December 7, 2020 BARRON’S M7
INSIDE SCOOP
Vesa Equity,
controlled by
billionaire Daniel
Kretinsky, bought
$70 million of Foot
Locker shares.It
remains the
retailer’s largest
shareholder.
which now stands at 18,820,296
shares, or 4.9% of Nikola’s tradable
stock. Nimbus is a European in-
vestment firm owned by engineer-
ing and manufacturing conglomer-
ate Robert Bosch LLC that
maintains a partnership with
Nikola to manufacture heavy-duty,
fuel-cell-powered trucks. Nikola
recently disclosed a reworked part-
nership deal withGeneral Motors
(GM) that no longer included a $2
billion investment into Nikola by
GM. Bosch was an early investor in
Nikola, and supplies it with truck
components, such as electrohy-
draulic steering systems. Bosch
also developed fuel-cell compo-
nents in collaboration with Nikola.
Bloomin’ Brands(BLMN)
Jana Partnersdisclosed the sale of
452,313 shares of the owner of ca-
sual restaurant chains Outback
Steakhouse and Carrabba’s Italian
Grill. Those shares were sold at
prices ranging from $17.05 to $18.10
each from Nov. 16 through Nov. 27.
At the end of March, Jana reported
a 9.2% stake in the restaurant oper-
ator. Jana has now pared its interest
in Bloomin’ Brands to 4.8%, equal
to 4,167,301 shares.
Lindblad Expeditions
Holdings(LIND)
Inclusive Capitalslashed its stake
in the expedition and adventure
travel firm to 2,423,247 shares.
Without citing a reason, Inclusive
Capital sold 500,000 Linblad Ex-
peditions shares at $12.93 apiece on
Nov. 24, then sold another
1,500,000 shares the next day at
$12.22 each. Following those sales,
Inclusive now holds a 4.9% interest
in Lindblad Expeditions’ tradable
stock.
Tenneco(TEN)
Icahn Enterprisesdisclosed that
it now holds 8,785,443 class A
shares of the automotive-compo-
nents maker. The lowered position
resulted from the sale of 350,949
Tenneco shares from Nov. 30
through Dec. 2 at per-share prices
ranging from $10.93 to $11.06.
Icahn Enterprises now holds
14.4% of Tenneco’s common A
stock, as well as all of Tenneco’s
20,308,454 outstanding, non-vot-
ing B shares.
POWER PLAY
Foot Locker’s Largest
Investor Buys More Shares
F
oot Lockerstock is nearly
flat for the year to date, and
its largest shareholder re-
cently bought up more than
$70 million of shares of the
apparel and footwear retail-
ing chain.
Foot Locker (ticker: FL) stock cra-
tered 43% in the first quarter as the
coronavirus pandemic roiled markets.
But shares have slowly retraced since
to wipe out the loss. Earnings as of
late have been strong, lifted by back-
to-school shopping, but rising
Covid-19 cases could threaten holiday
shopping.
Vesa Equity Investments, con-
trolled by Czech billionaire Daniel
Kretinsky, paid $19.7 million on Nov.
24 for a total of 509,575 Foot Locker
shares, a per-share average price of
$38.65. Vesa followed up by paying
$50.8 million from Nov. 27 through
Dec. 1 for 1.34 million more Foot
Locker shares, an average price of
$37.97 each. Vesa now owns 12.6 mil-
lion Foot Locker shares, according to
forms the firm filed with the Securi-
ties and Exchange Commission. Vesa’s
Foot Locker stake stands at more than
11%, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Vesa didn’t respond to a request for
comment on the stock purchases.
Vesa is required to report transac-
tions in Foot Locker stock on the same
regulatory forms as company execu-
tives and directors because Vesa owns
more than 10% of the outstanding
shares.
Foot Locker insiders, incidentally,
haven’t bought shares on the open
market in a decade. In November
2010, then-CEO Ken Hicks paid
$112,000 for 6,000 Foot Locker
shares, a per-share price of $18.66.
Hicks retired near the end of 2014.B
By ED LIN
Deal Makers
Continue
Bulking Up
T
he consolidation in the as-
set-management industry
continues.
Late on Wednesday, Aus-
tralia’sMacquarie Group(ticker:
MQBKY) announced plans to buy
Waddell & Reed Financial
(WDR) for $1.7 billion. Once the
deal is closed, Macquarie will sell
Waddell & Reed’s wealth manage-
ment platform toLPL Financial
(LPLA) for $300 million. The deals
should close next year. It’s a “home-
run transaction” for LPL, wrote
Wolfe Research Executive Director
Steven Chubak in a note.
More tie-ups could be on the
way as asset managers seek to grow
to compete with larger rivals.
Greater scale is key in light of in-
vestors’ increasing preference for
lower-cost index funds.
Firms need to “get scale, realize
expense synergies, and improve
profitability,” Chubak tellsBarron’s.
The deal will lift Macquarie’s
assets under management to $465
billion, putting the combined entity
into the ranks of the top 25 mutual
fund managers in the U.S.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs
called the transaction “financially
and strategically sound” for Mac-
quarie, which will still have “sig-
nificant dry powder” for future
acquisitions.
The Macquarie tie-ups come
afterMorgan Stanley(MS) an-
nounced plans to acquire asset
managerEaton Vance(EV) in Oc-
tober. Similarly, Nelson Peltz’ Trian
Fund Management revealed hefty
stakes inInvesco(IVZ) andJanus
Henderson(JHG) in October, with
an eye toward deal making as play-
ers in the industry look to catch up
to behemoths such asBlackRock
(BLK) and Vanguard.
For asset managers, the urge to
merge is proving irresistible.B
BY CARLETON ENGLISH
Increases in
Holdings
BioLife Solutions(BLFS)
Casdin Capitallifted its stake in
the hypothermic-storage firm with
a private purchase of 1,600,000
shares. On Nov. 24, Casdin closed
the purchase of the BioLife shares
fromTaurus457 GmbHat a per-
share price of $22.50. Taurus 457 is
an investment vehicle wholly
owned by BioLife director Thomas
Girschweiler, who has been a mem-
ber of BioLife’s board since 2015
after an earlier stint from 2003 to
- Casdin now owns 7,440,107
BioLife shares, equal to 22.7% of the
outstanding stock.
Decreases in
Holdings
Nikola(NKLA)
Nimbus Holdingsdisclosed that it
sold 4,261,155 shares of the maker of
electric and hybrid vehicles. Nimbus
sold the Nikola shares on Dec. 1 at
prices ranging from $16.84 to $18.81
apiece. No reason was provided for
Nimbus’ 18.5% cut to its Nikola stake,
These disclosures are
from 13Ds filed with
the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
13Ds are filed within
10 days of an entity’s
attaining more than
5% in any class of a
company’s securities.
Subsequent changes
in holdings or inten-
tions must be re-
ported in amended
filings. This material is
from Nov. 26 through
Dec. 2, 2020. Source:
InsiderScore.com