FACTBOX-Spreads of U.S. mergers and acquisitions

Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:33pm BST

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 July 18 (Reuters) - The following list shows the arbitrage spread for
proposed mergers and acquisitions of U.S. companies.

 Historically, the wider the spread, the more investors doubt a deal will
close. Arbitrage spreads measure the difference between the offered takeover
price and the target company's stock price.

 For real-time spreads, go to <US/ARB/MENU>
ACQUIRER             TARGET           DEAL VALUE*   PRICE/SHARE   SPREAD%
InBev NV             Anheuser-Busch      49,915.24            70      4.4
Mars Inc             Wm Wrigley          21,917.51            80      2.26
Consortium           Clear Channel       17,900.00            36      2.42
Dow Chemical         Rohm and Haas       15,287.23            78      5.08
Hewlett-Packard      Electronic Data     12,565.03            25      1.17
CME                  NYMEX               11,071.73         80.29      2.813
NRG                  Calpine Corp        10,916.43         19.32      9.96
Cleveland-Cliffs     Alpha Natural        9,006.88        114.62     19.64
Republic Services    Allied Waste         6,550.32         14.63     23.73
Invitrogen Corp      Applied Biosystem    6,381.65         36.26      7.15
Hexion Specialty     Huntsman Corp        6,213.24            28    115.38
Waste Management     Republic Services    6,185.20            34      4.62
Liberty Mutual       Safeco               6,124.91         68.25      4.92
Triarc Companies     Wendy's Intl         4,758.27          24.1     -0.83
Sirius               XM                   4,570.57          9.66     14.45
Iberdrola SA         Energy East          4,202.70         33.44     32.7
Bunge Ltd            Corn Products Int    4,162.20            56     19.89
Fresenius Kabi       APP Pharm            3,686.31            23     -1.71
Reed Elsevier        ChoicePoint Inc      3,576.80            50      4.23
Consortium           Puget Energy         3,510.75            30     18.76
Finmeccanica         DRS Tech             3,359.00            81      4.09
Delta Air            Northwest Airline    3,051.85          8.51      2.56
WebMD                HLTH Corp            2,897.69         12.19      7.78
Smith Intl           W-H Energy           2,894.29          94.3      0.46
United Tech          Diebold Inc          2,631.77            40      9.2
Ashland Inc          Hercules             2,602.64         22.34     13.5
Nationwide Mutual    Nationwide Fin       2,204.24          47.2      1.05
Consortium           Post Properties      2,054.24            47     66.37
Electronic Arts      Take-Two Interact    1,932.61            26      4.21
Precision Drilling   Grey Wolf Inc        1,788.40            10     10.5
Willis Group         Hilb Rogal & Hobb    1,673.94            46      5.97
Stone Energy         Bois d'Arc Energy    1,650.94         23.02      0.83
Cadence Design       Mentor Graphics      1,453.85            16      3.83
Blackstone           Apria Healthcare     1,281.57            21      9.03
Dubai Intl           Och-Ziff Capital     1,258.62            33     94.12
Management Group     CKX Inc              1,164.71            12     70.7
NOTE: * Deal values in millions of U.S. dollars
SOURCE: Reuters
 (Compiling by Oswald Blackwood)
 (For more M&A news and our DealZone blog, go to
here)