Siebe seals NAF valve group deal

SIEBE, the engineering company, reinforced its claim to be Europe's leading control valve maker with the pounds 21m purchase of the NAF Group, Sweden's top manufacturer of valves and valve systems.

NAF makes industrial control valves, actuators and positioners for process industries, particularly paper and pulp, and the energy sector, including power stations and district heating. It manufactures in Sweden and Finland and has offices in Denmark, Norway, Austria and the UK.

NAF, which employs 300, made profits of pounds 2.3m on pounds 28m sales. The company will form part of Foxboro Eckhardt Europe.

In November, Siebe raised pounds 184m partly to pay for Eckhardt, a German maker of process automation and control systems, in a two-stage deal valuing the target at pounds 84m.

Alan Yurko, Siebe's managing director and chief executive officer, said the group's acquisition policy had always been to add companies that are a strategic fit and to do so in a way that brought increased market share and new products.

'Our three purchases in 1993 - Eberle, Schmidt and Eckhardt - did just that and this latest acquisition continues the process by further enhancing our control valve and actuator lines while adding heating valves to Siebe Control System's portfolio.'