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Oct 31, 2022 - Economy & Business

Blackstone buying Emerson's climate tech unit at $14 billion valuation

Dan Primack
Illustration of a bar chart made of air conditioning units

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

Emerson Electric agreed to sell a 55% stake in its climate technology business, which mostly sells Copeland-branded HVAC compressors and related products, to Blackstone at a $14 billion enterprise value.

Why it matters: This is about both climate and cost, with Blackstone betting that residential and commercial building owners will pay to upgrade system efficiency.

  • It's also part of a broader divestiture push by Emerson, following the sale of its InSinkErator food-waste disposal business to Whirlpool and of its Therm-O-Disc thermostats unit to One Rock Capital Partners.

Details: St. Louis-based Emerson will retain a 45% stake in the climate tech business, which generated $5 billion of fiscal 2022 sales.

The bottom line: This is a large leveraged buyout, but Wall Street remains on the sidelines. WSJ reports that Blackstone placed the $5.5 billion of debt itself, in a process that took nearly a month.

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