C.R. Bard Acquired by Becton Dickinson for $24 Billion

The medical instruments sector should be strong today, after $BDX announced plans to acquire rival $BCR. The market cap for Beckton is about twice that of BCR. However, with the takeout price of $317, appreciably higher from Friday’s close, the company is taking on a lot here. Making a $24b acquisition with a market cap of $39b is aggressive and should lead to shares trading lower for the acquirer.

Becton Dickinson and Co (BDX) and C. R. Bard (BCR) announced a definitive agreement under which BD will acquire Bard for $317.00 per Bard common share in cash and stock, for a total consideration of $24 billion. The agreement has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

Under the terms of the transaction, Bard common shareholders will be entitled to receive approximately $222.93 in cash and 0.5077 shares of BD stock per Bard share, or a total of value of $317.00 per Bard common share based on BD’s closing price on April 21. At closing, Bard shareholders will own ~15% of the combined company.

BD expects to contribute ~$1.7 billion of available cash to fund the transaction, along with, subject to market conditions, approximately $10 billion of new debt and ~$4.5 billion of equity and equity linked securities issued to the market.

Bard shareholders will also receive $8 billion of BD common stock. BD has also obtained fully committed bridge financing. At closing, BD estimates the combined company will have pro forma leverage of ~4.7x and is committed to deleveraging to below 3.0x leverage within three years of closing.

BD expects to continue the suspension of its share repurchase program. BD is also committed to annual dividend increases while reinvesting in the business to continue to drive long-term growth.
Immediately accretive to BDX and expected to generate high single-digit accretion to Adjusted EPS in FY19

BD expects to create a third segment within the company — BD Interventional — where the Bard businesses will report both operationally and financially. BD is separately announcing the appointment of Tom Polen, currently executive vice president and president of the BD Medical Segment, as president of BD, effective immediately.

Other stocks that might move on this news, include: $SNN, $BSX, $BAX, $XRAY and $MTD.

The CAC is higher by an astounding 4.6%, thanks to Macron advancing to the 2nd rd of the French Presidential elections. The fears of the EU ending, due to a Le Pen upset, is looking more and more like an extreme black swan event — considering Macron is up 25 points in the polls.

Globally, we’re cutting dicks off on an industrial scale — making transgenders out of short sellers who thought it was wise to bet against Le Fly and his algorithmic winshippery.

The DAX is higher by 3.1%, FTSE 1.9%, IBEX 3.3% and the greasy MIB by 4%.

The Euro is higher by 1.1% and the dollar is trouncing the yen by 1.05% — because that’s what the yen-carry trade risk on scenario mandates.

We’re seeing a massive move out of bonds into equities, with the US 10yr surging ahead by 7bps to 2.31%. NASDAQ futures are higher by 63 and I’d like to remind you that Exodus flagged OS last week and will be celebrated around the globe today, amongst the small group of fortunate people who have access to it, as an oracle.

Defensive stocks should be expected to lose, namely gold, REITs and utilities. Everything else is fair game to the upside. I do not anticipate wild gains in crude, since the commodity is only higher by 0.6%. I do, however, expect to see my portfolio of military-industrial complex stocks pacing the markets very tightly, as globalism celebrate a near death event.

Here are some notable movers in Europe, bank stocks.

DB +10.2%, BBVA +7.4%, ING +7%, SAN +6.4%, BCS +5.7%, CS +4.9%, RBS +2.8%

I came across this wonderful letter on Twitter a few minutes ago — a matter of happenstance actually. It is by none other than Chelsea Clinton, 5 years old, addressed to President Reagan. She didn’t like the way those Nazis looked in the movie, ‘Sound of Music’.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT.

Letter I wrote to President Reagan at 5. (I never got a reply). Thank you to all who shared your White House letters. pic.twitter.com/wOAQXsyBIc

— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) April 22, 2017

Some cynics out there do not.

"Here's a letter I totally sent 30 years ago, but don't ask how I have the letter I totally sent." This totally happened, OK! https://t.co/j4aObbq0at

— Mike Cernovich ?? (@Cernovich) April 24, 2017

It was a nice concept, nationalism over globalism. It’s never gonna happen. And even if it did, we’d probably regret it after a few weeks — due to wanton mismanagement.

A nice smart boy from Nomura was interviewed by CNBC today and he said the market was pricing in an assured Macron win, a 99.9% probability of victory. He cited the fact that polls showed Macron ahead by 25% over Le Pen — mainly because the French people enjoy the endless streams of migrants entering their country — defecating in the streets and beating up weak white manlets.

