GGRAsia – Crane Co completes US$800-mln buyout of Crane Currency

Crane Co completes US$800-mln buyout of Crane Currency

Jan 11, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Crane Co, a U.S.-based group that supplies payment and merchandising technology to the gaming industry, said on Wednesday that it had completed that day the acquisition of Crane and Co Inc – also known as Crane Currency – for US$800 million on a “cash-free and debt-free basis”.

The vendors of the 100-percent equity interest in Crane Currency are, respectively, private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg LLC, members of the “Crane family”, and other shareholders.

“We are extremely pleased to add Crane Currency to our payment and merchandising technologies business,” said Max Mitchell, president and chief executive of Crane Co, in a statement included in Wednesday’s release.

He added: “Crane Currency is the fastest-growing, fully-integrated global currency provider in the global banknote supply and security industry, and it is an excellent fit to complement our expanding presence in the currency and payment markets.”

According to a previous release issued by the suitor firm, Crane Currency was founded more than 200 years ago, and is a leading supplier of micro-optic technology, which can be used for security purposes for specialised products such as printed banknotes. According to the announcement, Crane Currency is also a supplier of “secure and highly-engineered banknotes for central banks all over the world”.

Mr Mitchell said in Wednesday’s release that he believed that the two businesses combined “will be stronger”, offering diversified products and technologies, “from substrate manufacturing and banknote design and printing to micro-optics and banknote validation”.

Crane Co said in early December – when it announced the deal – that it intended to finance the acquisition through a combination of cash on hand and additional debt.

The suitor firm said at the time that – excluding any special items on its balance sheet – the acquisition was expected to be accretive to group earnings per share (EPS) by a figure of US$0.15 in the first full year post-closing, increasing to approximately US$1.00 by 2021.