Commodities & Metals

Alcoa Offers Details on Split, Investors Head for the Exit

Paul Ausick

Published: June 29, 2016 1:17 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 6:13 am

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) filed a Form 10 initial registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wednesday morning that gave some details regarding the company’s plan to divide into two pieces. The plan was first announced in September of last year.

The filing on behalf of Alcoa Upstream Corp. said the separation will include a pro rata distribution of at least 80.1% of Alcoa Upstream stock in a tax-free manner to existing shareholders of Alcoa Inc. stock. At the time of the separation, Alcoa Upstream will be renamed Alcoa Corp. and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange with the existing AA ticker symbol.

The current Alcoa Inc. will change its name to Arconic Inc. and change its ticker symbol from AA to ARNC when the separation occurs. Arconic will own 19.9% of Alcoa Corp. stock following the separation.

Arconic is what Alcoa management calls the value-added part of the current business. It includes products for the aerospace and auto industries among its various businesses. Last September Alcoa said that the aerospace market accounts for about 40% of the pro-forma revenues for the value-add company and revenues from the automotive sector are expected to rise by 2.4-times to $1.8 billion by 2018.

Alcoa Corp.’s assets and liabilities include Alcoa Inc.’s bauxite, alumina, aluminum, cast products, and energy businesses, as well as a rolled products business consisting of Alcoa Inc.’s rolling mill operations in Warrick, Indiana, and its 25.1% interest in the Ma’aden Rolling Company in Saudi Arabia.

The separation has not done a whole lot to improve Alcoa’s share price. Shares closed at $9.59 on September 28, when the split was announced and closed at $9.33 on Tuesday night. In the early afternoon Wednesday the stock traded down about 3% at $9.05 after touching a low of $9.01 earlier in the day.