Well known presidential family and highly placed business associates getting into the boat business. (yeah, really!)
PARIS (AP) - Groupe Zodiac, a maker of inflatable boats, said
Wednesday it began discussions with private equity company Carlyle
Group about a possible sale of its Zodiac Marine business to a joint
venture between the two companies.The transfer of Zodiac Marine would be realized on the basis of an
enterprise value - or market capitalization plus debt - of about 1.01
billion (US$1.4 billion). If the deal is successful, Carlyle would own 72 percent and Zodiac
would own 28 percent of the holding company of the new group, Zodiac
said in a statement. The transaction "would allow the Zodiac Group ... to reinforce its
acquisition capabilities in the aerospace sector," said Zodiac Chief
Executive Jean-Louis Gerondeau. Zodiac said it would use the proceeds of the deal to finance
acquisitions, cut debt, and buy back shares. Shares in Zodiac rose 4.6 percent to 57.48 (US$77.87) in Paris. |
Chuck
Apr 22
|
| Chuck... it was a joke... You know, signs of the zodiac, astrology.... Never mind... --Mike |
Mike
Apr 23
|
| They will loose quit a bit of money going strictly mil-spec. If it fails mil-spec you sell it on the civilian market. |
BAR
Apr 23
|
| Big Pensions, all they care about is return on investment. Somebody out
to do something about it. |
BAR
Apr 23
|
| I know that my Zodiac certainly benefits from being pumped up, but by
avoiding the use of anything stronger than my 3.5 HP Nissan outboard I
hope to avoid flipping it. :-) |
Chuck
Apr 23
|
| Not really, they could get a better return, if they cut down on some the
egregious pay to some of the corporate officers. CALPERS convinced the
voters that they could raise the rate to 3% a year for retirement pay for
all, not just the public safety people. Lots of money during the dot.bomb
years. Now the taxpayers have to make up the difference. Why should they
worry about ROI? They just get the state taxpayers to make up the
difference. A rather sore point in this state. |
Calif
Apr 24
|
| Sheez Chuck... there you go again. Will you ever stop?? This forum is about
boats, not astrology... <g> --Mike "Chuck Gould" <chuckgould.chuck@gmail.com> wrote in message |
Mike
Apr 22
|
| I'm glad to see the Saudis will be using their puppets to buy lifeboats... |
Harry
Apr 23
|
| On 22 Apr 2007 20:06:12 -0700, Chuck Gould |
Short
Apr 23
|
| So is my post. The ownership of a manufacturing compay can influence the type of
boats that will be built in the future, the general quality of the
product, etc. Several people have posted in this forum thay they own a
Zodiac (as do I). Zodiac is certainly one of the top half dozen or so
suppliers of inflatables to the pleasure boat industry. This particular acquisition is additionally significant because of the
identity of the group purchasing Zodiac. There would be about 100
opportunities to identify some of the movers and shakers at Carlyle,
speculate about upcoming transactions with a particular agency, etc
etc etc etc etc......but it would be hard to go there without
interjecting speculation and (worse) political opinion so I will
settle for simply reporting the facts surrounding the impending change
of ownership of a French (!) company. :-) |
Chuck
Apr 23
|
| Harry, I'm sure the Saudis could buy lifeboats directly from Zodiac.
Could probably buy Zodiac itself with a couple of days' oil revenue,
if they had a mind to. Carlyle is probably less interested in buying inflatables for the
Saudis than in selling them. LIke any corporation, Carlyle will look
for an opportunity to sell the largest possible number of inflatable
boats and at the highest possible price. Can't blame them a bit; when
I'm selling something I do the very same thing. If by some stretch of
wild imagination Carlyle were in a position to influence demand as
well as supply, (not to say they are, mind you) that could be very
lucrative- but poor old Martha Stewart went to jail for less. |
Chuck
Apr 23
|
| Look a bit higher in the food chain. At least two US Presidents have served on the Board of Directors of
Carlyle, although not when officially in office. After a period of
initial service one was politely asked to resign, but the other served
for over 10 years and continues to accept "contract" work from the
corporation. Many of the more influential stockholders (not
necessarily the holders of the largest number of shares) are names
that would seem familiar to folks who make a habit of watching the
evening news. In any event, these are the prospective new owners of Zodiac. It will
be interesting to see if the boats remain available to the public or
if they will go strictly mil spec. |
Chuck
Apr 23
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| Ah, yes...milspec...to fill the needs of countries perpetually at war,
so that warmongering corporations can make the big bucks off them. |
Harry
Apr 23
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| I think all they really do is add the word "tactical" to the description,
and make everything black. Tactical toothbrush, tactical vegetable peeler,
etc. |
JoeSpareBedroom
Apr 23
|
| Carlyle might also be itn it just to pump the co. (zodiac) up, make it
more attractive, then flip the Zodiac co (or name) to somebody else
for a huge profit. |
Tim
Apr 23
|
| On 23 Apr 2007 09:36:56 -0700, Chuck Gould
<chuckgould.chuck@gmail.com> wrote:
While I appreciate your approach on this, I would still point out that
the California State Retirement Board and the CalSTRs (Teacher's
Retirement - both Unionized boards) owns 7% of Carlyle Group spread
amoung three asset classes. I'd say that CA has a rather large say in what happens to Carlyle
Group - more than a former President. |
Short
Apr 23
|
| Unfortunately, Calpers and other big holders of some large corporations seem
to not demand excellence and resonable executive pay from the corps they
own. |
Calif
Apr 23
|
| And if only the USA would get rid of its Department of Defense, every other
country would do the same. The world would be at total peace. Wouldn't it be loverly! |
John
Apr 23
|
| man, I didn't know that..... |
Tim
Apr 23
|
