Badger Meter Explores a Sale

Badger Meter Inc., which makes products used in fluid-flow measurement and control, is exploring a sale.

The Milwaukee company is in the early stages of a sales process that is expected to draw interest from a number of other industrial companies, according to people familiar with the matter. As with all auctions, it may end without a deal.

Badger Meter had a market value of just over $1 billion Wednesday morning after its shares climbed more than 20% year-to-date on strong results.

The company manufactures meters and other products that measure water, oil and chemicals, according to the company's website. Customers include municipal-water and other utilities and oil-and-gas companies.

In the first quarter, Badger Meter's sales hit a record $100 million and the company had profit of $7.9 million, a nearly 90% increase from the year-earlier period. The company attributed the rise to higher demand for municipal-water products.

Badger Meter was founded in 1905 and has more than 1,400 employees.

While deal-making has been off to a relatively slow start in 2016, the industrial sector has been a bright spot. In January, Johnson Controls Inc. and Tyco International PLC agreed to merge in a roughly $15 billion deal that would create a giant provider of commercial-building systems. In March, coatings company Sherwin-Williams Co. agreed to buy rival Valspar Corp. for more than $9 billion. And security-alarm company ADT Corp. agreed to be bought by Apollo Global Management LLC.

Write to Dana Mattioli at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 04, 2016 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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