Eagle-Picher Corp. (fka EGLP)

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After hour news. Being bought by OM Group (OMG) Low float should move with some volume up 14% on $916.

Ohio company announces agreement to acquire EaglePicher Technologies [The Joplin Globe, Mo.]

Knight Ridder/Tribune "Business News "

Dec. 24 --No changes are planned either in the work force or the operations of EaglePicher Technologies after OM Group signed an agreement to acquire the Joplin -based company.

Randy Moore , president to EaglePicher Technologies, said of the deal, which was announced late Wednesday afternoon: "As of now, everything we can tell them (the employees) is that there is going to be no change of business for EaglePicher Technologies."

The company has about 850 employees, 750 of whom work in Joplin , Seneca , Miami, Okla. , and Pittsburg, Kan. The others are located in cities such as Dallas and Vancouver, British Columbia .

"The new ownership isn't going to be making any changes in terms of relocation, consolidation, things like that," said Troy Dewar , director of investor relations for OM Group , a publicly traded company based in Cleveland, Ohio .

Dewar said that while the agreement has been announced, the deal still must be approved by regulators. If all goes well, the deal probably will close sometime in the middle of the first quarter of 2010, he said.

OM Group is buying EaglePicher Technologies for $171.9 million from EaglePicher Corp. OM Group will keep the EaglePicher Technologies name, which has been part of the Joplin area for more than a century.

EaglePicher Technologies last fiscal year had revenue of $125 million , with 60 percent of that coming from batteries used in military applications, 31 percent from its aerospace business, and the rest from niche markets such as implantable medical batteries.

Moore said EaglePicher Technologies management has identified key areas for growth, including implantable medical batteries, lithium-ion batteries for aircraft use, and storage of electricity generated by alternative energy sources, such as wind farms. He said Wednesday that he doesn't expect that to change with the new owner.

OM Group has a number of businesses specializing in products used in everything from circuit boards to solar cells, and its Advanced Materials operation produces chemicals used by a variety of industries, including rechargeable batteries.

"We have also identified the portable power sector as a sector we want to grow in the future," said Dewar, who added that OM Group is the nation's leading refiner of cobalt, which is used in making lithium-ion batteries for laptops and cell phones.

OM Group , traded on the New York Stock Exchange , reported fiscal 2008 sales of $1.7 billion and net income of $135 million .

Moore said he didn't expect the agreement to alter negotiations with employees who also are members of Local 812, United Steelworkers of America .

The union and the company have remained at an impasse since the summer of 2008, when EaglePicher made its last contract offer, said Moore. The company has been operating under the terms of that proposal since then.

Attempts to reach members of the union Wednesday night after the agreement was announced were unsuccessful.

Andy Ostmeyer is the metro editor for The Joplin Globe .

EP history

EaglePicher Corp. in 2006 was taken over by the privately held investment firms of Angelo, Gordon & Co. , and Tennenbaum Capital Partners .

EaglePicher declared bankruptcy in April 2005 .

It previously was owned by Granaria Holdings , a private investment company in the Netherlands .

Tennenbaum Capital Partners was listed as one of EaglePicher's largest creditors at the time of the bankruptcy filing. That was the second time EaglePicher has reorganized in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. The first filing was in January 1991 .

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Copyright (c) 2009, The Joplin Globe, Mo.

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