US: Melrose to buy ventilation products maker Nortek for $2.8bn

Britain’s Melrose Industries has agreed to buy US ventilation and home security products maker Nortek or $2.81 billion, including debt, in a bet on the US construction market.

Shares in Melrose, an engineering turnaround specialist that buys firms with the aim of selling them at a profit, rose as much as 42 percent to a record 580.5 pence, as the news ended investors’ almost year-long wait for it to announce a deal.

Some analysts said the deal could be part of an emerging trend for European companies to make acquisitions in the United States, as Britain’s decision to quit the European Union unsettles markets closer to home and Asian economies falter.

“The more uncertainty and weakness there is in Europe, the more attractive the U.S. is going to look. Brexit is one more reason that the US looks relatively good to European firms,” said Jeffrey Nassof, director at Freeman Consulting Services, an investment-banking consultant.

Melrose has been scouting for an acquisition since it sold its utility consumption metering business last year, leaving it with only one business, Brush – a maker of electricity generating equipment that gets over half of its revenue from Europe.

Full Content: Reuters

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