The Downside of the United Technologies-Raytheon Deal
There's a lot to like about United Technologies' (NYSE: UTX) planned merger with Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), but there's always a risk that something will go wrong. In this segment of Industry Focus: Energy, Motley Fool's Nick Sciple and Fool.com contributor Lou Whiteman discuss the risks involved in the deal, including geopolitical concerns, antitrust, and a lack of momentum while the process plays out.
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This video was recorded on June 27, 2019.
Nick Sciple: Last thing on this merger, any final thoughts on this merger before we move on? What should investors be watching as this continues to play out and finalizes, if that's what ends up occurring?
Lou Whiteman: The downside, and I think this is sort of what's driving Ackman's frustration, the Rockwell Collins deal took a lot longer to close than anticipated, mostly because of Chinese regulators, not U.S. regulators. The point being, this was dead money for United Technologies for a while because people were anticipating getting this deal closed, maybe we'd see a split, what will we see? The split already put the company in limbo. But now the extra complexity of a major deal, even if this is a good deal, it's hard to imagine this stock really running for another year, year and a half, maybe, at worst case scenario. You shouldn't have an antitrust issue here because the businesses don't overlap much. However, we have seen the President chime in, talking about fears about defense consolidation in general. We're sure to see Boeing chime in a little, because Boeing doesn't like its suppliers to have too much heft or too much muscle, and certainly, this company will be tougher to push around. Also, the wild card from Rockwell Collins was China. Given the current situation... just ask FedEx what it's like, dealing with China. I don't think it's a given that this deal will be rubber stamped anyway. Why potentially wouldn't China, if this continues, recurrent tensions, why wouldn't they step in and gum up the works? On the surface, it looks like a done deal. It looks like a pretty good deal. But there are a lot of things that are very much outside the company's control that investors at least need to watch and be mindful of it as this plays out. It's likely to be a long process that plays out, potentially with some twists that are hard to predict right now.
Sciple: Yeah, something we're going to continue to follow.
Lou Whiteman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Nick Sciple has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends FedEx. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
