Category: Local Businesses || By

A tentative agreement has been reached to sell the former Christy Park Works to a company in India, reports Forbes magazine and other sources.

Pittsburgh-based Reunion Industries, currently operating under federal bankruptcy protection, has agreed to sell its CP Industries division to Everest Kanto Cylinder Ltd. for $64.25 million.

It's Reunion's second attempt to sell CP Industries; a deal last year with a private-equity firm in Florida was not completed.

This sale must be approved by federal regulators and bankruptcy trustees.

CP Industries manufactures seamless containers for holding gases compressed under high pressure. Its customers include makers of alternative-fuel vehicles, NASA, the U.S. Navy, and others in the transportation and aerospace industries.

The Christy Park plant, which opened in 1897, was once part of U.S. Steel's National Tube Works. Located along Walnut Street south of the 15th Avenue Bridge, the facility spans 600,000 square feet and employs more than 100 people.

CP Industries calls itself the world's largest manufacturer of seamless pressure vessels. Though Reunion is in bankruptcy, published reports indicate that CP is profitable and had $40 million in revenue last year.

Everest Kanto, based in Mumbai, was founded in 1978. Its other manufacturing plants are in Aurangabad, Tarapur and Gandhidam, India; and Jafza, Dubai. It currently has no U.S. manufacturing facilities.

According to a press release issued by Reunion, no layoffs are planned in the city: "The buyer is committed to employing all of the existing employees and intends to operate and grow the business at its present facility."

An Indian news website this week quoted a "senior Everest Kanto official" as saying that although not all details of the acquisition have been worked out, no immediate changes are planned in Christy Park.

"At this point we cannot give details on revenues, profitability, or production capacity since we are under the non disclosure period," the unidentified source told DNA India. "All I can say is the company is profitable. CP Industries makes jumbo cylinders and it makes great sense for us to acquire a company which is a global leader in the segment."

The Asia Pulse news service quotes Everest Kanto's chairman and managing director, Prem Khurana, as saying that acquisition of CP will allow his company to capitalize on the "robust global demand" for compressed natural-gas storage systems.