Esterline Technologies Corp. of Bellevue, Wash., has agreed to acquire specialized fastener maker NMC Group Inc. of Pomona, Calif., for about $90 million in cash. Closing is expected in late December or early January.
Both firms supply parts for aerospace, defense and other industries.
NMC will continue as a stand-alone operation and report to the Brea, Calif.-based engineered materials group of Esterline's advanced materials business segment.
NMC employs about 100 in a 50,000-square-foot facility. The firm operates 19 injection molding presses, mostly Arburgs, with clamping forces of 28-200 tons. Douglas Stephen is chairman and chief executive officer of privately owned NMC, and Robert Stephen is president and general manager.
Holding company NMC was founded in 1946 and initially was Nylon Molding Corp., a division of Union Plastics. NMC operating units make specialized polymer and composite-adhesive-bonded fasteners. Product lines include plastic clamps, grommets, wiring devices and small and medium-sized parts for multiple markets.
Existing operations of Esterline's engineered materials group employ 615. Two of those units are Kirkhill Elastomers, which Esterline acquired as Kirkhill Rubber Co. in 1998, and mixer-compounder Custom Silicone Elastomers, which moved recently to Brea from Norwalk, Calif.
Publicly traded Esterline reported profit of $20.5 million on sales of $382.1 million for the three months ended Aug. 1, compared with profit of $38.8 million on sales of $326.4 million for the comparable 2007 period. Esterline has plants in 12 states, Canada, England, France and Germany. The agreement was disclosed Nov. 18.
