Pego lo único que tengo
National Oilwell Varco announced that it plans to spin off the majority of its distribution operations into a separate company in early 2014. The new company would generate around $4.3 billion in annual revenue and $230 million in operating profits (a 5.4% operating margin), by our estimates. Close peer MRC Global generates around $5 billion in revenue, has slightly higher margins around 7%, and has an enterprise valuation of around $3.75 billion. However, National Oilwell Varco's distribution profitability has topped 8% in the past, and we expect that long-term margins will be closer to 8%, particularly as the company realizes cost savings from its latest acquisitions.
We believe the rationale for the spin-off is fairly straightforward. The company probably believes that investors underappreciate the strengths of its distribution business and perhaps are not fans of its margin-dilutive properties today. Spinning off the distribution arm could serve to better highlight the strengths of the remaining rig equipment and petroleum services segments. In contrast, we've largely been fans of the operations because we consider the business to enjoy a strong moat based on cost advantage and network effect, and returns on capital can be quite attractive.
We also think National Oilwell Varco sees an opportunity to obtain capital from the distribution business through a special dividend. Distribution operations generally enjoy very healthy cash flows, which allows them to be leveraged up quite a bit; MRC's debt/EBITDA is about 2.6 times. We estimate that National Oilwell Varco could extract around $1 billion of capital for use in funding attractive acquisitions with a relatively limited impact on its own balance sheet.