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Filed under: Spirits
Fortune Brands (NYSE-FO), according to press reports in The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press is planning to spin off its golf and home security businesses to shareholders, while maintaining its portfolio of liquor brands, including Jim Beam Brands, Maker's Mark, Courvoisier Cognac, Laphroaig single-malt Scotch whisky and Harvey's Sherry, as a public company.The company will spin off its golf products business, led by Titleist, as well as its security business led by the MasterLock brand. It's home products business, also to be spun off, includes Moen plumbing fixtures.
The spirits business is about a 2.5 billion operation in terms of annual revenues.
Fortune Brands board of directors has been pressured to maximize the value of the company by activist investor Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, who holds an 11% stake in the company.
Fortune Brands has long been viewed as a 20th-century style conglomerate ripe for break-up. It's disparate businesses have no real synergies and are worth more broken up than hey are run together, Ackman has argued.
Fortune Brands is trading around its 52-week high of $61 a share, up substantially from its 52-week low of $37.05. Ackman's intervention has been the chief driver of the stock.
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