here's that news item I was telling you about


Robert E. Bruce
Senior Counsel
Enron North America Corp.
T (713) 345-7780
F (713) 646-3393
robert.bruce@enron.com
----- Forwarded by Robert Bruce/NA/Enron on 12/11/2000 05:00 PM -----

	Robert Bruce
	Sent by: Robert Bruce
	12/06/2000 01:17 PM
		 
		 To: Dan Feather/NA/Enron@Enron, Billy Lemmons/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Darren 
Maloney/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Ted Noble/HOU/ECT@ECT, Elsa.Piekielniak@enron.com, 
Erin.Willis@enron.com, Lisa Yoho/NA/Enron@Enron
		 cc: 
		 Subject: fyi -- who the leading investment banks are in food deals

Monday December 4, 5:33 pm Eastern Time 
UBS on top of feeding frenzy in food consolidation
By Jamie LaReau 
NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - UBS (NYSE:UBS - news), Switzerland's largest 
bank, is the big cheese of investment banking in the consolidating U.S. food 
industry. 
The firm's investment banking arm, UBS Warburg, advised on eight merger deals 
worth nearly $75 billion so far this year, according to market research firm 
Thomson Financial Securities Data. 
Taking the second biggest bite among investment banks this year is Merrill 
Lynch and Co. Inc. (NYSE:MER - news), which has advised corporations in five 
U.S. food mergers valued at about $55 billion, Thomson said. 
There is a definite feeding frenzy in the U.S. food sector at this time, and 
investment banks are likely to come back for second helpings because the 
sector has many companies that need to merge to better compete. 
Wall Street itself has consolidated, leaving just a few investment banks at 
the top of the food chain. But corporations should still have enough choice 
in determining which investment bank they hire for their their deals, Arning 
said. 
``I don't think ... you have a conflict of interest. They (investment banks) 
each have their specialty,'' said Rob Arning, national industry director for 
accounting firm KPMG's banking practice. ``I don't see any shortening of the 
list or limitations on opportunities when it comes to choosing an appropriate 
investment bank to execute your deal.'' 
But in the big food deals, the same Wall Street names appear on the menu. 
Merrill is the lead advisor on the latest merger, beverage and snack maker 
PepsiCo Inc.'s (NYSE:PEP - news) agreement to buy Quaker Oats Co. (NYSE:OAT - 
news) in a $13.4 billion stock deal. 
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS - news), which served as lead advisor to 
Quaker Oats, ranked third on Thomson's list this year, dropping from the No. 
2 slot in the food sector last year. 
Goldman advised on more deals than Merrill Lynch, eight in total this year, 
but the deals have been smaller, bringing the value of Goldman's deals to 
about $51 billion. 
Merrill Lynch has its hand in yet another potential big food industry merger 
involving Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN - news). 
Tyson, the world's largest chicken producer, on Monday hired Merrill Lynch to 
advise it on an offer it made to buy IBP Inc. (NYSE:IBP - news), the No. 1 
beef processor, for about $2.8 billion. The bid trumps an earlier offer from 
the nation's biggest pork processor, Smithfield Foods Inc. (NYSE:SFD - news). 
In October, cereal giant Kellogg Co. (NYSE:K - news) agreed to buy No. 2 U.S. 
cookie and cracker maker, Keebler Foods Inc. (NYSE:KBL - news) for about $3.6 
billion to expand into the fast-growing snack food business. Salomon Smith 
Barney, which ranks fifth so far this year with $30 billion in the eight 
deals it worked on, had a hand in that deal as financial advisor to Kellogg. 
Goldman, Sachs also advised Kellogg in that transaction. 
UBS and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter served as financial advisors to Flowers 
Industries, which had a 55 percent stake in Keebler. 
Prior to that deal, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney advised Bestfoods 
(NYSE:BFO - news), the maker of Skippy peanut butter and Hellman's 
mayonnaise, when it accepted a $20.3 billion takeover bid from Anglo-Dutch 
group Unilever Plc. (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ULVR.L) in June. 
Already ranked No. 3 among world food companies, Unilever jumped ahead of 
Philip Morris Kraft Foods and challenges Nestle AG for the top spot, all 
under the investment advice of Goldman Sachs and UBS. 

Robert E. Bruce
Senior Counsel
Enron North America Corp.
T (713) 345-7780
F (713) 646-3393
robert.bruce@enron.com