Alliance Boots Share Discussion Threads

[patricktrfc] 16/3/2007 22:53

Brian - looking at the price that must have been a working sell at 10.04 all day and yet the price still shot up and "really" finished at £10.31ish...hmmmm

[brianbush] 16/3/2007 19:07

...but notice official closing price of £10.04! Guilty party - the closing auction.

[patricktrfc] 16/3/2007 14:16

Nice little rise today, is any news leaking?....watch for the Sunday papers..

P

[patricktrfc] 15/3/2007 11:38

This has got to be a £10.75 - £11 next bid IMHO.

A friendly approach at £10 was the opening offer, KKR et al have hired city big guns to raise more funding, Boots directors save face by "holding out" for the increased offer. Give it a week or so, everyone is happy, including me with a few grand profit on a no brainer

P

[arth10] 14/3/2007 10:39

Will any of you experts please help.

As an employee, I have 3 monthly payments to make to complete a s.a.y.e. contract & purchase alliance boots shares at the option price.

If the company is bought by a private equity company (before the end of the scheme end in June), am I right in thinking that I will not be able to buy these shares. In this case, presumably, I would only get my savings plus interest back & not benefit from the share price increase.

What a sickener . . somebody please tell me I'm wrong!

[indieman] 13/3/2007 22:41

Jeffian,

I agree.

The company could take on debt and sort out the distribution side as a plc. There is no pressure on the company to run it as a cash cow and not invest for the future. Effectively, this is what the bidders will do if they succeed, and with the same managers, with the notable difference that the pe bidders would benefit from the results rather than the shareholders.

The rest is nonsense, just as it has been with most past pe turnarounds shoved back on the market. It's no more real company improvement than the Slater Walker asset stripping of the 1970s.

[jeffian] 13/3/2007 10:35

Conan,

I don't buy this argument that going private is "the right way to go". Why? What will management do as a private concern that they couldn't do for us as shareholders? If difficult decisions have to be taken which may impact on short-term profits but to the benefit of longer-term returns, then all management have to do is set out that strategy and sell it to shareholders. Frankly, it is all too apparent that the motivation of most MBO's is to seize an opportunity to buy something cheap and sell it back more expensively a few years later with the resulting profit accruing to former managers rather than shareholders. Fitness First, New Look, Monsoon etc., the list is endless. I came into AB. via Alliance Unichem and Stefano Pessina has always run the show as a personal feifdom - fine as long as his own interests were aligned with other shareholders - and the Boots takeover was absolutely his baby. I wouldn't be surprised if the current situation was all part of The Grand Plan from way back. I fear it's going to succeed because, if not, SP's position will be untenable in which case we both lose our Executive Chairman and have a disgruntled 15% shareholder. Whether that makes it "the right way to go" is open to debate IMHO.

Regards, Ian

[bigbobjoylove] 13/3/2007 08:11

market talk an O'Seas bidder expressing an interest. £12?

[conan the trader] 13/3/2007 00:29

When Private Equity buys, AB is no longer a PLC so doesnt need to turn in decent results every quarter. Pressina+KKR will invest heavily in the distribution side, cutting out costs and vastly improving efficiency, increased debt will pay for the investment needed. Within 2 years AB will be a transformed highly efficient and very profitable new business. Then it will come back on to the market as a PLC again.

[indieman] 12/3/2007 23:01

Pessina is seen as being behind the bid in the first place. As for the management, Pessina has said he wants the same management team to run the company if it is bought out.

So, is Pessina dismayed at the slow rate at which the integration or new initiatives are going? Or is he, as has been indicated, worried that it is going too quickly? Is he, as CEO, incapable of pushing them through in the way he wants?

Exactly how will the company be worth more to private equity holders than to shareholders? How will the 'hidden assets' be realized and why can't the same man realize them as the CEO of the plc he wants to take private?

Just asking the questions. I don't hold.

[conan the trader] 12/3/2007 19:32

In my opinion Stefano Pessina + KKR's plans for Alliance Boots are the right way for the company to go, and Stefano Pessina is the right man for the job. The current managment are correct to try and get an increased bid for shareholders, so at present everything looks good.

The hope is that SP+KKR come back with an increased offer which is then accepted, or go hostile. If SP+KKR walk away, that would be bad news for shareholders as the limitations of the current management combined with the limitations of being a PLC cannot deliver the turnaround that SP+KKR can.

[jezboy1] 12/3/2007 16:29

.... and share price doesn't move!!

£11 here we come?

[miata] 12/3/2007 15:18

Board rejects £10 offer.

[bigbobjoylove] 12/3/2007 15:16

£11 will do it.

[mike24] 12/3/2007 12:05

just can't believe you lot are selling out
to PE, which has been a simple investment model of trading
an inflationary 10 year wave, which is now ready to burn out
so far it has been no more than being in the right place at the right time

what have boots been doing all these years while Lloyds Chemists who started out as one shop in 1972, the huge german owned company
could slaughter a highly geared take over,
via a price war, from a position of strenth

[miata] 12/3/2007 11:17

Over 1000p, scope for up to 1050p over coming days but I expect some selling off first.

[sklogw] 12/3/2007 08:48

Having taken over Alliance only last july,Boots is now subject to a takeover bid from KKR.

Apart from comments like the market has undervalued the shares, which seem true, its difficult to see what KKR etc would do with Boots to enhance market value if the takeover succeeded.

Obviously the bid talk has made the price jump as £10 per share seems to be on the table but after that ?

perhaps the more significant item is that KKR may now withdraw fron a bid for Sainsburys.

[bigbobjoylove] 12/3/2007 08:16

Deustche Bank looks for the hidden value contained in the chemists chain and reckons there is some 223p upside on current levels. Broker says: 'Our analysis suggests 'hidden value' of at least 223p per share. Investors may be able to sell above 1000p but probably not above 1100p.'

[bigbobjoylove] 12/3/2007 08:15

yep looks that way.

[miata] 12/3/2007 08:08

Over 990p now, so punters think there will be a higher offer.

[losses] 12/3/2007 07:48

He described as "speculation" claims in the Sunday newspapers that the board
is minded to accept the offer, saying the group's directors had yet to meet.

[maiseymouse] 12/3/2007 07:04

I wouldn't be surprised if Hutch had a look. Pessina a bit of a git for attempting to take group private. Not sure the city enamoured by his behaviour. Found this story saying there may be some hidden value at Boots above the mooted share price.

[maiseymouse] 12/3/2007 07:04

I wouldn't be surprised if Hutch had a look. Pessina a bit of a git for attempting to take group private. Not sure the city enamoured by his behaviour. Found this story saying there may be some hidden value at Boots above the mooted share price.

[bigbobjoylove] 11/3/2007 14:18

already talk of at least 2 other interested parties, Hutchinson being one. Hope for a battle royale.

[miata] 11/3/2007 07:41

Shareholders believe that Pessina clearly sees hidden value in the company and could be trying to buy it cheaply. They also fear that the board could "stitch up" a cosy deal, particularly as Pessina has said that he wants to work with the existing management team in the private arena. Crucially, KKR has irrevocable undertakings over Pessina's shares unless a higher offer is tabled.

A spokesman for Alliance Boots was unable to confirm whether Baker and other executives' contracts contain a change of control clause, which could potentially net them millions of pounds from the transaction.

Shares in Alliance Boots are expected to rise tomorrow morning.