US Spinoff Deals Double Year-Over-Year to $12.8B as Corporate Split Fever Grows
Corporate America’s appetite for spinoffs surged dramatically in 2024, as US companies announced 20 spinoff IPOs that raised a combined $12.8B — double the transactions and value from 2023, per LSEG. But this trend is going global, as boards and executives race to separate valuable business units before activist investors force their hand.
- The average spinoff deal size has ballooned from $1B pre-2008 to $2.5B today — while globally, 237 spinoff IPOs raised $53.9B in 2024, marking a 21.3% increase in total value from the year before.
- FedEx aims to unlock $20B through its freight division spinoff, while Honeywell considers a $90-120B aerospace unit separation — as a Goldman Sachs M&A lead says, “Simplification is a huge theme.”
The bigger picture: With Morgan Stanley noting how post-pandemic stability is providing a clearer economic view, activists are aggressively pushing for spinoffs to unlock conglomerates’ hidden value. As Wall Street identifies companies where business units may be more valuable separately, traditional shareholders are increasingly happy to listen. With a record 27 CEOs ousted last year at activist-targeted companies, it seems the boardroom offers little shelter from the breakup storm.
