U.S. Indexes Fluctuate; Energy Transfer Acquires Southern Union for $8.9 B

Arthi Gupta
05 Jul, 2011
New York City

U.S. indexes fluctuated after the release of the factory goods orders report. Energy Transfer agreed to acquire Southern Union for $8.9 billion. Immucor to be acquired by TPG Capital for $1.97 billion. Western Union agreed to buy Travelex Global Business Payments for

[R]10:00 AM New York – U.S. indexes fluctuated after the release of the factory goods orders report. Energy Transfer agreed to acquire Southern Union for $8.9 billion. Immucor to be acquired by TPG Capital for $1.97 billion. Western Union agreed to buy Travelex Global Business Payments for £606 million.[/R]

European markets edged lower in a cautious trading after the euro-zone retail sales declined 1.1% in May after rising 0.7% in April. The market jitters were also compounded by the ongoing uncertainty related to the next bailout conditions for Greece.

U.S. Factory Orders Rise 0.8%

New orders for manufactured goods in May increased $3.5 billion or 0.8% to $445.3 billion followed a 0.9% increase in April. Excluding transportation, new orders rose 0.2%.

Energy Transfer Acquires Southern Union

Energy Transfer Equity, L.P., the natural gas producer agreed to acquire rival Southern Union Co. in an amended and restated merger deal worth $8.9 billion. The deal value includes $5.1 billion in cash and Energy Transfer common units.

The revised offer from Energy Transfer was superior to the previous offer from Williams Companies Inc. Williams Companies Inc. dropped a counter bid to buy Southern for $39 per share in cash, or an enterprise value of $8.7 billion, including the debt.

Immucor to Be Acquired By TPG Capital

Immucor, Inc., a global leader in providing automated instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry agreed to be acquired by investment funds managed by TPG Capital in a transaction valued at $1.973 billion.

National Oilwell Buys Ameron

National Oilwell Varco Inc. reached an agreement to acquire Ameron International Corp. in an all cash transaction that values Ameron at around $772 million.

Under the deal, Ameron's stockholders would receive $85.00 per share in cash in return for each of the approximately 9.1 million shares outstanding.

OM Acquires Vacuumschmelze

OM Group, Inc. signed an agreement to purchase Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG (VAC) of Hanau, Germany, a global market leader in advanced materials and specialty magnetics, for approximately €700 million, including $50 million in common stock equity.

SuccessFactors Concludes Litigation against Halogen

SuccessFactors, Inc., the global leader in business execution software announced the conclusion of its litigation against Halogen. In connection with the settlement, Halogen agreed to pay an undisclosed payment to SuccessFactors.

Halogen acknowledged that it engaged in false pretexting and manufactured a phony prospective customer, ""The Magnus Group,"" to inappropriately obtain SuccessFactors' business information.

Western Union to Acquire Travelex Global Business Payments

The Western Union Company signed an agreement with Travelex Holdings Limited to acquire the Travelex Global Business Payments division, a leading specialist provider of international business payments, for £606 million in cash.

Earnings Review

NetScout Systems, Inc. ((NTCT)), the provider of integrated network performance management solutions estimates first quarter GAAP revenues to be in the range of $62 million to $64 million and GAAP earnings to be in the range of $0.04 to $0.06 per share.

The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. ((PJC.A.TO)), the Canadian drugstore chain reported first quarter revenue increased 2.2% to C$660.6 million from C$646.3 million in the prior-year period. Net profit in the quarter rose 14% to C$49.9 million or C$0.22 per share compared with net profit of C$43.9 million or C$0.19 per share last year.

Jean Coutu confirmed its plan to dispose about 25 million of its Rite Aid common shares.