Deal Dispatch: Honeywell, Textron, Soho House Make M&A Moves - Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Deere (NYSE:DE)

New On The Block

Honeywell (NASDAQ:HON) is back at it again with big plans and boardroom brainstorms. This time, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company is considering sending its aerospace business off to fly solo. Recently, Honeywell unveiled plans to spin off its Advanced Materials business into a standalone public company by late 2025 or early 2026. Additionally, the company is selling its Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) business to Protective Industrial Products for $1.325 billion in cash.

Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) has decided it's time to hit the brakes on its Powersports product line, part of the Industrial segment’s Textron Specialized Vehicles business. The segment manufactures snowmobiles and off-road vehicles under the Arctic Cat label. Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) is rumored to be interested in acquiring it. Textron expects to wrap up its restructuring in the first half of the new year.

DLocal, a Latin American payments provider with a market value of about $3.6 billion, is on the auction block. The Montevideo, Uruguay-based company hired Morgan Stanley to gauge takeover offers from bidders. Private equity firm General Atlantic is DLocal’s largest shareholder.

Updates From The Block

The European Commission granted unconditional approval for Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) to acquire Run:ai Labs Ltd, an Israel-based provider of GPU orchestration software. The decision under the EU Merger Regulation concluded the acquisition would not raise competition concerns within the European Economic Area. Nvidia aims to integrate Run: ai’s software into its ecosystem. Run:ai specializes in software that helps organizations optimize and manage their artificial intelligence compute workloads across various environments, including on-premises and cloud platforms.

Soho House's billionaire chairman Ron Burkle wants to whisk the private members' club away from the U.S. stock market. Burkle and his squad of investors have thrown down a flashy $1.8 billion buyout bid, offering $9 per share—a snazzy 83% premium to the stock’s closing price on Wednesday, Dec. 18. This isn't Soho House's first flirtation with delisting. Just a few months ago, it turned down a mysterious suitor's offer.

Off The Block

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) and Woodside Energy Group Limited (NYSE:WDS) finalized an asset swap deal on Wednesday. As part of the agreement, Woodside will transfer its 13% non-operated interest in the Wheatstone Project and its 65% operated interest in the Julimar-Brunello Project in Western Australia. In return, Woodside will acquire Chevron’s 16.67% stakes in the North West Shelf Project and the NWS Oil Project, along with a 20% interest in the Angel Carbon Capture and Storage Project. Additionally, Chevron will make a cash payment to Woodside of up to $400 million. This includes a $300 million payment at completion, and contingency payments of up to $100 million, tied to the handover of the Julimar Phase 3 Project and subsequent production performance.

Bankruptcy Block

Furnishing and retailer Big Lots Inc.‘s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September and impending store closures could benefit rival Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:OLLI), JPMorgan analyst Matthew R. Boss says. On Sept. 9, Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 and announced a subsequent sale of its assets to Nexus Capital Management LP. The company’s stock was subsequently delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Its third-quarter financial report revealed a company struggling with declining sales, eroding margins and a continual bleeding of cash. On Dec. 19, the Columbus, Ohio-based company said its sale to Nexus Capital fell through, noting it “continues to work toward completing an alternative going concern transaction with Nexus or another party.” CEO Bruce Thorn announced a going-out-of-business sale.

FTX announced that its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan will become effective on Jan. 3, 2025. Customer and creditor distributions will be facilitated through partnerships with cryptocurrency platforms Kraken and BitGo. The first round of distributions is expected to occur within 60 days of the plan's effective date. The initial distribution will cover holders of allowed claims in the Convenience Classes, while timelines for other claim classes will be announced later.

Notes From The Block

Benzinga recently interviewed Tony Roma’s CEO Mohaimina (Mina) Haque on a variety of topics, including the restaurant chain’s capital raising initiatives:

BZ: What's the global stage look like?

There's a lot of interest globally. We are in Dubai and Berlin as well as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Perth, Australia. There is a lot of brand awareness. Stateside, as Gen Z and millennials were growing up, there was a decrease in unit size. So, we are working on building that bridge between those who are nostalgic for Tony Roma's and those who haven't experienced it yet. There are challenges, including the supply chain and ensuring that franchise partners uphold our intellectual property.

BZ: Is M&A still on the cards?

It is a possibility. We have parties interested in helping us to expand our global and national footprint. So, it's still in the cards, with either a venture capital or private equity firm. For anyone interested and who wants to see more explosive growth for the company, we are looking for partners capable of heavy capital infusion.