Chart Industries: A Takeover Tango

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A curious transaction has come to our attention. Paradice Investment Management, a name suggesting a certain optimism, has divested itself of its holdings in Chart Industries. A mere $11.77 million, you say? A pittance in the grand scheme, yet enough to buy a respectable number of samovars, or perhaps a small, slightly used dirigible. One wonders if they foresaw the impending drama, or simply decided that cryogenic tanks lacked a certain…panache.

The Plot Thickens

The filing reveals Paradice offloaded all 58,813 shares during the fourth quarter. A clean break, as if sweeping away the dust from a particularly complicated game of chess. The market, it seems, has not reacted with undue alarm, which is either commendable restraint or a disturbing lack of imagination. One suspects the latter.

The Usual Suspects

As for Paradice’s remaining affections, their portfolio reveals a fondness for the predictably solid: GMED, TNDM, NVST, LEA, and FLS. A collection of acronyms that could equally describe a secret society or a particularly dull engineering conference. They’ve clearly chosen stability over the thrill of the unknown, a perfectly understandable, if somewhat uninspired, strategy.

Chart Industries, as of January 28th, was priced at $207.27 – a figure that evokes neither ecstasy nor despair. It has, shall we say, merely existed, underperforming the S&P 500 by a rather unglamorous 14.25 percentage points. A performance akin to a moderately talented accordion player in a philharmonic orchestra.

A Glimpse Behind the Curtain

Let us examine the beast itself. Chart Industries manufactures equipment for handling energy and industrial gases. Cryogenic tanks, heat exchangers – the sort of things that keep the world from either freezing or exploding. They serve a clientele as diverse as it is demanding – industrial gas producers, energy companies, even those involved in the arcane arts of aerospace and water treatment. A truly global enterprise, built on the principle of keeping things either very hot or very cold.

Metric Value
Price (as of January 28) $207.27
Market Capitalization $9.32 billion
Revenue (TTM) $4.29 billion
Net Income (TTM) $66.70 million

The Baker Hughes Gambit

Here’s where things become interesting. Chart Industries has agreed to be acquired by Baker Hughes at $210 per share. A tidy sum, certainly, but the deal isn’t expected to close until mid-2026. This, my friends, is where the scent of a well-executed maneuver hangs in the air. The stock is now less about operational performance and more about the certainty of a payout. It’s a placeholder, a promissory note, a temporary respite from the anxieties of the market.

They boast record orders – $1.68 billion, up 44% year over year – and a backlog of $6.05 billion. Impressive, undoubtedly, but overshadowed by the looming acquisition. Their adjusted operating margin reached a record 22.9%, and adjusted EPS rose 27.5%. Yet, these figures are mere footnotes to the larger narrative. They are, if you will, the garnish on a dish that has already been ordered.

For those of us who favor active capital recycling – a polite term for shifting funds to more promising ventures – this presents an opportunity. Reallocating into industrials with genuine growth potential, or companies with balance sheets that don’t resemble a precarious stack of pancakes, seems a prudent course of action. After all, one should always seek a little excitement in the pursuit of profit. And a guaranteed payout, however substantial, rarely provides that.

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2026-01-29 14:22