Wave Of Monday Mergers Spans Drugs To Corn Flakes

Wall Street woke up to a raft of merger announcements Monday ranging from pharmaceuticals to breakfast cereals.

•Post Holdings Inc POST will pay $1.15 billion for privately held MOM Brands Inc. in a deal expected to close in the third quarter. MOM makes ready-to-eat and natural cereals, hot wheat and oatmeal and is the fourth-largest U.S. cereal maker.

Post changed hands recently up more than 8 percent at $44.81.

•All that oatmeal and flakes can go into boxes made by Rock-Tenn Company RKT and MeadWestvaco Corp. MWV, which agreed to merge in an all stock deal that will result in a packaging giant with a combined equity of $16 billion. A closing is expected in the second quarter.

Rock-Tenn was changing hands at $68.99, up 9.5 percent; MeadWestVaco was up 17.9 percent at $53.12.

•AT&T Inc. T will acquire the Mexican wireless business of NII Holdings Inc. NIHDQ for $1.875 billion, less the unit's debt at closing, which is expected in the second half of 2015. The deal includes all of NII's wireless properties in Mexico, including retail stores and 3 million subscribers.

AT&T was off about 0.45 percent at $33.21, while NII soared 80 percent to $0.043 cents.

•The reinsurance and specialty insurers Axis Capital Holdings Limited AXS and PartnerRe Ltd PRE agreed to an all-stock merger to result in a company with assets of more than $33 billion and premiums of more than $10 billion. The so-called merger of equals is expected to close in the second half of 2015.

Axis gained5 percent to $51.84; PartnerRe fell 1.4 percent to $112.50.

•Actavis plc ACT agreed to acquire niche generic drug maker Auden Mckenzie Holdings Ltd. for $459.68 million.

Actavis changed hands recently at $284.30, up 1.8 percent.