2.14.2013

Berkshire Hathaway to acquire H.J. Heinz


Buffett’s Ketchup Bet: Unlikely Another Bidder Emerges
Excerpt:


H.J. Heinz Co., which agreed to be acquired by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway BRKB +0.91% and private-equity firm 3G Capital for $72.50 a share, or more than $23 billion. The deal is seen as the largest-ever in the food industry.

Shares recently rose 20% to $72.50 on heavy trading volume.

Heinz is a packaged-foods company known for its iconic ketchup brand but recently has been battling weaker North American sales.



Comment: We bought HNZ 2 years ago for about $ 50 . ... sold today at $ 72.505. Replacing with Church & Dwight Co. Inc. and Danone. Warren is ready for another acquisition.


4 comments:

  1. John Kerry scored big!

    According to Open Secrets, last year then-Senator Kerry disclosed his 2011 assets, which included a valuation of $3,000,003 worth of HJ Heinz Co.
    It's unclear what the more recent number is at this time, but for purposes of this report, we're going to use that number and do some simple math.
    From December 30, 2011 through February 13, 2013 the stock moved up 11.92 %, data from Yahoo! Finance shows. That would put the valuation of that Heinz stake at about $3,357,603 at yesterday's close.
    Today the stock is up about 20% on the Buffett news so that would be another increase of ~ $671,520 putting the asset valuation of the Heinz stake at $4,029,123, according to our calculations.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wife asked me why I didn't wait for it to close.

    Answer: I was tempted because I wanted to see how that all would work out with our brokerage account. But seeing that it was going to close in the 3rd quarter, I asked ... early 3rd quarter or late. And then I reasoned that it would not go for more than the offered priced so why not sell right away ... take the gain ... and invest in something different.

    It was a long term gain. I use the 4th quarter to sell stocks that have lost $$ to offset gains.

    Here's another article on the deal: Investors content to take Buffett's 20 percent Heinz premium

    Warren Buffett says he will not pay a penny more than the $72.50 a share he is already offering for ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, and after an initial hesitation, most investors seem to be taking him at his word.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2 years ago Lubrizol Corporation was on our watch list with an intent to buy. Berkshire Hathaway acquired them in March of 2011.

    Kathee thinks Warren is tracking us and buying stock that we like.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting: SEC sues over Heinz option trading before buyout:

    U.S. securities regulators filed suit on Friday against unknown traders in the options of ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, alleging they traded on inside information before the company announced a deal to be acquired for $23 billion by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc and Brazil's 3G Capital.

    The suit, in federal court in Manhattan, cites "highly suspicious trading" in Heinz call options just prior to the February 14 announcement of the deal. The regulator has frequently in past filed suit against unnamed individuals where it has evidence of wrongdoing, but is still trying to uncover the identities of those involved.


    That trading, the suit said, caused the price of the particular call option they bought to soar 1,700 percent and generated unrealized profits of more than $1.7 million.

    ReplyDelete

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