WILMERDING, Pa. — Wabtec Corp. has acquired Xorail, a provider of signal engineering and design services, for $40 million in cash, the company announced.
Jacksonville, Fla. -based Xorail has annual sales of about $40 million. Wabtec expects the transaction to be accretive in the first year, the company said.
“We wanted to acquire the company to grow it,” The Florida Times-Union newspaper quoted Wabtec spokesman Tim Wesley as saying.
Xorail provides a variety of engineering, design and construction services, mainly for railway signaling systems. These services include design solutions for wayside signaling, positive train control systems and highway grade crossing warning systems, site surveys, systems integration and field construction and installation of wayside equipment.
Xorail’s customers include Class I railroads and passenger transit authorities in North America. The company was founded in 1990 as Southwest Signal Engineering Co., and now has 10 satellite offices throughout North America with about 275 employees. Kash Krishnarao, president of Xorail, will remain with the company.
“Xorail’s engineering and wayside capabilities are a good fit with our existing railway electronics business,” Albert J. Neupaver, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. “In addition, these capabilities position Wabtec for a larger role as the rail industry implements positive train control technology over the next several years.”