POLLS ARE NEVER WRONG. Ergo, the Euro is going higher.

CAC futs are indicating +2.4%.

Le Pen won and markets break out because of it. Notice a pattern? Big money doesn’t give a shit about elections — because the outcome is rigged. Seeing Trump turn from nationalist to globalist inside of 100 days should teach everyone to cease dreaming about direct rule by the people. Most people aren’t capable of managing their own households, how do you expect them to manage giant economies?

The shadowy deep government will preside over these elected lightening rods. Prove me wrong, faggot.

These stocks move tomorrow, because squeezing shorts and making them go bankrupt is fun.

Criteria in Exodus screener: greater than 500m cap, float less than 50m, greater than 10% of shares in float short, proprietary tech score 2.00+ on a scale from 1-5).

CMCM, SQ, CALM, MOMO, MTCH, BITA, TWOU, AMBA, SAGE

I suspect this is more election fuckery. Perhaps because Le Pen didn’t smash Macron to pieces, investors are interpreting her round 1 win as meaningless — especially since all of the ‘polls’ show Macron easily beating Le Pen in a head to head match. I’d be careful about counting her our. She has some fire in her belly — declaring herself ‘the candidate of the people.’

Dow futures are higher by 200, Nasdaq by 50. Gold is getting clubbed by 1.2%, alongside the silverfags.

Forex markets are lit now, with the euro +1.45% v the dollar. That’s not a typo. The market is pricing in a Macron win, a jubilant victory for the EU and globalization.

Viva Le Union européenne

Marine Le Pen knocked out Fillon to advance to round two in the French election v Macron.

In her victory speech, she parlayed her win into a call for action to all French citizens interesting in preserving the French culture and way of life — or be handed over to ‘wild’ globalism which seeks to wreak havoc and leave the country in tatters.

“What’s at stake for this election is wild globalization that endangers our entire civilization.
Either we carry on the track of total deregulation, without borders, without protection, and, therefore, that leads to international competition, unfair competition, mass immigration, free circulation of terrorists, and that is where money is king. Or you’ll choose France, with borders, protective employment, purchasing power, our security, our national identity.”

Round two occurs on May 7th.

Before the BREXIT vote, President Obama warned Great Britain that if they chose independence from the tentacles of the EU, they’d be punished with a ‘back of the queue’ trade deal. Conservatards were up in arms over his threats and declared Obama’s shilling to be more globalist cuckery — widely derided by the right as unnecessary meddling.

After the election, Britain’s Boris Johnson did a cringe-worthy video declaring that Great Britain would be placed at the ‘front of the line’ for a trade deal — inferring he had learned this after meetings with Trump.

But since Trump’s body had been snatched and brain infiltrated by the anti-christ himself, Jared Kushner, all of that pre-body snatch rhetoric is now meaningless. Trump’s a neocon globalist now and has made it clear that he intends to renege on just about every single campaign pledge, in record time.

Trump is going to place the EU in front of the UK, kicking the limey bastards to the back of the line where Obama said they belonged — because Angela Merkel convinced him to place the EU first.

The United States could strike a free-trade agreement with the European Union after President Donald Trump warmed to a deal with the bloc, the Times reported on Saturday, quoting sources from both sides of the discussion.

Post-Brexit Britain would be pushed behind Europe in the race to secure a U.S. deal after Germany’s Angela Merkel persuaded Trump that talks on a deal would be simpler than he thought, the newspaper said.

Britain will not be free to agree new trade deals until it has left the EU in 2019.

A source close to the White House was quoted as saying that there had been a “realisation” in the Trump administration that a trade deal with the EU – allowing the tariff-free exchange of goods and services – was more important to U.S. interests than a post-Brexit deal with Britain.

“Ten times Trump asked her (Merkel) if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany,” the newspaper quoted a senior German politician as saying.

“Every time she replied, ‘You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU’,” the politician said. “On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, ‘Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then.'”

Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the EU, had welcomed Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the bloc and said he would work hard to get a quick bilateral trade deal done.

But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday he was optimistic a U.S.-EU trade deal could be reached soon after he met his U.S. counterpart in Washington.

Here was Boris Johnson back in January, elated at the news that Trump was putting the UK in the ‘front of the queue.’ HAHAHAHAHA, suckers. Enjoy your great depression.

Next up, Trump is going to take your guns away. Trumpsters beat down again.

This is rich with irony. Here’s an active forum on Reddit where ANTIFA degenerates discuss committing acts of violence against nazis. Again, and for the record, Le Fly supports all forms of violence, especially for superficial reasons. The laughable part of what this homo is saying below, is that he’s upset that right wingers have unveiled the identity of a fellow criminal.

