Honeywell sees slow 2013, to buy Intermec for $600 million

(Reuters) - Diversified U.S. manufacturer Honeywell International Inc forecast a fiscal 2013 profit mostly below Wall Street's estimates on Monday as sales cool in the aerospace and transportation sectors.

The company, whose many industrial products include cockpit electronics and automotive turbochargers, also said it would buy mobile computing device maker Intermec for $600 million, or $10 per share.

The subdued forecast was not unexpected on Wall Street, where shares of Honeywell were down 0.2 percent to $61.86 in midday trading on Monday.

Chief Executive Officer Dave Cote, known for his strong views on the perils of the U.S. "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and government spending cuts, did not mention it as a reason for the weaker-than-expected forecast in a statement on Monday morning.

Cote did not participate in a conference call with investors on Monday to discuss the deal and forecast.

The new forecast was released a week earlier than expected due to the Intermec deal, which gives Intermec shareholders a 25 percent premium from Friday's closing stock price.

Honeywell expects the deal to dent its 2013 earnings by 3 cents to 4 cents per share.

The company forecast a 2013 profit of $4.75 to $4.95 per share, excluding items, while analysts on average expect $4.95, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Honeywell said it expected revenue of $39.0 billion to $39.5 billion for 2013, which compares with analysts' expectations of $39.42 billion.

Intermec's scanning and mobile computer technology will help Honeywell offer products involving RFID (radio frequency identification), voice-directed applications, barcode and receipt printing.

The deal "really enables Honeywell to be a leader of rugged mobile computers and scanners in the AIDC (automatic identification and data capture) space," Honeywell Chief Financial Officer David Anderson said on the conference call with investors.

AIDC is a method to automatically collect and record data. A common example is a barcode.

Shares of Intermec rose 23 percent to $9.80.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore and Ernest Scheyder in New York; Editing by Roshni Menon, Lisa Von Ahn and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/honeywell-forecasts-slow-growth-2013-125239726--sector.html

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