Ohio Firm to Buy Metal Bellows

In a stock transaction valued at about $60 million, an Ohio company has agreed to acquire Metal Bellows Corp., a Moorpark maker of metal products used on commercial aircraft and in the defense and aerospace industries.

Wallace C. Young, treasurer of Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corp., said he does not expect his company’s purchase of Metal Bellows to affect employment at the local firm. Privately held Metal Bellows employs 490 people, about 250 in Moorpark and the rest at a plant in Sharon, Mass.

The deal is expected to be completed in late May. It calls for Metal Bellows’ three partners--Raymond Shamie, 65, Wesley Eaton, 64, and James R. Walsh, 49--to receive a total of 1.4 million shares of Parker Hannifin common stock. Parker Hannifin stock closed Monday at $43 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Firm Established in 1955

Shamie, Metal Bellows’ chairman, founded the company in 1955. Eaton is senior vice president for finance and Walsh is president. Shamie and Eaton plan to retire before July, Walsh said, and thus were interested in selling the business.

Walsh will continue to head the operation when it becomes a division of Parker Hannifin’s Irvine-based Aerospace Group. “It’s a good marriage,” Walsh said.

Walsh said he expects Metal Bellows’ sales for the fiscal year ended June 30 to reach $40 million. One of the company’s largest customers is Seattle-based Boeing Co., which uses Metal Bellows parts in environmental control and anti-skid systems for commercial airliners.

Metal Bellows also produces instruments and controls for nuclear reactors and environmental testing and handling equipment. Young said those activities will blend well with Parker Hannifin’s power component business.

Parker Hannifin makes components for industrial, automotive, aviation, space and marine applications.

For its fiscal year ended June 30, the company earned $84.1 million on sales of nearly $1.5 billion. The company employs more than 22,000 nationwide.