DealZone

Prudential shares rise — modestly — after UK newspaper reports that its largest shareholder — Capital Group – is working on a plan to split the group up. The U.S. investor is not happy with Pru’s planned $35.5 billion acquisition of AIA, the Asian life insurer. It is working with Clive Cowdery’s acquisition vehicle Resolution, insurer Aviva and a third, unknown group, the reports say. An unlikely scenario? Perhaps, but it does show some serious discontent among shareholders.

HSBC has denied talk in the market that it may renew its bid for a $3.9 billion stake in Korea Exchange Bank. When asked whether the bank was bidding for LoneStar’s KEB, the bank’s Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan said: “No, we are not”. Right, that’s settled then.

Deutsche lends credibility to its ambitious targets with quarterly earnings that beat forecasts. The earnings benefit from strong results in debt trading — and the absence of markdowns in areas such as leveraged loans. More on investment banking later, when Goldman Sachs appears before the U.S. Senate.

For all other Reuters stories about deals & investment banking, click here. In other media (some links may require subscription rights):

Cemex, the world’s No. 3 cement maker, is considering selling off minority stakes in some of its operations worldwide, in a bid to cut its debt, the Financial Times says.

For the latest deals news from Reuters, click here. And here’s the top stories from the newspapers (some external links may require subscription):

John Tiner, former head of the Financial Services Authority, and now chief executive of Resolution – the investment vehicle established by Clive Cowdery — said his company is targeting pure asset management businesses in its quest to create an enlarged British life assurance and fund management group, the FT said.

LLoyds Banking Group is in talks with stockbroker Execution about creating a joint venture as it plans to build a sizeable presence in the UK equity broking market, the Times said. 

A year on from the collapse of Lehman the newspapers are full of stories reflecting on the bank’s failure. A senior Bank of England official said he was “astounded” the U.S. government let the bank fall, but some might be more shocked by the rapid bounce-back of the stock markets, which is helping big M&A deals come down the pipeline.

For the latest Reuters deals news, click here.

And here’s a round-up of deal-related stories from Monday’s press:

* French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde plans to extend billions of euros of loan guarantees to France’s top banks for another year, and is calling on them to provide action plans on financing the economy, Les Echos reported.

* Tony O’Reilly is ready to give up his controlling stake in debt-laden Independent News & Media, following months of restructuring discussions. As part of a wider plan, bondholders will take cash and shares ahead of a rights issue, the Times of London reported.

Clive Cowdery’s Resolution has won over shareholders of Friends Provident, agreeing to pay 1.86 billion pounds for the British life insurer. Here are some facts about the pair. Whether the move will lead to a wave of consolidation in the sector remains to be seen, though last week the head of rival Standard Life told Reuters that it had no plans to make any deals.

Other M&A news today includes:

The total value of distressed-debt deals totalled $84.4 billion this year, the Wall Street Journal said, almost double the figure last year. Here’s Reuters’ story.

Private equity fund Dubai International Capital and distressed debt investor Oaktree Capital have abandoned plans to team up to restructure the debts of German aluminium firm Almatis, the Financial Times said.

The 1980s revival continues. Music fans have been flocking to see the Human League and Spandau Ballet on their reunion tours. Now M&A aficionados can savour their own mini revival. Yes, it's the return of the Pac-Man bid.
Two mid-sized British insurers, Friends Provident and Resolution have revived this gambit, named after a mind-bogglingly dull computer game where the objective is to eat your pursuers rather than be eaten yourself. In M&A, this involves the target of a bid approach (in this case, Friends) turning on the bidder and launching an offer itself.
In the case of Resolution there was a certain logic in so doing. Resolution is effectively a cash shell company, which has opaque governance. Its nil premium share for share approach offered little to Friends other than the chance to hand over 10 percent of the combined company's profits to Resolution's management. The proposed nil premium counterbid made little sense (other than to eliminate the 10 percent profit share). But it did at least tease out a slightly more generous bid proposal from Resolution.
Pac-Man defences are rare in M&A -- and for good reason. They're wholly unconvincing. If you get a bid for your company, and think that the combination has merit, squabbling over who bids for whom seems to miss the point. At worst it smacks of management self interest.
This is not the only reason there have been very few Pac-Man defences. The bigger problem is that they are uniformly unsuccessful. The target never actually gets to gobble up the predator. It is 10 years since Elf Aquitaine's desperate  attempt to see off an ultimately successful bid by fellow French oil major Total. The same year, British regional brewer Marston's also used the defence against a bid from Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries. It too failed.
That doesn't stop it from rearing its ugly head from time to time. Pac-Man defences were raised as a possibility for Rio Tinto  to turn the tables on BHP Billiton and more recently as a means for Anglo American to round on Xstrata. But generally that's all it is: talk.
The Resolution-Friends situation is an unusual one. Resolution is a cash company that is desperate to do a deal, while Friends rejected a 150 pence per share bid from J.C. Flowers last year. There are particular reasons they have ended up in a sort of death embrace. So while the Spandaus may be back in favour, the Pac-Man bid is likely to remain consigned to the archive.