Halma acquires Alicat Scientific
Fluid technology group of multinational company purchases instrument manufacturer
Halma, a safety, health and sensor technology group, has acquired Alicat Scientific, a privately owned manufacturer of mass flow and pressure technology, for £15.7m in cash. The Tucson, Arizona, US-based firm will join Halma’s health and analysis sector within its global group of fluid technology businesses.
Andrew Williams, chief executive of Halma, based in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK, said: ‘Alicat adds new technologies and end market applications to our fluid technology businesses, which currently focus on fluid flow via precision miniature tubing assemblies, connectors and valves.’
He added that the deal would provide ‘new cross-selling opportunities’ and the Halma hubs in Asia would help Alicat accelerate its recent sales growth in this region.
Founded in 1991, Alicat uses differential pressure measurement in its products, speeding response times by as much as 1000 times over that of competing temperature-based measurement technology. The company’s mass flow devices are used in medical and scientific instrumentation, as well as specialist industrial applications for high-precision measurement of gas and liquid flows. Products include mass and liquid flow meters and controllers; pressure controllers; digital pressure and vacuum gauges; portable flow meters; calibration standards; and software and accessories.
Halma is a holding company of 36 subsidiaries globally. The company’s business groups focus on industrial safety, health and analysis and infrastructure sensors. Alicat joins the fluid technology sector of the health and analysis business group.
Alicat shares a number of key customers and market niches with new sister companies Bio-Chem Fluidics, Diba Industries and Perma Pure.
‘Alicat has been competing for market space against much larger organisations with much deeper pockets,’ said Alicat president David Lashbrook.
‘Joining Halma provides tangible resources to allow us to gain more ground in the marketplace.’
