April 18th, 2007
ITRI: Itron Closes Deal Quickly. Was the Meter Running?
Itron Completes Acquisition of Actaris Metering Systems: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Itron, Inc. (ITRI) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Actaris Metering Systems (Actaris) for EUR 800 million plus the retirement of debt, or $1.7 billion.
Announced just six weeks ago, the deal closed in record time. As we noted at the time, the deal is being financed primarily with new debt, but Itron generates strong cash flow and will be adding more from Actaris, so it shouldn’t be a big problem. As a result, doubling income while increasing the share count by just 15% seems like a pretty good deal for existing shareholders.
We still think so.
Like this article? Why not try out:
[…] Itron (ITRI) - risk to estimates in both directions due to Actaris acquisition […]
[…] That “unfortunate” lack of real disclosure is why investors generally should be wary of auditor changes even when no disagreements are noted. However, the acquisition of Actaris meant that one of the two auditors would be let go, and while it is a bit of a surprise that the parent company’s auditor lost out I don’t consider it particularly alarming. Instead, it will be more important to monitor the future filings for any changes to accounting methods or assumptions that may be made. Those can then be evaluated on a case by case basis. […]