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Meyer Steel Structures serves North American utilities with engineered steel mono pole structures for power transmission & distribution. It will now be part of Trinity Industries' Energy Equipment Group.
Meyer Steel Structures serves North American utilities with engineered steel mono pole structures for power transmission & distribution. It will now be part of Trinity Industries' Energy Equipment Group.
Meyer Steel Structures serves North American utilities with engineered steel mono pole structures for power transmission & distribution. It will now be part of Trinity Industries' Energy Equipment Group.
Meyer Steel Structures serves North American utilities with engineered steel mono pole structures for power transmission & distribution. It will now be part of Trinity Industries' Energy Equipment Group.
Meyer Steel Structures serves North American utilities with engineered steel mono pole structures for power transmission & distribution. It will now be part of Trinity Industries' Energy Equipment Group.

ABB Sells T&B’s Meyer Steel Structures to Trinity Industries for $600 Million

July 11, 2014
When ABB, Zurich, Switzerland announced its intentions late last month to sell the Meyer Steel Structures business of Thomas & Betts for $600 million to Trinity Industries, it was the second divestiture in the past few months of a T&B business unit that didn't have primary business focus on the mainstream electrical market.

When ABB, Zurich, Switzerland announced its intentions late last month to sell the Meyer Steel Structures business of Thomas & Betts, Memphis, Tenn., for $600 million to Trinity Industries Inc., Dallas, a diversified manufacturer of rail cars and railroad equipment and steel products for the liquified natural gas (LNG) and other industries, it was the second divestiture of a T&B business unit in the past few months that didn’t have primary business focus on the mainstream electrical market.

ABB said T&B’s Meyer Steel Structures business had “limited synergies with ABB’s core portfolio,” and that the sale would allow T&B to focus on growth in its core portfolio of electrical products. ABB sold T&B’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) business in March for $260 million in an all-cash transaction to Nortek, Inc Providence, R.I., because of those same “limited synergies.”

Meyer Steel Structures serves North American utilities with engineered steel mono pole structures for power transmission & distribution. Headquartered in Memphis, the company employs more than 1,100 people at factories in Alabama, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

Established over 85 years ago, the company is one of North America’s leading providers of tubular steel structures for electricity transmission and distribution. Meyer’s products include engineered poles, H-frames, light duty poles and substation structures, provided to customers with integrated design, engineering, manufacturing, and delivery.

On a stand-alone basis, Meyer is expected to record full-year 2014 revenues of approximately $325 million. Trinity will report revenue and earnings from Meyer upon completion of the transaction, and its operating results will be included Trinity’s Energy Equipment Group, which had LTM (last twelve months) revenues of $721 million through March 31.

Meyers is joining a diversified industrial manufacturer that reports its financial results in five principal business segments: the Rail Group, the Railcar Leasing and Management Services Group, the Inland Barge Group, the Construction Products Group, and the Energy Equipment Group. Trinity reported total LTM (Last Twelve Months) revenues through March 31 of $4.89 billion.

Trinity has had a great run on Wall Street in recent months in part because it has a major focus on rail cars and liquefied natural gas (LNG), two hot markets. The company is a leading manufacturer of railcars, and is also a leading manufacturer of equipment used to store and transport liquefied gases, and has a sizeable business in producing structural wind towers. Trinity has attracted lots of attention from Wall Street analysts for the growth of its railcar business. The company delivered 25,995 railcars (47% of industry shipments) during for the 12-month period ending March 31, and received orders for 27,360 railcars (41% of the industry total) during this time period.