Flir to Acquire Extech

Flir Systems Inc. announced this week it will acquire the stock of Extech Instruments Corp., a private supplier of test and measurement equipment and portable receipt printers based in Waltham, Mass., for $40 million cash. Flir said the move will expand its access to distribution channels for its thermography products and provide access to low-cost manufacturing in Asia. The transaction, subject to standard closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter and to be neutral to earnings in 2008 and accretive in subsequent years.

Extech Instruments's handheld test instruments are sold through a network of national catalog houses, regional stocking distributors and international distributors. In addition to its US headquarters, Extech operates two design, manufacturing and warehousing facilities in Taiwan and Hong Kong and has a sales office in Shanghai, China. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2006, Extech reported revenue of $39.2 million.

Flir also said this week that its board has approved a two-for-one split of its common stock. As a result of the stock split, shareholders will receive one additional share of common stock for every share held on the record date of Nov. 12, 2007. The additional shares will be distributed on or about Dec. 10, 2007 by Mellon Investor Services.

Flir reported its third quarter as "outstanding," with excellent demand in its three divisions. It said its backlog orders increased by $82 million and operating income improved to 27 percent, and that it expects net revenue in fiscal 2007 of $755 million to $770 million and net earnings of $1.73 to $1.78 per diluted share, assuming a tax rate for the year of approximately 29 percent and an average share count of approximately 80 million diluted shares.

Revenue from its gvernment systems division increased 70 percent over the third quarter of 2006, to a record $96.9 million, "driven by strength across all served markets, including airborne, land and maritime," the company reported. Revenue from its commercial vision systems unit increased 29 percent over the third quarter of last year, to $34.2 million, reflecting strong growth in the security and transportation markets, it said, and revenue from its thermography division increased 21 percent over the third quarter of last year, to $60.0 million, due to strong demand for the InfraCAM and GasFindIR product lines and the introduction of the new T-Series product line.

Flir's backlog of firm orders for delivery within the next twelve months was approximately $393 million as of Sept. 30 -- an increase of $82 million from $311 million on June 30. The backlog in its government systems division was $316 million, up $71 million during the quarter, due to orders for of products for US and international customers. The commercial vision systems division. backlog was $59 million, up $5 million during the quarter and $18 million in the thermography division, up $7 million during the quarter, primarily due to orders for the company's GasFindIR and new ThermaCam T-Series products.

Cash provided by operations during the quarter was $31 million, primarily from net income earned during the quarter. As of Sept. 30, cash and cash equivalents were $170 million, up $18 million from $152 million as of June 30.

For more information, visit: www.flir.com