Rockwell Collins Closes $8.6B B/E Aerospace Buy in Product Portfolio Diversification Push

Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) has wrapped up its purchase of airline cabin equipment provider B/E Aerospace (Nasdaq: BEAV) for approximately $8.6 billion in a push to diversify and expand its product portfolio and accelerate its global growth initiatives.

The companies originally disclosed the $6.4 billion cash-and-stock transaction in October 2016 and Rockwell Collins assumed approximately $2.2 billion in debt from Wellington, Florida-based B/E Aerospace, bringing the deal™s total amount to $8.6 billion, Rockwell Collins said Thursday.

Rockwell Collins completed the acquisition a month after shareholders at both firms approved the deal.

Werner Lieberherr, former president and CEO of B/E Aerospace, will serve as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the newly formed interior systems business at Rockwell Collins and will report directly to Kelly Ortberg, chairman, president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based avionics contractor.

Rockwell Collins estimates that the number of its employees will increase to nearly 30,000 and annual revenue will exceed $8 billion as a result of the acquisition.

The company also expects the transaction to realize approximately $160 million in pre-tax cost synergies, be double-digit accretive to FY 2018 earnings per share and realize 90 percent of cost synergies by the end of FY 2019.

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