Imminent Spin-offs

La Quinta’s (LQ) spin-off, CorePoint (CPLG), will begin trading on May 31, 2018. Additional information hereherehere, and here.

Euroseas’s (ESEA) spin-off, Eurodry, will begin trading on June 1, 2018. Additional information here.

DXC Technology’s (DXC) spin-off, Perspecta (PRSP), will begin trading on June 1, 2018. Additional information here.

Spirit Realty Capital’s (SRC) spin-off, Spirit MTA REIT (SMTA), will begin trading on June 1, 2018. Additional information here and here.

Wyndham Worldwide’s (WYN) spin-off, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts (WH), will begin trading on June 1, 2018. Additional information herehere, and here.

Spin-off News

The Red Violet spin-off from Cogent has been fascinating to watch. I was initially interested as it’s a micro-cap spin-off and micro-cap spin-offs have the potential for fantastic year 1 returns. The stock opened at $6.20 and rallied to almost $9.51, before a bearish Seeking Alpha article came out which tanked the stock to $4.56. At that point, a bullish Seeking Alpha article came out and the company reported strong Q1 results and the stock rallied to an all time high. It is currently trading at $8.24. I need to do some more work on this one, but the volatility has been insane.

Trinity Industries announced it had decided to name its infrastructure spin-off “Arcosa” and that it had made its initial Form 10  filing with the SEC. The tax free spin-off is expected to occur in Q4 2018.

Whitbread PLC announced recently that it would be spinning off its Costa Coffee business, but that it would take 2 years to complete the process.  Analysts and investors are speculating that Costa Coffee and perhaps other divisions of Whitbread get purchased prior to the spin-off occurring.

Non Spin-off Related Stuff

  • Graham and Doddsville latest edition is out. Always a good read. This edition includes interviews with Bruce Greenwald and Michael Mauboussin.
  • Ray Dalio has distilled his 600 page book “Principals for Success” into a free 30 minute, 8 episode mini series. Check it out.
  • Did you miss Berkshire’s AGM? Yahoo Finance split Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting into 11 easy to digest podcast episodes. This includes all the Q&A with Buffett and Munger. I just finished listening to the 2017 Berkshire meeting. Going to listen to this next.