Shares in Chloride Group (LON:CHLD) were up an impressive 16.8% today after it announced that it had agreed an £860m takeover by Swiss engineering group ABB (NYSE:AB) who is seeking to integrate the business in order to meet the growing demand for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
Chloride's UPS offering is used in applications where power quality and security are critically important. This includes ABB's traditional utilities and industrial customer base such as the oil, gas, and petrochemicals industry as well as new sectors in service industries such as data centers, financial institutions, hospitals and airports. Chloride will be integrated into ABB's Discrete Automation and Motion division.
The boards have agreed a price of 325p per share and Chloride shareholders will also be entitled to receive a final dividend of 3.3p per share. The acquisition is subject to approval by Chloride shareholders, the UK High Court and certain regulatory authorities. ABB chief executive Joe Hogan said:
"The combination of Chloride's strong position in the fast-growing medium to high-power UPS business with ABB's global reach and complementary power and automation offering provides significant growth opportunities for both businesses."
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