U.S. casket maker Hillenbrand Inc will purchase Coperion Capital GmbH, a German maker of material handling equipment, for 408 million euros ($528 million) in its biggest acquisition yet, moving further away from its struggling core business.The deal will immediately add to Hillenbrand's earnings, excluding one-time costs, and the company will start getting most of its revenue from the industrial markets.Coperion makes compounding and bulk material handling equipment for the chemical, food processing, mineral and pharmaceutical industries. The deal value includes debt and pension liabilities."Their strategy is to use the cash flow from the casket business to diversify and grow into other niche industrial businesses with a higher growth profile," said Daniel Moore, an analyst with CJS Securities.
Hillenbrand, Inc. (Hillenbrand) is the parent holding company of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Batesville Services, Inc. Shares of HI traded higher by 4.02% or $0.75/share to $19.39. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $16.75 and as high as $24.18. On average, 215957 shares of HI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 330102.
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