Global Carrier Corp. says it plans to split its fire, security and commercial refrigeration assets into individual properties to be placed on the market by fall.
It was April when Carrier announced it would exit from those businesses to focus on being a “world leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions.” At that time Carrier planned to exit the Fire and Security and Commercial Refrigeration businesses during 2024.
During an earnings call last Friday, Carrier CEO David Gitlin said all three entities would be divestitures, with commercial refrigeration and security on the market shortly after Labor Day and the fire business about a month later.
Gitlin says the company is still weighing all its options for the commercial and residential fire pieces, as they could take “a whole bunch of different forms. But right now, we're focused primarily on those first three to make progress and try to get signed executed deals here in the coming months on those.”
The Fire and Security portion of Carrier includes the Kidde residential fire brand; Edwards and GST commercial fire brand; and Autronica, Marioff, Det-Tronics industrial fire brands. The security brands include Lenel S2, Onity and Supra.
The deal did not include Carrier’s UTEC controls business for residential HVAC customers, or Carrier Transicold's transport refrigeration, Profroid mechanical systems or Sensitech monitoring businesses.
Separately, Gitlin said an independent board is proceeding with the sale of Kidde Fenwal Inc., a separate Delaware corporation that operates a range of industrial fire suppression and detection businesses. Carrier inherited KFI’s stock in 2020 when it was spun off from Raytheon Technologies.
KFI, which owned and operated the National Foam business line from 2007 to 2013, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May after being named as a defendant in more than 4,000 lawsuits related to firefighting foam contamination around U.S. airports and military bases. KFI has disputed the liabilities.
KFI is seeking a buyer for its businesses, noting that its liability in the litigation will exceed its capacity to pay. Carrier told KFI in March that it would not support KFI financially in the face of KFI’s potential Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) liabilities.
All the net proceeds from the sale of KFI will be available to pay AFFF liabilities and other claims as judicially determined during the Chapter 11 case. All AFFF litigation against KFI was automatically stayed upon the bankruptcy filing.
“It's our sense that they've been progressing well and appropriately through the Chapter 11 process,” Gitlin noted, adding that Carrier anticipates Chapter 11 discharge for KFI with the next year.
