cogitator99

As you probably know by now, he kept the warrants ;)

In retrospect, master trader Tepper was right ;) He probably didn't lose 20% in 2015...

Could've seen that coming. ;)

But probably something he never seriously considered, jay. ;)

Interesting times to be sure. Story seems to be falling apart at this point.

Thanks for your thoughts scorpion

Care to share how large it is for you and how you got to your level of conviction?

They won't back out of the deal. Also they argue they have enough cash. Will also be slowing down on acquisitions. Think that's good as they probably have enough on their plate taking all the pieces and integrating them. *** Platform has sufficient cash, principally from its $483 million June 2015 equity issuance, to fund the acquisitions of the OM EC and PM Businesses. Consideration for Platform's acquisition of Alent is a mix of stock and cash. The stock portion is a fixed number of shares. As disclosed in the joint announcement, dated July 13, 2015 (the "2.7 Announcement"), issued by Platform and Alent, Platform will issue 18,419,738 shares of its common stock to shareholders of Alent as consideration for the acquisition. This partial share alternative is based on a fixed exchange ratio of 0.31523 based on the VWAP of $24.76 on July 10, 2015. At the time of the announcement, the share alternative was valued at approximately $455 million. For the $1.8 billion cash portion of the purchase price, and as announced in the 2.7 Announcement, Platform has an underwritten commitment for long-term debt financing at what it believes to be competitive market rates. The commitment is for a term loan which is to be pari passu with its existing secured debt. As a result, Platform does not need to issue additional equity to finance the closing of the Alent acquisition. Chief Financial Officer Sanjiv Khattri said, "Despite volatility in the capital markets, Platform has long-term financing and cash on hand to complete the OM Group and Alent transactions. Utilizing the committed financing to pay for the balance of the Alent consideration would result in a leverage ratio of 5.6x - 5.8x net debt to adjusted pro forma EBITDA, based on Platform's revised 2015 adjusted EBITDA guidance, LTM adjusted EBITDA for the OM EC and PM Businesses and Alent, and previously announced synergies1. While this will bring Platform's leverage ratio above our target range of 4.5x net debt to EBITDA, we intend to return to that target range through EBITDA growth and free cash flow generation. We remain committed to the acquisitions of Alent and the OM Group businesses and confident in their strategic rationale and industrial logic." Chairman Martin E. Franklin commented, "The opportunity for Platform to drive earnings growth in 2016 and beyond through execution, end-market growth, and the realization of synergies is the key focus for our management team. We can only achieve our longer term value creation objectives by making the businesses we acquire better. Acquisitions will be a secondary priority while we execute on these important integrations."

Model out the cash flow they are going to get assuming all the trains are built and contracted out - expenses - interest cost. Care to share your work on this Wilson? Am not getting to 20%

That's precisely what makes it interesting though. Market seems to be pricing that all these deals will be value-destroying, which I somehow doubt will be the case given Franklin's track record.

Care to elaborate on your numbers bluff?What kind of annualized returns are we talking about?

Anyone have thoughts here after the recent decline? PAH is now trading at a price lower than its combined acquisitions...

Anyone have thoughts on latest earnings? Since shareholder approval on the Bluescape deal is expected on August 5, Wilder will have to buy his $40 mn worth of stock after that. At the current price he's going to get a bit more than 25%...

They have had BillMeLater for a while now which already made them a pretty big finance company. Looks like they see more value in the PayPal brand then BillMeLater. The real change seems like they want to push the PP name moving forward (just another abrupt, major change from eBay). It seems like they want PP to be GE Capital to strengthen their ACH processing business? I agree with you on being skeptical of the move.. Also, as a payment processor, I haven't seen anything regarding their relationship with eBay post-split. Will they still be the exclusive payment processor for eBay and what are the terms? That is an incredibly valuable and historically growing revenue stream with a ridiculous above-market rake (I'm remembering 5% - 6%!!). I can't believe I still don't own MA/V considering financial services is probably my wheel-house. I really want a payment processor and both Amex and eBay seem very reasonable. I love companies that benefit from transaction inflation (% cut from increasingly larger transactions). Same reason TDG is so wonderful. I hate the idea of passing on PayPal since I understand the business so well. What valuation have others come up with? Dumb question, when is the spin-off taking place? The spin is due on July 20. PYPLV is already trading and gives you an idea of what value the market is giving it. Currently that's $42 bn.

Thanks, that was helpful wellmont