Lamson & Sessions acquires Ameriduct

Lamson & Sessions (Cleveland, OH) signed a definitive agreement to purchase all of the stock of Ameriduct Worldwide, Inc. (Fort Myers, FL) — a privately owned manufacturer of fiber optic conduit systems. Under the terms of the deal, Lamson will pay $54 million cash and assume about $11 million in debt, which brings the total price of the deal to $65 million.

Ameriduct, which employs approximately 110 people, has new manufacturing plants in Georgia and Missouri in addition to a distribution center in Florida. In addition, Lamson's acquisition, earlier this year, of Pyramid Industries, Inc., added plants in Pennsylvania and Arkansas which also manufacture custom fiber optic conduit systems. Both of the acquisitions complement the investment in HDPE extrusion capacity, which Lamson has made this year in its Florida, Texas and California plants.

"This transaction continues a series of actions we have taken to increase our presence in the fast-growing telecommunications infrastructure market," said John B. Schulze, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lamson & Sessions.

"Ameriduct will be a highly complementary extension of our Carlon business unit and recently acquired Pyramid Industries, which collectively offer a broad range of custom fiber optic conduit systems," Schulze added. "Ameriduct presents an exciting opportunity for Lamson as we anticipate its sales will continue to grow at double-digit rates into the foreseeable future."

In 2000, Ameriduct is on pace to achieve approximately $48 million in sales related to high-density polyethylene (HDPE) conduit systems. While Ameriduct will be integrated into Lamson, the transaction is not expected to result in any significant changes to operations and should be mildly accretive to Lamson's diluted earnings per share in 2001.

Edited by Jerry R. Borland, P.E.
Managing Editor, EC Online
jborland@vertical.net