- Cubic Corp. has agreed to sell...

- Cubic Corp. has agreed to sell its San Diego-based G. S. Parsons Co. subsidiary to Airgas Inc., a Wilmington, Del.-based distributor of industrial gases and related products, for $15.5 million in cash, Cubic spokesman Jerry Ringer said Monday.

“Wall Street has asked us to divest ourselves of certain assets that were not synergistic to the main thrust of our company,” Ringer said. “Last year, we got rid of Cubic Data Systems, a computer operation, and today we’re announcing the sale of Parsons.”

It was unclear what effect the sale would have on employment at Parsons, which has 200 employees, most of whom work in San Diego County. Parsons reported $22 million in revenue for the most recent fiscal year.

Parsons is one of the nation’s many regional distributors of industrial gases. Cubic acquired the business in 1969 when it reported $2 million in annual sales, Ringer said.

Cubic will use the $15.5 million received from Airgas to build its three remaining business segments--defense contracting, automated revenue collection systems and elevators.

The deal announced Monday is subject to “negotiation of a mutually satisfactory definitive agreement and receipt of required government approvals,” Ringer said.