Deere & Company To Buy Wirtgen Group - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Deere & Company (DE) announced a definitive agreement to acquire the Wirtgen Group, a privately-held manufacturer of road construction equipment. The purchase price for the equity is 4.357 billion euros in an all-cash transaction. The total transaction value is approximately 4.6 billion euros, including the assumption of net debt and other consideration. Deere & Company expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings per share and currently expects to fund the acquisition from a combination of cash and new equipment operations debt financing.

Headquartered in Germany, the Wirtgen Group has five premium brands across the entire road construction sector spanning milling, processing, mixing, paving, compaction and rehabilitation. The Wirtgen Group has a global footprint with approximately 8,000 employees and sells products in more than 100 countries through a large network of company-owned and independent dealers. The Wirtgen Group had sales of 2.6 billion euros in the year ending December 31, 2016.

The companies expect to close the transaction in the first quarter of Deere's 2018 fiscal year.