Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:APOG) today announced that it has acquired 100 percent of the stock of Glassec Vidros de Segurança Ltda., the leading architectural glass fabricator in Brazil, for approximately $22 million U.S. plus assumption of approximately $2 million in debt.
The business will be called Glassec Viracon and operate as part of Apogee’s architectural glass business; its results will be reported in Apogee’s architectural segment.
“The purchase of Glassec, with annual revenues of approximately $30 million, is part of Apogee’s strategy to increase our architectural glass penetration in international markets,” said Russell Huffer, Apogee chairman and chief executive officer. “Glassec Viracon will give Apogee entrée to a large developing market for energy-efficient architectural glass products that is difficult to serve from the United States.
“We expect that the Glassec Viracon business will have operating margins consistent with our architectural segment operating margins over the cycle, and believe it could be accretive to Apogee’s earnings as early as fiscal 2012,” said Huffer. “We are pleased that the management team will remain to lead Glassec Viracon to even greater levels of performance. Glassec Viracon, which has a strategy similar to that of Viracon, focuses on serving complex commercial building projects with high-quality, energy-efficient architectural glass. It has provided glass for a number of high-profile projects in Brazil.”
“We’re pleased to be joining a financially-strong, global leader in glass fabrication,” said Dario Abrahão Farhat, general manager of Glassec Viracon. “We are looking forward to capitalizing on the synergies of the two companies and drawing on Viracon’s expertise to better serve our customers and expand our market share in Brazil and Latin America. In addition, joining the Viracon family will provide more opportunities for our employees and our customers.”
Apogee funded the acquisition from available cash. The company will provide additional information on the acquisition as part of its third quarter results conference call on December 16.
Source: http://www.apog.com/