CNH Industrial pursues "transformational" investments

MILAN (Reuters) -CNH Industrial is aiming to secure major M&A deals as it pursues innovation in its farm machinery and construction equipment businesses, the head of its investment arm Ventures told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Italian-American vehicle maker is aiming for "one or two transformational investments in coming months and years", Michele Lombardi, the group's senior vice-president for Corporate Development & Venture Capital said.

CNH in 2021 bought U.S. based precision farming group Raven for $2.1 billion. The deal came before CNH spun off its truck-making unit, now separately listed as Iveco Group, at the beginning of last year to focus on farm machinery and construction equipment.

In an interview after CNH earlier on Wednesday announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Bennamann, a UK-based company working on ways to capture, repurpose and store methane emissions for energy use, Lombardi said market turbulence created by troubles at Credit Suisse and Silicon Valley Bank were not hampering CNH's willingness to invest.

"We are very motivated to carry on with our investments," he said. "We've got a very significant cash investment capacity and we are committed to technological innovation."

Lombardi added that the group had three channels available for M&A deals, namely venture capital, mid-size deals worth around $100-200 million and transformational investments.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Gavin Jones, Kirsten Donovan)