Acquisitions

The Company completed several business acquisitions during the last three years. All of the acquisitions resulted in the recognition of goodwill in the Company’s consolidated financial statements because the purchase prices reflect the future earnings and cash flow potential of these companies, as well as the complementary strategic fit and resulting synergies these businesses bring to existing operations. The Company incurred acquisition transaction costs of $0.5 million, $3.7 million and $1.4 million in fiscal 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively, related to various business acquisition activities.

The Company makes an initial allocation of the purchase price, at the date of acquisition, based upon its understanding of the fair value of the acquired assets and assumed liabilities. The Company obtains this information during due diligence and through other sources. If additional information is obtained about these assets and liabilities within the measurement period (not to exceed one year from the date of acquisition), through asset appraisals and learning more about the newly acquired business, the Company will refine its estimates of fair value and adjust the purchase price allocation. During fiscal 2014, goodwill related to prior year acquisitions decreased by $0.8 million, the net result of purchase accounting adjustments to the fair value of acquired assets and assumed liabilities.

Fiscal 2014

The Company acquired Hayes Industries Ltd. ("Hayes") on May 23, 2014 for $30.5 million plus up to $4.0 million of potential contingent consideration (based on operating results). This Industrial segment acquisition is headquartered in Sugarland, Texas and maintains a leading position in the concrete tensioning market. Its products include patented encapsulated anchor systems, wedges and customized extruded cables. The preliminary purchase price allocation resulted in the recognition of $17.5 million of goodwill (which is deductible for tax purposes) and $10.6 million of intangible assets, including $5.0 million of patents, $3.3 million of customer relationships, $2.0 million of tradenames and $0.3 million for non-compete agreements.

Fiscal 2013

The Company acquired Viking SeaTech (“Viking”) for $235.5 million on August 27, 2013. Viking expands the Energy segment's geographic presence, technologies and services provided to the global energy market. Headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, Viking is a support specialist providing a comprehensive range of marine mooring equipment and services to the offshore oil & gas industry. Viking serves customers globally with primary markets in the North Sea (U.K. and Norway) and Australia. The majority of Viking's revenue is derived from offshore vessel mooring solutions which include design, rental, installation and inspection. Viking also provides survey and other marine services to offshore operators, drillers and energy asset owners. The purchase price allocation for this acquisition resulted in the recognition of $86.9 million of goodwill (which is not deductible for tax purposes) and $65.4 million of intangible assets, including $40.5 million of customer relationships and $24.9 million of tradenames.

Fiscal 2012

During fiscal 2012, the Company completed two maximatecc tuck-in acquisitions to expand the geographic presence, product offerings and technologies of the Engineered Solutions segment. On July 20, 2012 the Company completed the acquisition of the stock of CrossControl AB (“CrossControl”) for $40.6 million of cash. CrossControl, headquartered in Sweden, provides advanced electronic solutions for human-machine interaction, vehicle control and mobile connectivity in critical environments. On March 28, 2012 the Company acquired the stock of Turotest Medidores Ltda (“Turotest”) for $8.1 million of cash and $5.3 million of deferred purchase price. Turotest, headquartered in Brazil, designs and manufactures instrument panels and gauges serving the Brazilian agriculture and industrial markets.

In addition, on February 10, 2012 the Company completed the acquisition of the stock of Jeyco Pty Ltd (“Jeyco”) for $20.7 million of cash. This Cortland (Energy segment) tuck-in acquisition, designs and provides specialized mooring, rigging and towing systems and services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Australia and other international markets. Additionally, Jeyco’s products are used in a variety of applications for other markets including cyclone mooring and marine, defense and mining tow systems.

The combined purchase price allocation for all three fiscal 2012 acquisitions resulted in the recognition of $40.1 million of goodwill (which is not deductible for tax purposes) and $32.8 million of intangible assets, including $24.2 million of customer relationships, $5.7 million of tradenames, $2.2 million of technologies and $0.7 million of non-compete agreements.

The following unaudited pro forma results of operations of the Company give effect to all acquisitions completed in the last three years as though the transactions and related financing activities had occurred on September 1, 2011 (in thousands, except per share amounts).



	Year Ended August 31,
	2014		2013		2012
Net sales
As reported	$	1,399,862	$	1,279,742	$	1,276,521
Pro forma	1,419,915		1,390,251		1,439,493
Earnings from continuing operations
As reported	$	141,453	$	147,577	$	125,276
Pro forma	142,589		154,371		134,430
Basic earnings per share from continuing operations
As reported	$	1.99	$	2.02	$	1.79
Pro forma	2.01		2.12		1.92
Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations
As reported	$	1.95	$	1.98	$	1.68
Pro forma	1.97		2.07		1.80