Pittsburgh Corning to be acquired for $560 million
Pittsburgh Corning, the Plumbased maker of commercial and industrial insulation, has agreed to be acquired by Owens Corning for $560 million.
Owens Corning, a leader in the insulation industry, is based in Toledo, Ohio, and also makes roofing and fiberglass products.
The cash deal is expected to close before the end of the year.
The acquisition “will provide a tremendous opportunity to better serve our customers, grow our business and enhance career opportunities for our employees,” said Jim Kane, chairman, president and chief executive of Pittsburgh Corning.
The company has 1,100 employees worldwide, including about 60 at its headquarters. Sales last year were more than $240 million.
Created in 1937 as a joint venture of PPG and Corning Inc., the company last year emerged from 16 years under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
It filed for bankruptcy under the weight of hundreds of thousands of personal injury claims filed by people who said the asbestos that Pittsburgh Corning made in the 1960s and 1970s caused deadly cancers.
Since it exited bankruptcy last year, Pittsburgh Corning has been owned by a trust valued at $3.5 billion that was created to pay out the claims. PPG and Corning are funding that trust.
The trust will continue to administer the existing and future claims, said Chuck Hartlage, a spokesman for Owens Corning.
Pittsburgh Corning stopped making its signature glass block windows last year. That move involved shuttering its plant in Port Allegany, McKean County.
It operates plants in Missouri, Texas, Belgium, the Czech Republic and China.
Owens Corning reported sales of $5.7 billion last year and employs about 16,000.
Julian Francis, president of the Toledo company’s insulation business, said the purchase of Pittsburgh Corning will help to further expand Owens Corning’s market in Europe and Asia.