I looked at the following:
ADS - I am not sure I want to own it if deal unravels and it probably will, since it's a serious regulatory obstacle.
BCE - the stock is much higher than pre-offer. I don't particularly like the debt. But overall, it does seem attractive. Positive quarterly results, lowish P/E.
CCU - I bought some of this one. I think I would be OK to hold the common if deal does not go through
COMS - stock at where it was pre-offer, but the company is continuously losing money. I'll skip that one.
HAR - this one has already failed. IMO, it may be a buy at current price, but it competes with a lot of other cheap stocks right now. I will put it on my thinking list.
PENN - debt is pretty high for this one. I'll skip.
FRZ - too much debt and spotty earnings. I'll skip.
XMSR - losses, losses, losses. Do I sound like Cramer? :P Skip. :)
VTSI - no arbitrage margin.
Talking heads may say that the leveraged buyout binge was a bubble caused by cheap credit, but so far I don't see any support for this view. Almost all of these companies are legitimate buyout targets with pretty good businesses and future prospects. And they were not bought for very high valuations. Actually, whatever people say about the past bull market (2003-2007?), it really has not awarded very rich valuations to US equities. It's quite normal that various entities would want to buy out companies trading at pretty nice prices. |
