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Crane Company announced a definitive agreement on September 14 to acquire Trillium Flow Technologies' U.S. pump business for approximately $240 million. The operations primarily serve municipal water and wastewater customers and are expected to generate approximately $115 million in full-year revenue, with closing expected in the fourth quarter subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. The deal would add the Floway, Wemco, Roto-Jet and WSP brands to Crane's Process Flow Technologies segment, and Crane disclosed a price of approximately 14.6 times estimated 2026 adjusted EBITDA. The announcement did not quantify aftermarket revenue's share of the business, its margins, expected synergies, or integration costs, nor did it specify the funding mix. Process Flow Technologies' second-quarter sales rose 20.9% to $385.6 million while company-defined non-GAAP core sales declined 1.4%, and at June 30 Crane held $350.4 million of cash and $1.098 billion of debt before subsequently repaying another $90 million.
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RBC Downgrades Mueller Water to Underperform on Municipal Spending Slowdown
RBC Capital downgraded Mueller Water Products to Underperform from Sector Perform and cut its price target to $21 from $30, sending shares down 3.2% in Thursday's trading. Analyst Jeffrey Reive said the consensus expectation for 4% FY 2027 revenue growth does not reflect the combined headwinds of fading federal stimulus, hydrant backlog normalization, and ongoing residential softness. Reive considers Mueller one of the most exposed stocks in RBC's coverage to a slowdown in municipal water spending, since its core valve and hydrant business is tied to municipal project activity and funding availability, and he believes it lacks the structural buffer against near-term funding shifts that peers such as Badger Meter or Veralto possess. He said his concern is not with execution but with expected pressure from a falloff in federal stimulus that is fully reflected in consensus estimates, adding that the hydrant backlog workdown supporting FY 2026 revenue growth is unlikely to repeat, which he sees as a $35M headwind with limited offsets as residential construction still tries to find a bottom.
CenterPoint Energy Replaces US$2.40 Billion Credit Facility With US$2.20 Billion Five-Year Revolver
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. replaced its prior US$2.40 billion unsecured revolving credit facility with a new five-year senior unsecured revolving credit facility of US$2.20 billion in September 2026. The new facility includes swingline loan and standby letter of credit subfacilities, extendable maturities, and a covenant capping the company's debt-to-capitalization ratio at 67.5%. It also carries a built-in covenant adjustment that temporarily allows higher leverage if large, securitizable natural-disaster restoration costs arise in its service territory. The refreshed facility modestly tightens leverage capacity while adding disaster-related flexibility, and the company also completed Phase Two of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative. CenterPoint Energy's narrative projects $11.4 billion in revenue and $1.6 billion in earnings by 2029, with a $46.12 fair value estimate implying 20% upside.