After the rumoured $70bn merger of Yahoo and Microsoft kind of went wet, news so astonishing began to come through the wires that if it happened I would believe that anything could happen. 

A couple of smart Merrill Lynch analysts figured that BHP Billiton is massively undervalued. Its divisions are worth more than the sum of its parts.  The multi-national resource conglomerate has a market capitalisation of approximately $117bn but if you split up all its divisions into individual resource companies the assets would be worth approximately $242bn.  Sounds great huh?  Let’s do it.

Perhaps in response to this analysis there has been speculation regarding BHP and Rio Tinto merging.  That would create a company worth over $250bn and surely would be protected from any kind leveraged buyout.

Please don’t tell me there is a bank or group of banks able to facilitate a quarter-trillion line of credit to buy a company?  If so, can I have Lo-Doc mortgage from you and don’t look to closely at my financials.  Thanks.

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