UTC to buy rest of Clipper
United Technologies Corp., a multinational firm that owns nearly half of Carpinteria-based Clipper Windpower, has reached an agreement with Clipper to buy the rest of the turbine maker.
UTC acquired 49.5 percent of Clipper in December in a deal that gave it the right to boost its stake to 55 percent in 2012 — or as soon as Clipper burned through 75 percent of UTC’s $206 million investment. Clipper executives told the Business Times earlier in October that the company had reached that milestone, giving UTC the option to take a controlling share in Clipper.
On Oct. 18 the two companies announced an agreement for United Technologies to buy the rest of Clipper for $112 million. The deal values Clipper at a total of about $220 million, a premium of about 31 percent over its closing price the day before the deal was announced. Clipper’s shares trade on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
Clipper CEO Mauricio Quintana, a United Technologies veteran who took the helm after the multinational’s first investment, told the Business Times the acquisition should have little affect on Clipper’s 200 South Coast employees.
“I don’t foresee anything changing,” Quintana said. “UTC has acquired Clipper because it likes Clipper, because it wants to grow it, not because it wants to destroy it, for lack of a better word.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated Oct. 29 with comments from Clipper’s CEO. For the complete story, see the Oct. 29 print edition of the Business Times.
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