Emerson will sell a majority stake in its Climate Technologies business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) in a $US14 billion transaction.
Emerson will receive upfront, pre-tax cash proceeds of approximately $9.5 billion while retaining a non-controlling ownership interest in a new standalone joint venture.
The standalone Climate Technologies business includes the market-leading Copeland compressor business and the entire portfolio of products and services across all HVAC and refrigeration end-markets, representing approximately $5.0 billion of fiscal 2022 sales.
The transaction marks a significant milestone in Emerson’s journey to create a higher value, cohesive industrial technology portfolio and to become a pure-play global automation company serving a diversified set of end markets.
Emerson, together with AspenTech, has the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of advanced automation technologies and software.
As a pure-play automation company, Emerson will be positioned for higher growth, with strong, differentiated capabilities to help customers pursue their sustainability and productivity objectives in process, hybrid and discrete industries.
The Emerson portfolio is aligned with many of the world’s secular growth drivers, including digital transformation, sustainability and decarbonization, and nearshoring. Following completion of the transaction, Emerson is expected to have industry leading margins, strong free cash flow generation and will continue to leverage Emerson’s management process and operating discipline.
Emerson president and CEO, Lal Karsanbhai, said today’s announcement is a definitive step in the portfolio journey the company embarked on when he became CEO in early 2021.
“Over the past 18 months, the Emerson team has accelerated our portfolio transformation, divesting non-core businesses including InSinkErator and Therm-O-Disc, while investing in organic growth opportunities and important transactions including AspenTech,” he said.
"Our journey has been with clear purpose – to drive growth and significant value creation for our shareholders by creating a leading global automation company.
"Our differentiated capabilities in intelligent devices and software, and the focus, cohesiveness and operating agility of a pure-play company, will allow Emerson to bring our comprehensive automation products and solutions to a diverse set of end markets.”
“This transaction enables Emerson to partially monetize our Climate Technologies business at an attractive valuation and provides significant upfront cash proceeds to invest in growth, while at the same time enabling Emerson to participate in Climate Technologies’ upside potential upon exit of our non-controlling position,” Karsanbhai said.
“We are excited to partner with Blackstone given its successful history of value creation in collaboration with corporate partners. We look forward to working closely with Blackstone to ensure a smooth transition for Climate Technologies’ employees and customers.”
Global head of Blackstone Private Equity, Joe Baratta, said Blackstone has a long and successful track record of large-scale corporate partnerships, a key pillar of its investment strategy.
“This is a marquee transaction for our private equity business and a testament to our ability to deliver solutions to our partners even in difficult economic and market environments,” he said.
“We are proud to be partnered with Emerson to help drive the next stage of growth for this great business.”
Emerson will receive upfront, pre-tax cash proceeds of approximately $9.5 billion and a note of $2.25 billion at close and retain 45 per cent common equity ownership of the standalone Climate Technologies business, which will be structured as a joint venture between Emerson and Blackstone, until its potential sale or IPO.
The cash consideration will be funded by $5.5 billion of fully committed debt financing ($6.2 billion inclusive of an unfunded ABL facility) and $4.4 billion of equity contribution from Blackstone.
Emerson expects to invest the proceeds from the transaction in strategic M&A to strengthen and diversify its automation portfolio in four targeted adjacent markets, which will be discussed at Emerson’s investor conference on November 29, 2022.
Emerson also expects to continue to return cash to shareholders through share repurchases, expected to be approximately $2 billion in 2023, and its dividend.