Manitowoc Lands Enodis 2008-07-02

The bidding war for equipment maker Enodis PLC has apparently ended with Manitowoc Company's $2.7 billion buyout offer the winner. In early May, a $2.3 billion offer from Illinois Tool Works had seemed to trump an earlier $2.1 billion offer from Manitowoc, but the offer was never presented to Enodis shareholders.

That prompted the United Kingdom Takeover Panel, a regulatory body that oversees mergers and acquisitions of British companies to set up an auction for Enodis. In that action, which is final pending regulatory approval in the U.S. and U.K. on antitrust grounds, the Manitowoc offer topped that of Illinois Tool Works. It is expected to be presented to Enodis shareholders in July and expected to close by the fourth quarter if approved by regulators.

In the U.S., Enodis is headquartered in Tampa, FL, and markets a series of prominent equipment brands including Cleveland, Convotherm, Dean, Delfield, Frymaster, Garland, KE-O-Matic, Jackson, Lincoln, Merco-Savory, Merrychef, Scotsman, US Range and Varimixer. Its revenues in its most recent fiscal year were around $1.6 billion.

Enodis is regarded as one of the world's leading suppliers of both “hot” and “cold” foodservice equipment, while Manitowoc Foodservice's focus has been only on "cold”. Hence, a combination with Enodis will allow Manitowoc to enter two major new market segments, hot foodservice and food retail equipment, as well as expand its cold-side businesses.