HWC Buys Wire Rope Companies

Houston Wire & Cable Co., (HWC) Houston, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Southwest Wire Rope LP and Southern Wire, LLC from Teleflex Inc., Limerick, Pa. Under the terms of the agreement, the purchase price for the acquisition of both companies is $50 million, subject to an adjustment based on the net working capital of the acquired companies as of the closing date.

Southwest Wire Rope LP and Southern Wire manufacture customized heavy-duty wire rope, wire and synthetic rope assemblies and related rigging hardware products for the marine transportation, marine construction, oil drilling and materials handling markets and are part of Teleflex's Rigging Services business unit, which had combined 2009 annual revenues of approximately $80 million.

Jeffrey Black, Teleflex's chairman and CEO, said his company is selling Rigging Services as part of its strategy to divest non-medical assets. Teleflex is a global provider of medical technology products that employs approximately 12,600 people worldwide and 2009 net revenues of $1.89 billion. The company also has niche businesses that serve segments of the aerospace and commercial markets with specialty engineered products.

HWC had 2009 revenues of $254.8 million, 268 employees and 11 locations. The company ranked #26 on EW's latest ranking of the Top 200 distributors.