Precision Castparts Acquiring McWilliams Forge

Jan. 26, 2007
Investment casting/forging group building presence in aerospace market

January 26, 2007 — Precision Castparts Corp. is acquiring privately-owned McWilliams Forge Co. Inc. for an undisclosed price. PCC, based in Portland, OR, is a holding company for a series of operations that manufacture investment castings and forgings. McWilliams produces titanium, nickel, and steel forgings for customers serving commercial and military aerospace markets. Its Rockaway, NJ, plant employs an estimated 120 people, and includes hammer and screw presses for open- and closed-die forging.

PCC's forging operations already includes Wyman-Gordon, which forges titanium, nickel-based, and steel alloy components for aerospace, industrial gas turbines, and general industrial markets, and Special Metals Corp., which supplies nickel alloys and product forms to aerospace and other industrial markets.

PCC states that it expects to complete the purchase in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year, subject to regulatory approvals, and that it will finance the transaction with cash on hand and existing credit facilities.

McWilliams is the latest in a series of recent acquisitions by Precision Castparts that are expanding its stake in the aerospace market. In late December it bought GSC Foundries Inc., which produces aluminum and steel investment castings with applications as structural components for aerospace, energy, medical, and other markets.

Earlier this month, PCC paid $300 million for Cherry Aerospace L.L.C., which manufactures aerospace rivets and blind bolts, which are structural components for commercial and military aircraft.

According to Mark Donegan, chairman and CEO of Precision Castparts, "McWilliams provides an excellent 'tuck-in' opportunity for Wyman-Gordon, producing components sized between those manufactured at our Lincoln, England, and Cleveland, OH, facilities.

"In addition to serving several major aerospace OEMs," Donegan continued, "McWilliams has done a particularly good job of establishing solid, long-term relationships with the manufacturers of smaller aircraft engines, which will extend Wyman-Gordon's customer reach. We also expect both McWilliams and our other forging operations to benefit from sharing best practices. Lastly, McWilliams' state-of-the-art screw press brings us the ability to forge different materials and different size ranges, and we look forward to increasing production volume on this asset going forward.

Donegan said each of the recent acquisitions — McWilliams, GSC, and Cherry — will become part of a different business segment, "allowing us to bring our full resources to bear in effectively integrating each in a timely manner."