Stanley Black & Decker to buy Boeing supplier for $1.5B

PHOTO | Robert Benson Photography Stanley Black & Decker's New Britain headquarters.

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By Sean Teehan

New Britain toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker said Wednesday that it will acquire Boeing supplier Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing LLC (CAM) for up to $1.5 billion.

However, Stanley said $200 million of the purchase price for the California-based maker of aircraft fittings, hardware and fasteners will be contingent on Boeing’s 737 Max airplane going back into service, and the company meeting certain production goals, Stanley CEO Jim Loree said in an earnings call Wednesday morning.

Max airplanes were grounded last year after two crashes killed 346 people raising concerns about the aircraft's safety.

“[CAM] is an ideal platform asset to scale within our Engineered Fastening business and significantly adds to our exposure in the high growth, high margin aerospace and defense segment,” Loree said.

Stanley on Wednesday also announced it recorded $199 million in fourth-quarter profits, or $1.32 per diluted share, compared with a $106 million loss in the year-ago period.

Its net sales during the quarter were up 2% to $3.7 billion, compared with $3.6 billion a year earlier.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.16 per share, according to the Associated Press.

Stanley’s full-year 2019 profits reached $956 million, or $6.35 per diluted share. That’s up 58% from 2018, when Stanley posted $605 million, or 3.99 per diluted share.

The higher profits came a few months after Stanley announced it’s cutting $200 million in costs, through layoffs and the possible shuttering of some operations.

During Wednesday’s earnings call, Loree also announced an upcoming initiative to revitalize the Black & Decker brand, though the CEO remained tight-lipped about the details, other than that it will be headed up by Jeff Ansell, who Loree announced Wednesday will now serve as Stanley’s president of Stanley’s tools and storage group.

“How much of that we want to share right now is not very much,” Loree said. “We’re not disclosing a whole lot right now, but it’s a big opportunity.”