Like a dog-eared Margaret Fulton recipe, demergers have stood the test of time in terms of their ability to cook up instant shareholder value -- in the short term at least.
While ever popular as a corporate ploy, the urge to demerge has added impetus as the core ingredients become bountiful.
From the boardroom perspective, these are slowing revenue growth and a dearth of acquisitive opportunities at a time of robust corporate balance sheets.
"The top line is subdued and companies are looking at ways to deliver value," UBS equity strategist David Cassidy says.
For investment bankers it's a way of adding baking soda into an otherwise flat deal pipeline. And for investors and management there's the proven track record of the sum of the parts adding up to more than the whole.
