B.F. Goodrich to Buy Coltec Industries

B.F. Goodrich Co., the former tire maker turned aerospace and specialty chemicals company, reached an agreement to acquire Coltec Industries Inc., the leading maker of aircraft controls and landing gear systems. Charlotte, N.C.-based Coltec, which also makes industrial sealing products for aerospace and general industrial markets, had sales of about $1.31 billion last year and has about $608 million in long-term debt, Goodrich said. Goodrich has annual sales of about $5.5 billion.

Goodrich said it will swap 0.56 of a share for each share of Coltec and assume an unspecified amount of debt in the deal, for a total of about $2.2 billion. Based on Goodrich’s closing price Friday of $35.94, the transaction values Coltec shares at $20.13, a 12% premium to Friday’s closing price of $17.94.

Goodrich plans to relocate its headquarters from Richfield, Ohio, to Charlotte, cutting 150 to 170 jobs in the process. It expects the combined company to achieve minimum annual costs savings of about $60 million by 2001.