CNH Industrial agrees to buy Hemisphere GNSS for $175 million

MILAN (Reuters) - CNH Industrial said on Thursday that it had agreed to buy Hemisphere GNSS, a high-performance satellite positioning technology company, for $175 million to improve automation in its agriculture and construction businesses.

CNH, a farm machinery and construction equipment maker, said in a statement that the preliminary purchase price was free of cash and debt and that it would fund the deal through available cash. It is buying the business from China's Beijing Unistrong.

At the beginning of last year, the Italian American group separated from its truck and bus making unit, now listed as Iveco Group, to focus on farm machinery and construction equipment. Just before that, in 2021, it bought U.S.-based Raven for $2.1 billion to consolidate its presence in the precision farming segment.

"Combined with our Raven Brand's capabilities, this development gives us full control of our precision and navigation technologies," CNH said with reference to the deal announced on Thursday.

CNH said Hemisphere's core technology capabilities included application-specific integrated circuit chips, circuit boards, radio frequency signal processing, navigation algorithms and satellite-based correction designs.

Hemisphere will continue to operate as a standalone business through its operations in the U.S., Canada and Australia, CNH said.

The closing of the deal is expected within the third quarter of this year, subject to conditions including approvals by Beijing Unistrong shareholders and those required by Chinese laws and regulations.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Sharon Singleton)