On September 5, 2013, The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR) announced its Board of Directors approved plans to spin off its engineered steel operations into a separate publicly-traded company through a tax-free distribution of shares to TKR shareholders to be completed in the next 12 months, while retaining its bearings and power transmission business. TKR expects to maintain a 30-35% net debt to capital structure following the separation. The company has 5.7 million shares remaining under its current 10 million share buyback program and will continue to pursue opportunistic share repurchases.
James Griffith will retire as CEO following the completion of the spin-off. Richard Kyle, COO of the Bearings and Power Transmission business, is expected to replace Griffith as CEO of TKR after the transaction is concluded. Chairman Ward Timken will become Chair and CEO of the yet-to-be-named steel spin-off entity. John Timken will become non-executive Chairman of TKR. A conference call is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET today (888-282-4019).
The decision to spin off the steel business follows a May 2013 non-binding shareholder vote brought by large shareholder Relational Investors LLC, with support from the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), to separate the company’s ball bearings unit from the steel production business. The Board retained Goldman Sachs to review the proposal, at which time, a special committee that excluded all Timken family members was set to reach a final decision on the separation. Relational argued that the stock was mispriced because the combination of disparate pieces created a conglomerate discount. The potential for a separation was first highlighted in the December 2012 edition of The Spin-Off Report Radar Screen. Since that time, the stock is up nearly 32% compared to a 17% rise for the S&P 500.
The Bearings and Transmission business operates in three segments: Mobile Industries, Process Industries, and Aerospace & Defense. The Mobile Industries segment provides bearings, assemblies, power transmissions, and related products for mobile equipment and vehicles, such as light trucks, tractors, and locomotives. The Process Industries segment offers industrial bearings and transmission equipment to support oil drilling equipment, food processing systems and heavy movables structures, among others. The Aerospace & Defense segment manufactures power transmission systems and after-market supplies for civil and military aircraft, as well as robotics, machine tools and medical equipment. The Steel business (with more than 1.7 million tons of annual melt capacity) provides custom alloy steels in the form of bars, tubing and billets used in drill pipe, crankshafts and axles for a variety of global industries.
Management previously rejected Relational’s proposal because of the synergies created by the two businesses, as steel produced by Timken is used in ball bearings manufacturing. Relational argued the stock could be worth $69 per share if the segments were split. The Bearings and Transmission business typically has greater recurring sales, more aftermarket and replacement opportunities, and thusly, more stable margins and revenue streams than the more cyclical steel business.
In July 2013, TKR guided for full-year EPS of $3.45-$3.75, excluding plant closure costs, down from $4.66 in 2012. Steel segment sales are expected to decline 15-20% from $1.6 billion in 2012. The peer group (excluding the outlier) trades about 0.95x forward sales (see attached exhibit). Applying the peer group multiple to projected sales of $1,343 million results in a rough, preliminary enterprise value of $1.3 billion.
In the Bearings and Transmission business, the company guided for Mobile Industries sales decline of about 10% in 2013 from $1,675 million in 2012 due to slower customer demand, Process Industries sales decline of about 5% from $1,338 million in 2012 as soft end markets are only partially offset by stable aftermarket sales and Aerospace sales growth of 5% from $347 million in 2012 due to strong aircraft construction. Margins have been relatively flat in 2013 in the Aerospace segment and down modestly in the other two segments.
Bearings providers with stronger aerospace exposure are trading at higher multiples given the recent industry growth. Meanwhile multiples are lower for the mobile industries equipment makers. The peer group provided in the attached exhibit includes a company with an aerospace focus (Kaman Corp.), a company with industrial and process exposure (NSK Ltd.) and a company with greater mobile presence (JTEKT). Using management guidance for 2013 sales in each segment and roughly annualizing margins, one can reach a 2013 EBITDA estimate for post-spin TKR. Applying the peer multiple to each segment, results in a rough, preliminary enterprise value of $4.5 billion for post-spin TKR (see attached exhibit). The preliminary sum-of-the-parts enterprise value totals about $5.8 billion for TKR, slightly above the enterprise value at the close last night. These rough valuations may be adjusted following today’s conference call. Changes may be provided in the October edition of The Spin-Off Report Calendar.