UK valve and pump manufacturer Spirax-Sarco Engineering has signed a binding agreement to acquire a electrical heating group of companies for €261.7m (£222.5m).
The FTSE-100 firm, which is headquartered in Cheltenham, is buying the Vulcanic Group of Companies (Vulcanic) from Qualium, a French private equity company, it announced on Monday (July 25).
Spirax-Sarco has agreed the deal on a cash and debt-free basis, subject to customary closing adjustments, it said. The agreement follows the conclusion of exclusive negotiations announced on July 4.
The transaction will require regulatory approvals in France and Germany, which are expected during the third quarter of the year.
Vulcanic is a European industrial electric heating group, established in 1973 and headquartered in Paris, and is the largest supplier in Europe of bespoke industrial electric heating solutions. It has 10 manufacturing facilities worldwide and more than 700 employees, of whom almost 90% are based in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
Spirax-Sarco said Vulcanic would support the delivery of growth in the group’s electric thermal solutions (ETS) business through its existing customers, products and operational footprints which are mostly in the EMEA region. It said and would also “complement” the firm’s existing Chromalox business which is mostly focused on the Americas region.
The acquisition of Vulcanic is expected to be accretive to group earnings in 2022, Spirax-Sarco said.
“We have been following Vulcanic for some time and believe the acquisition represents an excellent opportunity to broaden our addressable market and further deploy our industry leading technologies in Europe,” said Nicholas Anderson, group chief executive of Spirax-Sarco.
