Honeywell reported July 28 that it's agreed to buy the Elster division of Melrose Industries plc for about $5.1 billion in first quarter 2016. With estimated sales of $1.8 billon for 2015, Elster is a leading provider of thermal gas solutions for industrial, commercial and residential heating systems; gas, water and electricity meters, including smart meters and software and data analytics solutions; and flow computers and regulators for the gas industry. Elster has about 6,800 employees in the U.S., Germany, U.K. and Slovakia, and it maintains an installed base with more than 200 million metering modules deployed in the last 10 years.
"This acquisition will allow us to improve customer value with technologies and lifecycle management solutions for industrial end users served by Honeywell's environmental combustion and controls and process solutions businesses," says Dave Cote, Honeywell's chairman and CEO. "Elster's gas business offers products in high demand among natural gas customers and brings a strong, global distribution network and numerous cross-selling opportunities for existing Honeywell technologies to new customers in both developed and high-growth regions."
