INDUSTRY NEWS
Berkshire Hathaway to Buy Precision Castparts for $37.2B On Aug. 10, Berkshire Hathaway,
Omaha, Neb., announced a deal to acquire Precision Castparts Corp., Portland, Ore., for $37.2 billion, in what is the biggest deal ever for Warren Buffett’s firm. “Tis takes us out of the market
for an elephant for 12 months or so ... but we will be buying a few small things in the next six months,” Buf- fett told CNBC. Berkshire offered $235 per share, a 21.2% premium for the aerospace casting giant’s previous Friday closing price of $193.88. The company’s shares were trading at $230.85 before the market opened on Monday, Aug. 10. With a stake of roughly 3%,
earlier this year. Precision Castparts gets about 70% of its sales from the aerospace industry, which has seen demand for commercial aircraft increase in recent months. “When you get a chance to buy a
The deal was Buffett’s firm’s largest.
Berkshire was already one of Preci- sion Castparts’ largest shareholders, according to regulatory filings from
wonderful company, there is usually some reason why you are getting that chance and perhaps a slump in oil and gas helps us in this case,” Buffett said. Buffett expects Berkshire to use about $23 billion of its own cash and borrow the remaining $14.2 bil- lion to finance the deal. “We will have about $40 billion
in cash once we get through this,” Buffett said. “I like to have a lot of cash at all times.”
Auto Supplier Plans to Open New Aluminum Casting Facility Kamtek, whose parent company is
Kamtek announced plans to in-
vest $530 million in an expansion of its Birmingham, Ala., operation that includes opening a new aluminum casting facility to meet automaker demands for lighter parts.
Toronto-based Magna International Inc., said the expansion project will add 354 jobs to its current Alabama workforce of more than 900. As part of its latest expansion,
Kamtek will invest $80 million in the new, 148,000-sq.-ft. alumi- num casting facility and $450 million to expand its existing operation in Birmingham’s Valley East Industrial Park by more than 200,000 sq. ft. Kamtek General Manager John
Hackett said the new aluminum casting facility and the expansion of the company’s existing plant “demonstrate our ongoing com- mitment to our customers,” which include Mercedes-Benz, Volkswa- gen and other automakers. “We are excited to continue
our partnership with the local government in creating jobs and positioning ourselves for future business,” Hackett said. Frank Ervin, director of
The new casting facility will help Kamtek produce parts for major automotive customers.
government affairs for Magna In- ternational, said Kamtek’s current operation in Jefferson County represents an investment ap- proaching $473 million. Kamtek acquired Ogihara America Corp., Howell, Mich., which opened the facility, in 2008 and has reinvest- ed heavily in the operation in the past seven years.
September 2015 MODERN CASTING | 11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60