Paintmaker Valspar (VAL) will soon have a new subsidiary.
On Tuesday, Minneapolis-based Valspar announced a definitive agreement to acquire Italy's Inver Holding S.r.l. (Inver Group), a leading industrial coatings manufacturer in Europe. CEO Gary Hendrickson explained that the acquisition is "consistent with the growth strategy for our industrial coatings business," and said it will significantly strengthen Valspar's "position in the large and attractive European coatings market and provides operational synergies with our existing operations."
At $200 million in annual sales, Inver's business is just 5% of Valspar's, but the transaction size is still significant. Financial terms were not disclosed, but if Inver cost anything like Valspar's own valuation of 1.6 times sales, it could have been worth upwards of $320 million.
Valspar's purchase is expected to close in Q4 of this year.
