The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Jeffrey Goldfarb

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - As private equity shops grapple with aging portfolios and ailing tech investments, CD&R is flexing old-school. The firm carved out some Roper pump and sensor makers in 2022, spruced them up and will now sell the business to Ametek for $5 bln. It’s a timely history lesson.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Industrial manufacturer Ametek said on May 6 that it had agreed to buy a portfolio of instrumentation businesses from Indicor for $5 billion in cash.

Private equity firm CD&R created Indicor after buying a 51% equity stake in a collection of assets from Roper Technologies in 2022 for about $830 million.

Ametek said Indicor Instrumentation generates about $1.1 billion in annual sales with profitability similar to its own. It expects to generate annualized synergies equal to 10% to 12% of the top line by the third year after completing the acquisition.