Billabong's rally steems on potential flotation

Billabong International was the clear winner Thursday with

a final gain of 5.32 percent. Its stock has rocked along the week due to the renewed talks about its potential takeover. After the deal with TPG and Bain falling to come true, the uncertainty continues to surround Billabong. As portrayed by the ‘Business Spectator’, “The market still doesn’t know why TPG and Bain walked away, one of them after just a week or two of looking at the books.”

In October private equity firm TPG International LLC withdrew its takeover offer for the company and ended talks. A month prior to that another takeover offer made by another bidder was also withdrawn. Now, all looks are upon Paul Naude, who earlier this week announced his intentions to stand aside temporarily from his current roles as a Director of Billabong and President of the Americas to investigate the possibility of making a proposal for a leveraged buyout of the company. Some Billabong shareholders would no doubt be willing to exit the company at a lower price than TPG and Bain were prepared to pay, analysts following the stock have pointed out these days.

Now, it appears that Billabong International Ltd. (BBG.AU) is considering a possible float of its e-commerce businesses, the ‘Australian Financial Review’ newspaper reports Thursday, without saying where it got the information. The newspaper said a public float of a combined online business may result in a valuation of up to 300 million Australian dollars (311.1 million dollars). Dow Jones Newswires tried to unsuccessfully get hold of a spokesman for the company, who however was quoted as saying "We are not planning anything at this stage" when asked about a potential float.

Elsewhere, PPR SA (EPA: PP)‘s stock had its ‘add’ rating reaffirmed by research analysts at AlphaValue in a report released on Thursday. They currently have a 211.54 dollars (165 euros) target price on the stock. On the wake of the new upgrading, shares of PPR SA traded up 0.04 percent during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting 137.95 euros per share. PPR SA has a one year low of 100.05 euros and a one year high of 137.95. The company has a market cap of 17.379 billion euros and a P/E ratio of 17.17.