Carrier Global Corp. announced Thursday that it has agreed to sell its Commercial and Residential Fire business to Dallas-based Lone Star Funds for $3 billion.
Since its acquisition of Viessman Climate Solutions in January, the divestiture is part of a continuing portfolio adjustment by Florida-based Carrier Global with the expressed goal of becoming a pure-play provider of heating, cooling and solar energy products. Carrier has already completed the sale of its Industrial Fire and Global Access businesses, and the close of its Commercial Refrigeration business is on track to close later this quarter.
“The sale of our Commercial and Residential Fire business marks a defining step in our planned business exits critical to our transformational journey,” said Carrier CEO David Gitlin.
“We now have executed deals on all our divestitures, all signed within about a year of announcement, with a combined value of over $10 billion, representing a mid-teens EBITDA multiple in aggregate,” he added.
For Carrier, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Securities provided financial advice. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Linklaters acted as outside legal counsel.
Advisors for Lone Star Funds were not disclosed, but The Deal is reporting that Kirkland & Ellis counseled on the legal side.
Lone Star, a $92 billion private equity firm founded in 1995 by U.S. expatriate billionaire John Grayken to pursue real estate investments, has been active globally in a variety of sectors in recent years, investing broadly in Canada, Western Europe, and East Asia.
In January Lone Star’s SPX Flow sold one of its portfolio companies, Hydraulic Technologies USA, to an affiliate of Wynnchurch Capital for $325 million. Lone Star had acquired SPX Flow in December 2021 for $3.8 billion. In both of those transactions Lone Star was advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Kirkland advised on the financing for the acquisition of SPX Flow.
Vinson & Elkins has also counted Lone Star as a longtime client, last year advising Lone Star in its $520 million acquisition of Carlisle Fluid Technologies. Mark Coker, Lone Star’s chief legal officer former general counsel of Lone Star’s asset management subsidiary, Hudson Advisors, was a V&E partner in London.