to see them bought out.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... f6878.html
I'd like to see Centene merge with Molina to double its sales, and of course move some of the jobs from Long Beach to St. Louis. Sorry Long Beach.
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Olin purchasing a midwestern bleach manufaturer. Mini acquisition boom by Clayton companies continues. Hopefully this will result in more employees in their Clayton headquarters.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
Ralcorp Holdings is shuttering the Kansas City based office of their pasta unit and moving all employees into their downtown StL headquarters. No figure on the amount of jobs being moved here. This is essentially gaining the offices of a 1.2B company, minus any positions deemed repetetive. A win for downtown StL, for sure!
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 0f31a.html
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http://www.aipc.com/home.asp
AIPC claims to be the largest dry pasta company in North America.
AIPC claims to be the largest dry pasta company in North America.
Impressive. . . Big score for St. Louis and RalcorpWelcome to the American Italian Pasta Company!
At AIPC we are passionate about our pasta. As North America's largest producer of dry pasta, we are a proud provider of quality pasta food products.
Founded in 1988 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, AIPC has grown to include plants in Columbia, South Carolina, Tolleson, Arizona and Verolanuova, Italy. With over 600 employees, AIPC produces pasta for consumption in the United States and abroad. We take pride in our facilities, and quality of products we produce.
Our customers are some of the largest food retailers in the world. We provide our own branded pasta, and we provide pasta to the retail food distribution channel under a variety of private label programs. In addition, we provide much of the pasta consumed by the food service industry, including restaurants and cafeterias, schools, business and industry.
To learn more about our retail brands CLICK HERE
We hope you enjoy learning about our company and our products.
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No kidding! And it's only fitting that St. Louis should be home to the United States' largest producer of dry pasta since we have some of the best Italian food outside of Italy!Impressive. . . Big score for St. Louis and Ralcorp.
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^ You listed only one of the options. They basically said, increase the value of my shares by getting bigger or find a buyer. I find the timing kind of odd as Ralcorp made two aquisitions this year.
How much pull does a 5% owner really have?
How much pull does a 5% owner really have?
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More on the story...
BizJournal: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... l?page=all
Corvex, the 5.1% equity holder, does carry some rather qualified clout. By their owning over 5% of the company's stock, they have additional rights to address the Board & Shareholders.
Their main interests are for the company to:
- Be bought by ConAgra, their biggest competitor;
- Merge outright with another company, such as ConAgra (which would accretively move operations to Omaha); or
- Continue acquiring other companies. Doing this would cost the company more money to pay for the buyouts, and in fact may make them more vulnerable to an aggressive buyout offer from ConAgra if they are overly aggressive in acquisitions & spend all their money.
Corvex's interests are purely in maximizing profit.
Ralcorp wants to not just stay in business independently but to do so in STL.
Look for much follow-up on this brewing fight in the next few weeks/months/years...
BizJournal: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... l?page=all
Corvex, the 5.1% equity holder, does carry some rather qualified clout. By their owning over 5% of the company's stock, they have additional rights to address the Board & Shareholders.
Their main interests are for the company to:
- Be bought by ConAgra, their biggest competitor;
- Merge outright with another company, such as ConAgra (which would accretively move operations to Omaha); or
- Continue acquiring other companies. Doing this would cost the company more money to pay for the buyouts, and in fact may make them more vulnerable to an aggressive buyout offer from ConAgra if they are overly aggressive in acquisitions & spend all their money.
Corvex's interests are purely in maximizing profit.
Ralcorp wants to not just stay in business independently but to do so in STL.
Look for much follow-up on this brewing fight in the next few weeks/months/years...