BATESVILLE, IND. — Hillenbrand, Inc. announced May 24 it has entered an agreement to acquire Schenck Process Food and Performance Materials (FPM) from Blackstone for $730 million. Hillenbrand expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.

Kansas City, Mo.-based FPM provides design, manufacturing and service capabilities for feeding, filtration, baking and materials handling systems and technologies. The company has customers in more than 150 countries and employs over 1,300 people.

According to Hillenbrand, FPM is expected to close out 2023 with $540 million in revenue and $68 million in EBITDA. Roughly 85% of FPM’s revenue is generated across North America, according to Hillenbrand.

The combination of these processing equipment and solutions providers is poised to benefit Hillenbrand’s North American footprint, its advanced processing capabilities in key markets — such as durable plastics and chemicals — and builds on attractive food end-market scale opportunities for the company’s brands, including in the pet food sector.

"With this acquisition, we further strengthen our leadership across the attractive, growing end markets of food, durable plastics and chemicals, through strong brands that enhance the breadth of our technology and service capabilities," said Kim Ryan, president and chief executive officer of Hillenbrand. "By combining the applications and systems processing expertise of our Advanced Process Solutions segment with FPM, we will be positioned to offer greater value to our customers and drive scale benefits across manufacturing, engineering, and procurement.

“Over the last twelve months, we've divested our legacy death care segment, and acquired high-quality industrial businesses that serve large, attractive end markets that are underpinned by long-term, secular growth trends,” Ryan added. “These actions have significantly transformed Hillenbrand into a global leader in highly engineered, mission-critical industrial processing solutions. I am confident this transaction further positions us to deliver compelling long-term shareholder value."

Additionally, Hillenbrand noted it has identified roughly $20 million in cost synergy opportunities across its own and FPM’s operational entities. FPM will adopt Hillenbrand’s operating model to achieve these synergies upon the acquisition’s closing.

Once the deal is finalized, the FPM business will be integrated into Hillenbrand’s Advanced Process Solutions business segment — more specifically, its Coperion Food, Health & Nutrition Division. The unification of these brands is expected to expand Coperion’s polymer portfolio and know-how in the construction materials and chemicals arenas.

“We are excited to have a partner in Coperion that shares our commitment to providing leading solutions and service to customers that exceed their needs,” said Jay Brown, president of FPM. “This acquisition provides global growth opportunities this transaction presents and I am confident that by combining our complementary strengths, we will be able to offer enhanced comprehensive processing solutions to customers around the world.”

Coperion’s Food, Health & Nutrition Division is currently comprised of Bakon, Coperion K-Tron, Diosna, Gabler Engineering, Peerless, Shaffer, Shick Esteve, Unifiller and VMI brands, which will be joined by FPM brands Baker Perkins, Kemutec, and Raymond Bartlett Snow (RBS).

“FPM’s strong brands and deep expertise directly align with the growth strategy of Coperion’s Food, Health & Nutrition Division,” said Ulrich Bartel, president of Coperion. “This acquisition builds on the momentum generated over the last twelve months as Coperion has built up its strategic strength in the food end market and expanded its footprint, enabling our team to provide more solutions to customers around the world. For our polymer, chemicals, and minerals business, this acquisition means an expansion of our existing product portfolio, and we will be able to offer our customers even better solutions.”

The pending acquisition follows Hillenbrand’s purchase of Linxis Group in October 2022, as well as its acquisition of Peerless Food Equipment in December 2022.

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