Sale of Astech in Final Stage, Alcoa Aide Says : Metals industry: The Santa Ana-based company, on the block for over a year, is being sought by an unidentified party.
Alcoa Composites Inc. in San Antonio, Tex., is in final negotiations to sell its Santa Ana-based Astech subsidiary to an unidentified bidder, a company spokesman said Friday.
Astech, a manufacturer of high-temperature steel and titanium parts for the aerospace business, has been up for sale since late 1989, said Ken Siger, an Alcoa spokesman. Alcoa Composites is the composites-materials subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Aluminum Co. of America.
“Astech is part of a much larger company that doesn’t match our strategic outlook,” Siger said. “It is a profitable division. We hope to have the sale completed within a reasonable time frame.”
Most of Astech’s metal products, such as steel “honeycombs,” are used in jet engines or other aerospace hardware requiring parts that can withstand high temperatures, Siger said. The company also makes temperature-resistant parts for Navy applications, such as smokestacks.
Astech employs 450 people at its Santa Ana plant, down from about 600 several years ago.
Siger declined to identify the buyer or provide a purchase price for the subsidiary. Alcoa Composites is moving its headquarters from the Astech site to other Alcoa facilities in San Antonio.
Alcoa, hurt by a fall in aluminum prices as a result of the economic slowdown, announced last week that it would take a one-time charge against earnings of $275 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.
The charge reflected Alcoa’s plan to sell off Astech and concentrate its efforts in the advanced-composites business, which includes materials such as fiber-reinforced plastics for the aerospace industry. In line with that plan, Alcoa Composites acquired Bonded Technology, a Connecticut composites manufacturer.
The company will write off as losses $142 million related to its non-aluminum businesses, $43 million related to the sale of Astech and $90 million for environmental cleanup costs at Alcoa’s U.S. plants.
Alcoa acquired Astech in January, 1987, as part of its purchase of TRE Corp. The $43-million write-off represents the difference between the value of the subsidiary as carried on the company books based on the 1987 purchase and the expected sale price of the unit, Siger said.
