Web Page sponsored by Odyssey Corporate Finance
Contact: Tom McCarthy, Director, Odyssey Corporate Finance
M: 07867 459 600
D: 0121 503 2375
E:
www.odysseycf.com
———————————————————————
24 Sep 15. The Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) board of directors has authorized the purchase of up to an additional $3.0bn of Lockheed Martin common stock under its share repurchase program. The number of shares purchased and the timing of purchases are at the discretion of management and subject to compliance with applicable law and regulation.
24 Sep 15. US Regulators ok Lockheed-Sikorsky Deal. US regulators have given the green light to Lockheed Martin’s acquisition of Sikorsky Aircraft, according to filings made Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Lockheed and Sikorsky parent company United Technologies Corp. The filings, first reported by Reuters, signal that Lockheed’s $9bn purchase of the American helicopter maker will not be subject to a second request for information from US regulators, which could have postponed the deal’s closing substantially. Instead, the deal appears to be on track to close in the 4th quarter of 2015 or the first quarter of 2016, as Lockheed had hoped when the defense giant announced the deal on July 20. Regulators in Japan and South Korea have also reviewed the deal, the SEC filing states. Effectively, US regulators reviewed the deal for two months, said Jeff Bialos, a partner at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan who specializes in aerospace and defense M&A and previously served as the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial policy.
“That’s reasonably quick for a transaction of this size and scope,” he said. “It’s somewhat surprising that a deal of this magnitude didn’t go to a full second request.” Government regulators spent a longer period reviewing the merger between Orbital Sciences Corp. and Alliant Techsystems into what became Orbital ATK, he said. “There are similar types of issues here, so one would have anticipated that it would have taken longer,” he said. (Source: Defense News)
24 Sep 15. Caterpillar Inc. slashed its revenue forecast for 2015 by $1bn and said it could cut up to 10,000 jobs through 2018, amid a downturn in the mining and energy industries. Shares of the world’s biggest construction and mining equipment maker, which has also been hit by a slowdown in industrial activity in China, fell as much as 8 percent to a five-year low of $64.65 on Thursday. The stock also pulled down shares of other industrial companies and knocked 31 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Caterpillar said it expected revenue to fall for the third straight year in 2015, to $48bn. Revenue is expected to fall a further 5 percent in 2016, the company said. Caterpillar said it would cut 4,000-5,000 jobs by the end of 2016, most of them in 2015. The company has already reduced its workforce by more than 31,000 since mid-2012. Caterpillar had 114,233 employees as of Dec. 31, according to Thomson Reuters data. The company expects to save up to $1.5bn annually from the restructuring. It expects to incur about $2bn in pretax costs. The restructuring could impact more than 20 plants around the world across its three large businesses – construction, resources, and energy and transportation, the company said. Caterpillar is facing “challenging marketplace conditions in key regions and industry sectors – namely in mining and energy,” Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman said in a statement. Caterpillar shares were down 7 percent at $65.21 in morning trading. Shares of mining equipment maker Joy Global Inc. and industrial conglomerate General Electric Co also fell after the news. Up to Wednesday’s close, Caterpillar shares had fallen 23 percent this year. (Source: Reuters)
23 Sep 15. Cyber security firm Zscaler closes $110m round. The latest recipient in a spate of cyber security investments is Zscaler, a clou