Hitachi Making a Full-Scale Entry into the North American Industrial Air Compressor Business with Acquisition of Accudyne’s Sullair

Hitachi Ltd. and Accudyne Industries announced that the two companies have entered into an agreement regarding Hitachi’s acquisition of Accudyne’s subsidiaries and certain related assets that manufacture and sell air compressors under the “Sullair” brand.  In this transaction, in addition to the shares of Sullair US Purchaser, Inc. (Illinois, USA) and Sullair Asia Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), Hitachi will also acquire 100 percent shares of Silver II Australia Holdings Pty Ltd.  The agreed purchase price of Sullair is US$1.245 billion (approx. JPY135.7 billion).  It is subject to certain customary adjustments at effective date of the transaction.

Hitachi’s goal in this acquisition is to gain access to Sullair’s global sales network, mainly in North America.  Sullair has currently approximately 4,000 end users with 200 distributors in North America, compared with Hitachi’s approx. 200 end users with 50 distributors in the same market.  Furthermore, Hitachi will accelerate the global rollout of the Social Innovation Business, by providing Sullair’s customer base with digital solutions or IoT-compatible products, with the “Lumada” IoT platform at its core, that leverage the expertise in IT and OT which Hitachi has cultivated over many years.

As for the product business in Hitachi, air compressors have been positioned as a core business, in which the company provides high-quality, high-efficiency products mainly in Japan and Asia.  Hitachi plans to add its products to Sullair’s highly complementary product lineup, and utilize the global sales network Sullair has established, mainly in North America, and increase the scale of the air compressor business.

A Luxembourg company, Accudyne Industries Acquisition Sarl, has selected Hitachi as the best partner to ensure long-term success of Sullair given its sales network in Japan and Asia, as well as the complementary relationship.

Keywords: Industrial Air Compressor, IoT, Industrial Products, ARC Advisory Group.