Acquisitions improve Linamar’s products

Article Excerpt

LINAMAR CORP. $57 (Toronto symbol LNR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 64.8 million; Market cap: $3.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 0.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.linamar.com) has agreed to buy California Forge Co.’s highvolume hot-forging business. It is also buying 66% of Germany’s Seissenschmidt AG, which also specializes in hot forging. These purchases will improve Linamar’s ability to make specialized parts, such as gears, wheel bearings, hubs and sprockets. That will make its transmissions and powertrains perform better by cutting noise, vibration and excess weight. The company didn’t say how much it is paying for these businesses. However, they should add $450 million to its annual sales of $4.0 billion. Linamar is a buy. buy…