Electrical and controls giant Honeywell has reached an agreement with Novar plc's board of directors to acquire Novar, which contains MK Electric, ADE and Bardic among many other big brand names in the UK electrical industry:
David Cole, Chairman and CeO of Honeywell, commented: "We are delighted to reach agreement with the board of Novar to acquire what we believe is an important asset to us in our further expansion into the European market. Novar's IBS division fits perfectly into our growth strategy."
Follows hostile bid:
This news follows the recent hostile bid for Novar by Melrose, the acquisition vehicle created by former Hanson executive Chris Miller, which the Novar Board rejected. It was reported that Novar's management was prepared to break the business up rather than accept Melrose's 145p / share offer, which it regarded as being too low.
It was then rumoured that General Electric, the American industrial giant, was likely to enter the bidding war for Novar. Moreover, GE was not the only one interested; Schneider Electric, Honeywell and Siemens AG were all reported to be interested, and Novar shares rose at the news. These potential bidders all had big enough resources to mount an outright takeover bid, but it is likely that they were most interested in the building controls subsidiary, Novar Intelligent Building Systems (Novar IBS). The Indalex Aluminum Solutions organisation was also thought to be a good fit with at least one of these potential bidders. In the end, it seems that Honeywell has been successful.
Novar's IBS business is one of several Group companies affected. Novar IBS has a number of brands well known in the UK electrical industry, including MK Electric, ADE, Ackermenn, Friedland and Bardic. Other group brands include Gent, Esser and Novar Controls, as well as Brand Rex.
Novar IBS supplies almost £600m of products and services to the worldwide construction industry. Employing approximately 7,000 people, this sector has outlets for sales and added value services in over 30 countries from North America through Europe and the Middle East to India, S.E. Asia and China. The products offered relate to electrical and data connections, as well as high technology solutions for fire detection and alarm, access control, energy management and environmental controls.