Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. will buy the auto tubing unit of competitor ITT Industries Inc., adding more than $400 million in sales to its fluid-handling division.
The Dec. 5 acquisition announcement by Novi, Mich.-based Cooper-Standard will bring the company a business with 3,400 employees in seven countries for $205 million in cash.
The ITT division had $437 million in sales in 2004, with processing of both plastics and steel tubing for fuel and brake systems.
The deal is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2006.
Cooper-Standard's existing fluid-handling group, which has plastics, rubber and metal processing capabilities, posted $477 million in sales through the first nine months of 2005. The company was created in late 2004 when former parent Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. sold its nontire businesses to private equity investors Cypress Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.
All of Cooper-Standard has seen sales of nearly $1.4 billion for the first nine months of 2005.
Since going independent, the new firm has been building its capabilities. The marriage of its own fluid-handling group and ITT Tubing will give it greater product and geographic reach, said President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McElya in a news release.
The acquisition follows on Cooper-Standard's July acquisition of Gates Corp.'s hose facility in Mexico.
ITT, meanwhile, will use the cash to pay down debt while also reducing its reliance on the auto industry. The White Plains, N.Y.-based company instead is emphasizing its work in advanced water treatment, aerospace and defense electronics systems.