Break-up unlocks value

Article Excerpt

MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES INC. $43 (New York symbol MHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 301.3 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mcgraw-hill.com) plans to split into two separate, publicly traded companies. One of these new firms, McGraw-Hill Markets, will sell a variety of financial-information products. This business will include Standard & Poor’s, which provides credit ratings on bonds, and McGraw-Hill’s J.D. Power market-research firm. McGraw-Hill Markets will have annual revenue of $4 billion. International sales will account for 40% of that total. The other company, McGraw-Hill Education, will publish textbooks for schools and colleges. This business will have $2.4 billion of annual revenue. The company is still working on the details of the split, but it aims to hand out shares of McGraw-Hill Education as a special dividend by the end of 2012. This will probably be a tax-free transaction: shareholders will not have to pay capital-gains taxes until they sell their new shares. Break-ups…