American ITT acquires Brazilian company to sell pumps to oil and gas sector
Valor Econômico
The American multinational ITT makes US$ 3 billion selling industrial pumps for water or other fluids worldwide. In Brazil, where it operated only by means of sales representatives, it ended this week its first acquisition, acquiring the Canberra Pumps plant, installed in Salto (SP), with 90 employees and earnings of R$ 19 million (US$ 10.6 million) last year.
The idea of ITT is to invest in the unit to introduce new items to the portfolio, increase the capacity of the plant and take its products to the promising markets of oil, gas and mining. Besides gaining new products, Canberra Pumps, with an installed base of 20 thousand pumps in operation, will be turned into a post-sale unit - that is, maintenance - for the ITT pumps. So far, the production of the plant of Salto catered only to the chemical, pulp and paper, and steel industries and sanitation companies.
Canberra will give ITT a manufacturing base here, required to enter in some markets - such as those on the radar of the company. "The growth engine of our unit here will be the oil and gas industry", says Miguel Otarola, Managing Director of ITT for Latin America.
The conglomerate of ITT, which also operates in the production of information and control system in the fields of defense and transports, earned US$ 11 billion last year. The goal of the company is to double such number within five years, which will demand great investment in the emerging countries.
Headquartered in Chile, Miguel Otarola says Brazil is the main focus of the company in the region, and the purchase of Canberra Pumps was the first major investment here. The management of the Brazilian unit shall be taken over by the also Chilean Executive Johnny Sepulveda. But according to Otarola, the idea is to have Brazilian staff in the operation.