Miami, FL - Watsco, Inc. has acquired an additional 10% ownership interest in Carrier Enterprise LLC, a joint venture with Carrier Corporation, a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. The transaction raises Watsco’s ownership stake to 80%. Consideration for the purchase was approximately $90 million and was paid in cash.
Carrier Enterprise was launched with Carrier in 2009. It sells a variety of products manufactured by Carrier along with approximately 25,000 SKUs of other products from 121 locations in 19 states, Puerto Rico and on an export basis to the Caribbean and portions of Latin America. Successive joint ventures were formed by Watsco and Carrier in the Northeast United States, Mexico and Canada.
Over the last five years, Carrier Enterprise has added 175 employees, opened or enhanced the physical presence of 58 locations, added new products and launched innovative technologies, which has produced sales growth, market share gains, a 570 basis-point expansion of operating margins and cumulative cash flow that exceeds net income.
Albert Nahmad, Watsco's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer said: "This marks the five year anniversary of the formation of Carrier Enterprise, which has proven to be a transformational event for our company. This collaboration between Watsco and Carrier has produced terrific results and we are happy to invest further in what has been an unqualified success for both of our companies.”
