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Enron Mail |
here's that news item I was telling you about
Robert E. Bruce Senior Counsel Enron North America Corp. T (713) 345-7780 F (713) 646-3393 robert.bruce@enron.com ----- Forwarded by Robert Bruce/NA/Enron on 12/11/2000 05:00 PM ----- Robert Bruce Sent by: Robert Bruce 12/06/2000 01:17 PM To: Dan Feather/NA/Enron@Enron, Billy Lemmons/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Darren Maloney/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Ted Noble/HOU/ECT@ECT, Elsa.Piekielniak@enron.com, Erin.Willis@enron.com, Lisa Yoho/NA/Enron@Enron cc: Subject: fyi -- who the leading investment banks are in food deals Monday December 4, 5:33 pm Eastern Time UBS on top of feeding frenzy in food consolidation By Jamie LaReau NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - UBS (NYSE:UBS - news), Switzerland's largest bank, is the big cheese of investment banking in the consolidating U.S. food industry. The firm's investment banking arm, UBS Warburg, advised on eight merger deals worth nearly $75 billion so far this year, according to market research firm Thomson Financial Securities Data. Taking the second biggest bite among investment banks this year is Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc. (NYSE:MER - news), which has advised corporations in five U.S. food mergers valued at about $55 billion, Thomson said. There is a definite feeding frenzy in the U.S. food sector at this time, and investment banks are likely to come back for second helpings because the sector has many companies that need to merge to better compete. Wall Street itself has consolidated, leaving just a few investment banks at the top of the food chain. But corporations should still have enough choice in determining which investment bank they hire for their their deals, Arning said. ``I don't think ... you have a conflict of interest. They (investment banks) each have their specialty,'' said Rob Arning, national industry director for accounting firm KPMG's banking practice. ``I don't see any shortening of the list or limitations on opportunities when it comes to choosing an appropriate investment bank to execute your deal.'' But in the big food deals, the same Wall Street names appear on the menu. Merrill is the lead advisor on the latest merger, beverage and snack maker PepsiCo Inc.'s (NYSE:PEP - news) agreement to buy Quaker Oats Co. (NYSE:OAT - news) in a $13.4 billion stock deal. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS - news), which served as lead advisor to Quaker Oats, ranked third on Thomson's list this year, dropping from the No. 2 slot in the food sector last year. Goldman advised on more deals than Merrill Lynch, eight in total this year, but the deals have been smaller, bringing the value of Goldman's deals to about $51 billion. Merrill Lynch has its hand in yet another potential big food industry merger involving Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN - news). Tyson, the world's largest chicken producer, on Monday hired Merrill Lynch to advise it on an offer it made to buy IBP Inc. (NYSE:IBP - news), the No. 1 beef processor, for about $2.8 billion. The bid trumps an earlier offer from the nation's biggest pork processor, Smithfield Foods Inc. (NYSE:SFD - news). In October, cereal giant Kellogg Co. (NYSE:K - news) agreed to buy No. 2 U.S. cookie and cracker maker, Keebler Foods Inc. (NYSE:KBL - news) for about $3.6 billion to expand into the fast-growing snack food business. Salomon Smith Barney, which ranks fifth so far this year with $30 billion in the eight deals it worked on, had a hand in that deal as financial advisor to Kellogg. Goldman, Sachs also advised Kellogg in that transaction. UBS and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter served as financial advisors to Flowers Industries, which had a 55 percent stake in Keebler. Prior to that deal, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney advised Bestfoods (NYSE:BFO - news), the maker of Skippy peanut butter and Hellman's mayonnaise, when it accepted a $20.3 billion takeover bid from Anglo-Dutch group Unilever Plc. (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ULVR.L) in June. Already ranked No. 3 among world food companies, Unilever jumped ahead of Philip Morris Kraft Foods and challenges Nestle AG for the top spot, all under the investment advice of Goldman Sachs and UBS. Robert E. Bruce Senior Counsel Enron North America Corp. T (713) 345-7780 F (713) 646-3393 robert.bruce@enron.com
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