US industrial conglomerate Honeywell has announced an all-cash agreement to acquire the LNG process technology and equipment business from Air Products for $1.81bn.
The company will leverage this acquisition to deliver an integrated range of LNG solutions to customers, combining natural gas pre-treatment and advanced liquefaction with digital automation technologies under the Honeywell Forge and Experion platforms.
Honeywell also expects the deal to strengthen its existing offerings in LNG pre-treatment.
Air Products' LNG business encompasses a portfolio that includes the design and manufacturing of CWHEs and related equipment.
With approximately 475 employees, Air Products' LNG unit is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and operates a 390,000ft² manufacturing facility in Port Manatee, Florida, where it produces CWHEs of all sizes.
For Air Products, this divestiture is a step towards concentrating on expanding its core industrial gas operations, as well as technologies and equipment that facilitate the production of clean hydrogen, aimed at decarbonising the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors.
Honeywell chairman and CEO Vimal Kapur said: "While the world continues to build the renewables-based energy infrastructure of the future, natural gas is a critical lower-emission and affordable transition fuel that will help meet ever-increasing and dynamic global energy demands.
“This highly complementary acquisition will further strengthen our energy transition portfolio, and Air Products' CWHE technology will immediately expand our installed base – creating new opportunities to compound growth in aftermarket services and digitalisation through our Honeywell Forge platform.”
Air Products' chairman, president and CEO, Seifi Ghasemi, said: “The LNG business is a great business and at its strongest point in its decades-long history thanks to the outstanding work of our people, and they will be in good hands to advance as part of Honeywell's related portfolio of technologies.”
Earlier in April 2023, Honeywell agreed to acquire Compressor Controls for $670m in cash.
Compressor Controls specialises in turbomachinery control and optimisation solutions including control hardware, software and services, primarily serving the LNG, gas processing, refining and petrochemical industries.
