Key transactions & industry news Weekly Update 11/27/2024
Recent M&A Transactions
Metals & Mining
Nov. 25, 2024 – Peabody announced it has agreed to acquire world-class steelmaking coal assets from Anglo American in a transaction that meaningfully accelerates Peabody’s strategy to reweight its global coal portfolio toward seaborne metallurgical coal. The transaction is expected to close mid-2025. Peabody has agreed to pay cash of $2,320 million, comprised of cash of $1,695 million at closing and deferred payments of $625 million and also agreed to further contingent payments of up to $1.0 billion, subject to potential favorable future events. (PRNewswire)
Nov. 25, 2024 – Vulcan Spring & Manufacturing Co., a leading provider of custom-engineered spring solutions specializing in high-quality springs and assemblies for diverse industries—including Aerospace & Defense, Medical Devices, and Retail Display applications announced the acquisition of Gardner Spring, Inc., a trusted name in the manufacturing of high-quality stock springs since 1907. This strategic acquisition broadens Vulcan’s product offerings and strengthens its ability to deliver exceptional spring solutions across diverse industries. (KXAN)
Nov. 20, 2024 – Webco Group Holdings Inc., Olathe, Kan., has acquired Winfield, Mo.-based BMF Metal Fabrication LLC, a provider of precision-fabricated products of steel, aluminum, and stainless steel. The company’s capabilities include sheet and plate laser cutting, precision forming, MIG and TIG welding, spot welding, light machining, hardware insertion, powder coating, plating, and assembly. (TheFabricator)
Nov. 18, 2024 – Carolina Metals Group (CMG), with locations in Dallas and Grover, North Carolina, and Spartan Recycling Group, Spartanburg, South Carolina, will merge their respective scrap metal processing businesses in a transaction expected to close Jan. 1, 2025. The new entity will be known as Southeast Recycling Group (SRG). (Recycling Today)
Transportation & Logistics
Nov. 25, 2024 – Schneider National announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cowan Systems for $390 million. The deal will significantly expand Schneider’s dedicated unit. Schneider also entered separate agreements to acquire $31 million of Cowan’s real estate assets. Baltimore-based Cowan is a 100-year-old dedicated truckload carrier serving the retail, food and beverage, industrial and building materials verticals with a fleet of over 1,800 trucks and 7,500 trailers. It also has a contracted carrier network with 500 owner-operators. (FreightWaves)
Nov. 22, 2024 – Specialized transportation provider Kenan Advantage Group (KAG) announced that it has acquired dry bulk hauler PRM Trucking. Michigan-based PRM operates a fleet of 39 tractors and 91 trailers with a staff of 33 drivers and a 12-person operations team. The carrier specializes in the transloading, storage and transportation of lime and sand across the Midwest. (FreightWaves)
Building Products & Materials
Nov. 25, 2024 – Summit Materials, Inc., a leading producer of aggregates and cement, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Quikrete Holdings, Inc. for $52.50 per share in cash, for a total enterprise value of approximately $11.5 billion, including debt. The transaction price represents an approximately 36% premium to Summit’s unaffected 90-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) and an approximately 29% premium to Summit’s unaffected share price. The combination has been unanimously approved by the Summit and Quikrete Boards of Directors. (PRNewswire)
Energy
Nov. 24, 2024 – ONEOK, Inc. and EnLink Midstream, LLC announced that they have executed a definitive merger agreement under which ONEOK will acquire all of the outstanding publicly held common units of EnLink for $4.3 billion in ONEOK common stock. (PRNewswire)
Others
Nov. 25, 2024 – Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital will take CI Financial private in a C$12.1 billion ($8.66 billion) all-cash deal, including debt. Shares of CI Financial jumped about 30% to hover around Mubadala’s offer price of C$32 per share, which represents a more than 33% premium to the stock’s Friday close. The share jump indicates investor confidence in the deal, which CI Financial said will support its expansion in the United States, where it operates as Corient. (Reuters)
Top News Stories
Metals & Mining
President-elect Donald Trump reaffirms tariff plans on social media, targeting aluminium and steel industries. Canada and Mexico are the United States’ two most significant trading partners as the largest suppliers of aluminium and steel. The United States heavily depends on imported aluminium, with 60 per cent coming from Canada. Mexico and Canada are also notable steel suppliers to the US, with the former contributing 15 per cent and the latter accounting for 25 per cent of the United States’ total steel imports. Besides a 25 per cent tariff on Mexico and Canada, Trump also plans to impose an additional 10 per cent duty on all products sourced from China. In September this year, the US government already declared a 25 per cent higher tariff on Chinese aluminium, steel, electric vehicle batteries, and other critical minerals. In response to this, the Chinese government recently cancelled export tax rebates on aluminium and copper, which is expected to flame up further deterioration in US-China trade relations.
The US increased rolled steel imports by 8.6% m/m in October. In October 2024, US steel enterprises increased imports of rolled steel products by 8.6% compared to September this year, to 1.84 million tons. This is evidenced by data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Total imports of steel (rolled and semi-finished products) increased by 12% over the month compared to September – to 2.39 million tons. Galvanized steel accounted for the largest volume of imports, amounting to 241 thousand tons (-9.6% m/m). Finished products accounted for 76.9% of total imports.
Transportation & Logistics
US warns of cyber threat from China container cranes. The U.S. Coast Guard issued an additional warning to American ports of potential security risks posed by container cranes made in China. The new MARSEC Directive 105-5 sets out additional cyber risk management requirements for ship-to-shore cranes made by Chinese companies. The directive follows a previous mandate for security measures issued in February.
Mediation for Montreal port labor talks. Port of Montreal employers and union dockworkers have mutually agreed to mediation in their contract negotiations. Employers on Nov. 10 locked out workers after CUPE rejected a final contract offer. That capped months of intermittent job actions by the union that operators of the port’s four container terminals said had hurt business to the point they were forced to lay off some employees. Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon asked CIRB to end lockouts at Montreal and British Columbia ports and send the dispute to binding arbitration.
Energy
US oil firms unlikely to go ‘drill, baby, drill’ under Trump, says Exxon executive. U.S. oil and gas producers are unlikely to radically increase production under president-elect Donald Trump as companies remain focused on capital discipline, a senior executive at Exxon Mobil said on Tuesday. “A radical change (in production) is unlikely because the vast majority, if not everybody, is focused on the economics of what they’re doing,” he said.
Others
The US labor market has become ‘low-hire, low-fire.’ The US labor market entered a new gear in the second half of 2024. Low-hire, low-fire. Job openings for the month of September fell to their lowest level since January 2021 while the quits rate, a sign of confidence among workers, also dropped to 1.9% from a revised 2% in August. The number of open jobs per unemployed worker stood at 1.09.
About RJM
RJM & Company is a specialized M&A and capital markets advisory investment bank. We provide boards and management teams of public and private companies with independent advice and expertise in a variety of sectors including road, rail and marine transportation, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, metals and mining, manufacturing, building materials, and other coverage areas of the industrial complex. RJM advises clients on all aspects of transactions including timing, structure, and pricing. RJM originates opportunities and helps negotiate and execute transactions already under evaluation.