Cabinet hardware companies acquired by Fortune Brands

Photo By Emtek

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc., former top cabinet company an industry-leading home, security and commercial building products company, announced that it will proceed with the acquisition of the Emtek and Schaub premium and luxury door and cabinet hardware business, and the U.S. and Canadian Yale and August residential smart home locks business from ASSA ABLOY, Inc.

Emtek and Schaub are leading luxury hardware brands with established and powerful distribution networks with leading channel partners and will be a highly synergistic complement to the House of Rohl suite of brands, allowing the Company to expand into adjacent product areas. Fortune Brands believes it can accelerate innovation and design and leverage its channel and consumer insights to create significant value over time.

The acquisition agreement, which was first announced on Dec. 1, 2022, was conditioned on the successful resolution of litigation among the Department of Justice, ASSA ABLOY, Inc. and Spectrum Brands, Inc. On May 5, the Department of Justice, ASSA ABLOY, Spectrum Brands and Fortune Brands resolved the lawsuit, which awaits final statutorily required approval from the Court overseeing the matter. With the lawsuit settled, this allows Fortune Brands to proceed with the Acquisition.

The DOJ announced May 5, that it has reached a settlement in its litigation regarding ASSA ABLOY AB’s (ASSA ABLOY) proposed $4.3 billion acquisition of Spectrum Brand Holding Inc.’s Hardware and Home Improvement division. The proposed settlement requires ASSA ABLOY to divest assets as a condition of finalizing ASSA ABLOY’s transaction with Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. 

Under the DOJ's terms of the proposed settlement, ASSA ABLOY must divest assets to Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. that are designed to allow Fortune to compete in the markets for premium mechanical door hardware and smart locks used in residential and multifamily buildings. These assets include ASSA ABLOY’s EMTEK and Schaub premium mechanical door hardware businesses, its Yale and August residential smart lock businesses in the United States and Canada, and other assets for multifamily smart lock applications in the United States and Canada.

Additional terms of the settlement include: expanding Fortune’s intellectual property and commercialization rights in smart locks, inclusion of additional residential mechanical lock assets, the appointment of a monitoring trustee, a penalty provision for delayed transfer of a manufacturing facility, and the ability, under certain circumstances, for the Department to seek additional relief later if the divestiture fails to maintain the intensity of competition that existed before the merger for smart locks used for residential and multifamily buildings.

ASSA ABLOY AB is a publicly traded Swedish stock company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. It sells its residential door hardware products in the United States under the August, EMTEK, and Yale brands.

Schaub cabinet hardware
Schaub cabinet hardware.

Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. is a publicly traded Delaware corporation headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin. It sells its residential hardware products in the United States under the Baldwin and Kwikset brands.

Fortune Brands Innovation, Inc. is a publicly traded Delaware corporation headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois. It sells various products for the home under the Moen, Fiberon, and MasterLock brands, among others. 

“I am excited for Fortune Brands to proceed with the acquisition of the Emtek, Schaub, Yale and August brands. Our company is a great home for these world-class brands; we see many opportunities to build them within our portfolio,” said Nicholas Fink, Fortune Brands CEO. “Together with our existing iconic brands, loyal channel relationships, and supply chain expertise, we believe this acquisition will result in enhanced, innovative products for consumers and customers. This meaningful transaction is consistent with Fortune Brands’ disciplined approach to value-creating acquisitions and our larger growth strategy.”

The Business is comprised of leading brands in the fast-growing residential smart lock and the highly profitable and growing premium and luxury hardware categories.

Yale and August will add scale and breadth to Fortune Brands’ complementary security and connected smart home portfolio in the U.S. and Canada, helping the Company to grow in the highly attractive connected products space. Yale and August will also bring strong innovation, digital capabilities and significant engineering expertise to Fortune Brands, augmenting its already powerful connected security portfolio.

Fortune Brands’ closing of the acquisition is conditioned on the successful closing of the Hardware and Home Improvement business transaction between Spectrum Brands and ASSA ABLOY. Fortune Brands anticipates its transaction will close on or before June 30, 2023.

 

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