Weir expands mining offer through Trio deal

Engineering firm Weir said it was expanding its product offering in the minerals market with the $220m acquisition of Trio, a crushing and separation equipment business.

The companies have entered into an agreement for Weir Minerals to buy the Chinese-American firm, funded from existing bank facilities.

Weir, which provides pumping equipment to the mining mill circuit that separates rock from ore, believes the deal will give it more to offer its mining customers, building on its recent entry into comminution services (crushing, grinding and screening).

Trio is based in Shanghai where it has two manufacturing plants, but also has facilities in North America where 31% of its revenues are generated.

The transaction will be accretive to earnings immediately and beats Weir's cost of capital in the first year of ownership. Integration costs are expected to total $10m over a two-year period.

"We'll use our group's unrivaled global capability to promote Trio's range of complementary products, extending our addressable market and offering our mining customers a wider range of highly engineered equipment and services," said chief executive Keith Cochrane.

"Trio's established manufacturing capability and its scale and presence in aggregates markets also provides a further platform for growth."

Weir expects the deal to complete before the end of the month.