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Strategies & Market Trends : Angels of Alchemy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (20054)	11/13/2000 8:05:47 AM
From: vagabond	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24256

SYT debuts today in unusual Monday IPO -- priced at 9.69 (lower end of range, which was 9.41-11.62). Big company, actually got some nice exposure on CNBC "Squawk Box" early this morning (around 7:45am EST). But note lots of "cautionary warnings" in the "WorldFinanceNet" writeup (copied below)... No other IPO's today... ================== Syngenta (SYT)-- 22.5 million shares/Underwriter: CS First Boston Makes agricultural chemical & seed products This is another of those international deals that has not been filed electronically with the SEC. Consequently, specific information is extremely limited. Interested investors should contact CS First Boston to obtain a paper copy of the registration statement. This is a Swiss firm that is being formed by the combination of the agricultural businesses of Novartis and Astra Zeneca. The firm will be a competitor to the recent Monsanto offering. But this is NOT A STANDARD IPO. It is a very unorthodox and complicated transaction that should be examined carefully before participation. In this case: · All of the shares of Syngenta are being spun-off to existing Novartis and Astra Zeneca shareholders. · The 22.5 million ADS’ in this offering resemble a secondary offering. · They are not being offered on a firm commitment basis and will represent a short position. · The short position will be filled by shares held by Novartis. · None of the proceeds will be received by Syngenta. · Investors in the UK and Sweden are ineligible to participate in the offering. Because it will be a Swiss firm it is not eligible for inclusion in the FTSE indices, unlike parents Novartis and Astra Zeneca. Consequently there may be some early selling pressures by parent shareholders receiving spin-off shares. The resulting firm will be a global leader in the agricultural business. It will hold the #2 share of the global herbicide market and the #3 share of the global seeds market. The firm will have R&D and manufacturing operations in 20 countries. Syngenta represents the merger of two formerly separate and competitive businesses. Consequently, synergies, redundancies, and the ability to effectively integrate the operations are uncertain. So historic consolidated pro-forma performance may be misleading. For illustrative purposes only we highlight the consolidated pro-forma performance. · In ’99 revenues are estimated in the $7 billion range, with a 48.8% gross margin and a 0.9% (-$65 million) net loss. · For 6m’00 revenues were in the $4.4 billion range, with a 52% gross margin and a 9.9% ($437 million) net margin. However actual future performance remains highly uncertain. The firm also plans to pay a dividend. But it will be subject to European rather than US conventions. Consequently, dividends will be declared and paid annually. They will also be variable and will reflect the prior year’s performance. No other fundamental information is available. Pre-offering demand is reported to be moderate (Street Scoop: 2 stars). NOTE: Sourceline has no perspective on the fundamentals of this offering and it is urgent that prospective investors obtain a copy of the paper registration BEFORE participating.

To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (20054)	11/13/2000 8:09:28 AM
From: SpinCity1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24256

sounds like the fat lady is warming up

To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (20054)	11/13/2000 8:41:41 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24256

The missed earnings follow the company's announcement on September 22 that it would meet fourth-quarter earnings and revenue targets. Ah yes, women have broken through the glass ceiling now that they can lie through their teeth like a male CEO. <GG> Actually, I get no greater satisfaction in a bear mkt than to see HWP fall. I owned a P-I 200Mhz H-P that was worse than all the reports about Packard Bell, Acer, etc. and I found their customer support unresponsive and unable to come close to resolving things or providing satisfaction. It used to freeze as much as 6-10 times a day! The last effort, I was told to pull out the SCSI scanner card and added RAM that had been added after purchase, to run the recovery disk, and if any problems emerged, they'd have me ship it there, where it'd be repaired or replaced. After doing this (and it was the 14th time I'd run recovery in 20 months), they denied saying they'd made any such offer. Needless to say, it'll be 20 years or so before I consider buying anything HP, even though I love their printers. I forgive folks far quicker than I forgive corporate arrogance. Enjoy the fall, HWP!