Big things are afoot in the fastener industry. According to several news reports last week, Stanley Black & Decker Acquires Infastech, a Hong Kong-based fastener manufacturer, for $850 million…in cash. Infastech makes engineered mechanical fasteners – in fact, they are one of the world’s largest companies that does so and they cater to the industrial, electronics, automotive, construction, and aerospace industries. The company had a half a billion in revenues last year, and employs around 2000 people. Also, over 50% of their revenues were generated in the growing Asia-Pacific region. While you may be unfamiliar with the parent company name, if you’re in the industry (or the region), you’ll have heard of some of their brands: Avdel, ELCO, and iForm.
Stanley Black & Decker Acquires Infastech
So why is Stanley Black & Decker interested? Well, the company reportedly seeks to combine the powers of Infastech with Emhart, its own engineered fastening product line. If all goes according to plan, the combined business could take in 40% of its revenues from the Asia-Pacific region. That’s an enormous market that only looks like it will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. The combined engineered fastening group is slated to bring in approximately 50% of its revenues from the automotive industry, 33% from industrial fastening applications, and 20% from what it calls “high-growth verticals”, like electronics.
But what’s really interesting is the fact that Powers Fasteners was just acquired by Stanley Black & Decker just a month ago. That acquisition was about enabling the company to provide a comprehensive tool and anchoring package to the industry – this according to Jeff Powers, CEO of Powers Fasteners. The idea is that Stanley Black & Decker tools will be spec’d into commercial contracts alongside fastening products. Its a massively important business move and seeing this latest acquisition, we have to wonder if this is a similar move in the Asia-Pacific region. If so, it’s equally genius.
Stanley Black & Decker expects to close the Infastech purchase during the fourth quarter of 2012.
