IAMC Insider, Site Selection magazine, September 2004

Pharma Firms High

Dana Sells Aftermarket Group to Cypress Group

Dana Corp. signed an agreement in September 2004 to sell its automotive aftermarket group to New York-based private equity group Cypress Group for $1.1 billion. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2004.
The $2-billion aftermarket group has leading market positions in brake, filter, steering and suspension products. The sale includes 52 facilities employing approximately 13,000 people worldwide.
"Cypress brings significant experience in our industry to the table and strongly supports our strategic direction," said Terry McCormack, president of the Automotive Aftermarket Group. "Their prior success investing in the automotive industry, most notably in Lear Corporation, gives us tremendous confidence in their role as our new partner."
Dana Chairman and CEO Michael Burns said proceeds from the sale will be used for a combination of reinvestment in the company's core businesses, a contribution to the company's pension plans and further reduction of Dana's debt. The latter two measures are expected to accelerate the company's return to investment-grade status.
Last year, Dana's Automotive Aftermarket group sold nine plants to Standard Motor Products for approximately $120 million. And the Heavy Vehicle Group divested itself of other assets in a deal with Sypris Solutions.
In unrelated developments, Dana completed an 88,000-sq.-ft. (8,175-sq.-m.) remodeling project of an adjacent warehouse in Danville, Ky., which will allow the company to produce a new generation of steel gaskets. The expansion means 210 new jobs, growing from 110 to 320.
And in New South Wales, Australia, the company's automotive systems group has broken ground for a 500-job plant in Yennora.
Phillip Zmuda, senior manager, real estate transactions, for 100-year-old, Toledo-based Dana, is an IAMC member.

in Esteem and Activity

The Pharmaceutical Company Image 2004 report issued in June by Verispan (a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp.) cites IAMC member companies Pfizer and Merck & Co. (along with GlaxoSmithKline) among the three most highly esteemed companies in the field. In the survey of office- and hospital-based healthcare professi onals, member company Aventis came in 8th, and member company Wyeth came in 10th in the rankings.

Pfizer Asia Pacific has opened its new $350-million, 250-employee manufacturing facility at Singapore's Tuas Biomedical Park. Construction began in 2000, which was also when Singapore launched its biomedical sciences cluster initiative. Since then, biomed ical manufacturing output has almost doubled and employment in the sector has increased by 35 per cent to 7,500 people. Pfizer's Merton Livingstone and Sean Nugent are IAMC corporate members.
Merck & Co., which announced earlier this year its plans to build a $300-million vaccine plant in the Research Triangle area, in June purchased 262 acres (106 hectares) in Durham, N.C., for the planned 250,000-sq.-ft. (23,225-sq.-m.) facility. According to press reports, the price for the property in Treyburn Corporate Park was $10.7 million, which was primarily covered by a $10.5-million grant the company received as part of its $39.4-million incentive package. Joseph Milano, senior real estate associate for Merck, is an IAMC member.

EMC Technology Helps
Financial Firm Disperse Operations

In an era of high concern over security and redundancy issues, many companies -- spurred by guidance from both government and organizations like the New York Stock Exchange -- are seeking to disperse their operations geographically, but do it as efficiently as possible.
Helping New Yorkbased clearance and settlement organization Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) achieve this goal has been a technological breakthrough spearheaded by IAMC member company EMC Corp.
The Hopkinton, Mass.-based company worked with DTCC to create an "automated, fast 'multi-hop' asynchronous mirroring of data that enables DTCC to create consistent copies of large volumes of data and push it across long distances very rapidly."
DTCC has also automated key functions involved in replication and disaster recovery. Among the physical operations moves it has made is a new center in Tampa, Fla. (For more on this project, see the Florida Spotlight on p. 647 of this issue.)
In its second quarter 2004 earnings statement, EMC reported year-over-year quarterly revenue growth of 33 percent, and net income growth of more than 100 percent.
In late July, EMC celebrated its 25th anniversary. Employer of some 7,000 Massachusetts residents, earlier this year the company was called one of the "10 Best Places to work in Massachusetts" by Boston Business Journal.
David Streeter, senior director of global real estate for EMC, is an IAMC corporate member.