Brinks Co. (NYSE:BCO) shares rose $0.68, or 1.09%, to $63.34 today after MMI Investments disclosed an 8.3% stake and suggested that the company explore a spin-off certain business segments. The news comes shortly after Pirate Capital's bout with the company in which they recommended similar spin-offs or a breakup of the company as a whole. Investors are hoping that the involvement of two activist hedge funds may help boost the company's stock price.

MMI Investments suggested in their Schedule 13D filing with the SEC today that BCO shares could be worth as much as $88/share in the event of a spin-off. They based this price off of multiples attained by competitors Tyco and Securitas. Tyco, BCO's largest competitor, recently completed its long-awaited spin-off and transformed itself into a security monitoring pure-play. The new Tyco trades at 10.2x 2007 EBITDA versus BCOs 6.6x. Similarly, Securitas' spin-off is trading at 9.7x - also higher than BCO's 6.6x.



Clearly, the valuations presented here would be a windfall for shareholders as even the lowest valuation represents more than a 25% premium to today's closing price. More, with two activist shareholders standing behind these proposals, there is a strong likelihood that management will at least review the idea. Combined, these factors make BCO a stock worth watching!

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