Factory Jobs Aren’t WFH But Can Still Be Flexible

Chase Corp., a manufacturer of protective coatings and tape, agreed to sell itself to KKR & Co. for $127.50 a share, or $1.3 billion including the assumption of debt. The purchase price values Chase at about 13 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization over the past year. It’s the latest indication that private equity buyers may not be as sidelined from the pursuit of industrial assets as some company CEOs had hoped. Purchases the size of Chase are easily digestible for big buyout firms and help them put their vast piles to cash to work. Once the transaction closes, KKR planes to establish an equity ownership program for rank-and-file employees, a strategy that it’s deployed successfully at more than 30 companies since 2011. Read more about KKR’s push to treat workers like owners here and here. Safran SA agreed to buy an actuation and flight control product business from Raytheon Technologies Corp.’s Collins Aerospace division. The all-cash deal has an enterprise value of $1.8 billion. The purchase helps the company further diversify from its core engine operations. “We already are in the flight control and actuation business, but with a much smaller size,” Safran CEO Olivier Andries said on a call to discuss the acquisition. Combining Safran’s existing electric capabilities with Collins’s hydraulic and electromechanical expertise “will position us very nicely for the next-gen aircraft where we really work smoothly towards more electric actuation and flight controls,” he said. Johnson Controls International Plc acquired FM:Systems, a provider of workplace management software for facilities operators and real estate professionals, for $455 million plus additional payments if the business hits certain earnings milestones. Johnson Controls plans to integrate FM:Systems’ offerings with its OpenBlue digital buildings software and automation portfolio. FM:Systems has had double-digit revenue growth, and its margins are accretive to Johnson Controls, the company said. There had been a bit of a lull recently in software acquisitions by US industrial companies as the buyers refocused on nuts-and-bolts assets that fit more obviously in their traditional wheelhouse. FedEx Corp. hired John Dietrich, the former CEO of cargo carrier Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., to be its chief financial officer. Atlas was acquired in March by a group of private equity firms including funds owned by Apollo Global Management Inc. and J.F. Lehman & Co. Dietrich retired from his role in May. It’s unusual for FedEx to hire outsiders. The company’s top ranks have typically been populated by executives who have spent decades at the company, a contrast to rival United Parcel Service Inc., whose CEO was a longtime Home Depot Inc. executive and whose CFO hails from PepsiCo Inc. 

Original Source