DAVIDSON, NC — Ingersoll Rand Inc., a global provider of mission-critical flow creation and industrial solutions, has entered into an agreement to acquire Maximus, a provider of digital controls and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) production management systems for the agritech market. The all-cash transaction, valued at $110 million, is expected to close in Q3 upon obtaining required regulatory approvals. Upon transaction close, Maximus will join the PST segment.
“Smart, connected products, digital capabilities and technology are core to our growth and today’s announcement delivers on our commitment to deploy capital in pursuit of this strategy,” said Vicente Reynal, chief executive officer of Ingersoll Rand. “Maximus has built significant expertise in controls and IIoT technology that aligns well with Ingersoll Rand and our current brands. Leveraging Ingersoll Rand Execution Excellence (IRX) will help drive additional innovation and significant synergies with Dosatron and other PST brands. This acquisition is expected to generate significant value for our stockholders.”
The Maximus System is a centralized controller and IIoT platform which connects to farm devices and simplifies facility management. The System tracks the state of farm infrastructure and automates tasks based on artificial intelligence (AI) logic. Based in Montreal, Canada, Maximus has approximately 100 employees and annual revenue of approximately CAD$40 million. The company has experienced greater than 30% revenue CAGR over the past five years, and is expecting strong double-digit growth over the next five years. In 2021 Maximus is expected to achieve Adjusted EBITDA margins in line with current PST segment levels, and Ingersoll Rand expects to achieve meaningful margin improvement and a high single-digit post-synergy EBITDA multiple (excluding flow through from organic growth) by the end of year three of ownership.
“Our Dosatron brand is a worldwide leader in animal health and irrigation markets with its energy-efficient, water-powered dosing technology and now we will offer a fully connected solution for customers when we add it to the Maximus digital controller system,” said Nick Kendall-Jones, president of the Precision and Science Technologies segment. “The agritech market is expected to grow double digits annually over the next five years and with a large opportunity for market penetration and little to no customer overlap, we believe we have a winning strategy to leverage both Dosatron and Maximus channels to drive growth.”
Maximus brings extensive knowledge in animal health applications and its products can be used in other critical applications of the agritech market, including greenhouse (indoor irrigation) and industrial and rural water treatment markets in conjunction with the existing Ingersoll Rand PST product lines of ARO® and Milton Roy.
Nizar Barrou and André Spilmann, owners of Maximus, commented, “Improving the global performance of farms and the welfare of animals through technological innovations directly fits with Ingersoll Rand’s strategic imperative to Operate Sustainably. The dedicated people in our company embody Ingersoll Rand’s value of thinking and acting like owners, so it is a natural fit to leverage Dosatron’s market leadership with the Maximus controls and IIoT expertise. We look forward to expanding Maximus into additional PST brands and across the Ingersoll Rand portfolio.”
Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. is serving as legal counsel to Ingersoll Rand and Société d'avocats DEXAR Inc. and Varnum LLP are serving as legal counsel to Maximus.
