CHARLOTTE – The Charlotte-headquartered publicly-traded company SPX FLOW (NYSE: FLOW) will be acquired by an affiliate entity of the private equity firm Lone Star Funds in an all-cash deal that is worth some $3.8 billion, the company announced today in a statement.

According to the company’s statement, the purchase price is a premium of almost 40% above the company’s closing stock price the day that the Wall Street Journal reported that the company had received an unsolicited purchase offer, July 16, 2021, including from Ingersoll-Rand, which operates a facility in the Charlotte area.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Lone Star, which is the result of a comprehensive review of alternatives, including a robust sale process, conducted by our Board in consultation with independent advisors,” said Robert F. Hull, Jr., Chairman of the SPX FLOW Board of Directors.  “As part of the process, SPX FLOW held discussions with multiple strategic and financial parties and evaluated the transaction against the Company’s standalone prospects, performance and outlook.”

The company noted that the transaction, once closed, will result in the company no longer being traded on any stock exchange, and is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

The company will receive $86.50 per share in cash, the statement noted.  The company’s stock began the trading day on Monday at a price of $85.52 per share.

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The company has about 5,000 global employees and more than two dozen innovation and design centers, including a new center in Dubai.  Those centers offer support to and from food technologists, product specialists, process and production engineers, electricians and other specialists, Peter Smolowitz, a company spokesperson told WRAL TechWire earlier this month.

The company’s headquarters are in Charlotte, and some 130 employees are based there, said Smolowitz.  There’s also an engineering team based in Raleigh, which Smolowitz noted works on plate heat exchangers, which are designed for manufacturers of pharmaceutical, health and personal care processes.

The company released its latest earnings report last month, at the time raising assumptions for revenue and operating margins.

The company also noted in its statement announcing the deal that it would suspend payment of the quarterly dividend, immediately.  The transaction was unanimously approved by the company’s board of directors.