What's going on?

British-headquartered plumbing and heating giant Ferguson unveiled plans on Tuesday to split up its UK and US businesses � and it�s not the only company shaking things up.

What does this mean?

Ferguson, a big deal in the glamorous world of plumbing and heating supplies, has been focused on its principal US market � representing 80% of sales � for a while now. Even its name, which it changed in 2017, originally belonged to an American firm it bought in the Eighties. And now the $17 billion plumbing merchant is planning to �spin off� its UK business into a separate company altogether. That should please the American activist investor who�s complained Ferguson�s stock is undervalued, but it�ll disappoint those British investment managers who aren�t allowed to own overseas shares.


European agricultural equipment firm CNH Industrial, meanwhile, announced spinoff plans of its own on Tuesday. In an effort to boost profits at its transport and tractor divisions, Iveco owner CNH is splitting the two of them up. It�s a move reminiscent of automaker Volkswagen, which decided to list shares of several truck brands as an entirely new company earlier this year.

Why should I care?

For markets: Activists like American stuff.

Investors welcomed Ferguson�s plan to focus its energies Stateside, sending its shares up 2% on Tuesday. But they were more circumspect about CNH�s future, selling its stock down 3%. Some may view hopes for the �demerger� � to double profit and replicate the success of CNH�s own spinoff from Fiat Chrysler in 2010 � as overly ambitious. Activist investors also pushed back on Tuesday against the merger between European takeaway giants Takeaway.com and Just Eat, which some think undervalues the latter.

The bigger picture: Banks are reshuffling too.

British supermarket Tesco agreed on Tuesday to sell its mortgage business to UK bank Lloyds for almost $5 billion. With interest rates low and new laws forcing British lenders to deploy more cash in the UK, the mortgage game has become more competitive: good news for homebuyers, but tough for minnows with less than 1% of the market.