Price Pfister in late stages of sale process with UBS

This article is provided to FT.com readers by mergermarket—a news service focused on providing actionable, origination intelligence to M&A professionals. www.mergermarket.com
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Price Pfister, the Lake Forest, California-based plumbing fixtures subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK), is in a sale process through UBS, a source familiar and two industry sources told mergermarket.

The source familiar and the first source, an industry banker, said the process is in the late stages, and the company likely has attracted a lot of PE buyers and foreign strategics. The second industry source agreed that foreign strategics were likely to be interested because “it seems like a well-run business.”

Officials from Stanley and UBS either did not return calls or declined to comment.

“Even in a depressed market I’d imagine a fair amount of interest in that brand,” agreed a third source, another industry banker, though he said he had not heard the Southern California-based business was for sale. “My understanding is it’s been a nice business for them,” the banker added.

The first source cautioned that Price Pfister does not have as strong a market position as Delta or Moen. Any buyer would be wary of the danger that one of the big home products retailers could cut out the brand in an effort to streamline offerings, the first source explained. At the same time, however, overseas strategics might be interested in Price Pfister as a way to get access to US-based retail channels for their products, the source said.

The business is worth around USD 200-USD 300m, the source familiar said. Pfister has a 2% share of the global plumbing market. It maintains that it is No. 5 in the US with an 8% to 10% share behind Moen and Delta, Kohler and American Standard, the report said.

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