Halma kicks off £100m acquisition programme

3rd Nov 2010 14:38

Safety equipment group Halma has acquired US firm Alicat Scientific for a cash consideration of $25.2m. Alicat, a privately-owned business in Tucson, Arizona, designs and manufactures mass flow meters and controllers. For the financial year ended September 2010, Alicat made an operating profit of $3.2m (£2m). Broker Panmure Gordon applauded the purchase. "Halma has kicked off its £100m acquisition programme with a £15.7m bolt-on deal in the Fluid Technology space. At 8x EBIT [earnings before interest and tax] it has not overpaid for a high quality target with global market opportunities, in our view. Estimates are left unchanged but the overall [acquisition] programme will lead to revisions," the broker forecast.