He’s now so beset with anguish over there being consequences for his cowardly assaults, that he’s contemplating quitting altogether, until they can get their shit sorted out. This form of stupidity shouldn’t be tolerated. He deserves to be impaled by the Based Stickman.

This all stems from the incredible investigative work done by people on 4chan, who deduced the identity of the bike lock guy, potential mass murderer, just by the boots on his feet, bag on his back, and pen in is pocket.

Pol is systematically unmasking Antifag felons. Enjoy your stay in prison. Good look punching the real nazis inside there. pic.twitter.com/ZPzTEHNydM

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) April 20, 2017

The investigation to find the bike lock scum has been concluded. pic.twitter.com/aQDewl4ZBT

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) April 20, 2017

Pol concludes bike lock attempted murderer is… pic.twitter.com/4CE6oSbzdr

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) April 20, 2017

Many of these Antifa scum are being unveiled as college professors. What a shock.

Here’s a list of donors to an ANTIFA front group.

List of Corporate Donors to Antifa Front Group BAMN pic.twitter.com/qMFwXoBe57

— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 22, 2017

If you’re curious about the potential mass murder bike lock guy, here’s what he did.

I remember when the 2005 Bordeaux was being celebrated as the best year for the designer wine since 1982. Having some disposable income, I became an energetic collector — buying up first growth vintages and then storing them, like an animal, in a non climate controlled make shift cellar. After later finding out that my investments were spoiling because I hadn’t stored them properly, I quickly them all and promised to never collect again, until I was outfitted with a proper cellar.

According to experts, the 2016 vintage is the best since 2010. It doesn’t mean all that much, aside from the fact that degenerated wine traders will get to buy up cases of the stuff, for their rich clients, attempting to arb the wine from futures market to actual delivery.

The world of Bordeaux, namely first growth estate wine, is a sordid market, replete with hucksters and counterfeiters trying to rip off eager Chinese investors and collectors. In China, there is an obsession with Latour and Lafite-Rothschild wines. If you do a cursory search, you’ll learn the Chinese are buying up all the vinyards in Bordeaux and have been growing plenty of their own wine at home.

Prices are climbing again,  a long awaited lift after years of a do nothing market.

Barrels of the 2016 vintage will be available for international trade over the next few weeks. What this means, essentially, is that wine trading houses will buy up millions of dollars worth of wine, never take delivery, and merely trade the stuff like stocks. I’m not shitting you.

Prices had peaked in 2011, dropping more than 40% in the next five years, after a horrendous 2012 vintage. I recall watching a documentary of a Chinese woman bidding over a million dollars for some Latour barrels, way above market price, simply because she wanted it. The 2012 vintage broke Bordeaux fags to pieces, but have, unfortunately, survived to bid up 2016 to record levels.

“It has the structure of 2010 but the elegance of 2015, 2009,” according to Veronique Sanders of Chateau Haut Bailly in Pessac-Leognan. “The tannins are very round.”

The reason for the great outcome for the 2016 vintage? Weather.

August temperatures were 5 degrees Celsius more than normal while the month had 30 percent more sunshine than average, according to a study by Laurence Geny and Axel Marchal of the University of Bordeaux. The first 13 days of September were the hottest since 1950, followed by brief rain and then more sun which gave renewed impetus to ripening.

“It’s rare to have such balance,” Philippe Dhalluin of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac said. “It’s due to the summer. Maturity came very slowly.”

If you should happen to get your hands on a first growth 2016 Bordeaux, be sure to store it for at least 10 years in a climate controlled cellar, no more than 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Other plebeian Bordeueax worth collecting should be priced anywhere from $80-$400 per bottle, left bank preferred. The ‘Grand Cru’ designation is often misinterpreted by normies to mean great wine. That designation was given to Napoleaon’s favorite vineyards during his reign. At the time, those were the best and the Grand Cru label meant something. Since then, many estate went bankrupt and the designation was merely pawned off to new winefags, hoping that the label could garner more business.

I prefer Bordeaux over all other wines. I enjoy the earthiness to them. But they’re way overpriced, just like California wine. I haven’t been drinking much wine of late, as I’ve been more into cocktails made with gin or vodka, but many of the Spaniard or South American wines are just as good. Even Washington and Oregon have wines approaching the level of quality of some of the better Californian wines.

But from an investment standpoint, nothing beats Bordeaux.

NOTE: The only publicly traded wine companies here in the US are $VCO, $THST and $CWGL.