Cummins’ filtration business is launching an initial public offering with regulators nearly two years after company officials said they would start exploring “strategic alternatives” for the business.
Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc., headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, filed paperwork this past week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 14.1 million shares of common stock in the company priced at $18 to $21 each, according to a preliminary prospectus filed with regulators.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will act as joint lead book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters, which have a 30-day option to up to an additional 2.1 million shares at the IPO price.
Depending on the extent to which the underwriters exercise the stock purchase option, Cummins is expected to retain about 80.5% to 83% stake in Atmus, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ATMU.
The filing comes just over a year after Cummins said its filtration business had confidentially filed paperwork for a proposed IPO, a step that analysts said indicated that Cummins planned to separate its filtration into a standalone company.
An IPO is when a company’s stocks are sold publicly for the first time. IPOs are generally underwritten by investment banks that arrange for the shares to be traded on a stock exchange.
Steph Disher will continue to lead Atmus Filtration Technologies as CEO, Cummins said previously.
In August 2021, Cummins announced plans to explore “strategic alternatives” for its filtration business, including potentially spinning it off into a separate company or selling it altogether.
The business was founded in 1958 as the Seymour Filter Co., and designs, manufactures and sells air, fuel, hydraulic and lube filtration, as well as chemical technology products for diesel and gas-powered equipment around the world, according to its website.
Cummins’ filtration business employed around 4,000 people worldwide as of 2021, corporate spokesman Jon Mills said previously.
The company’s current name, Atmus Filtration Technologies, is derived from “atmosphere” and “reflects its purpose of creating a better future by protecting what is important,” Cummins said.
In 2021, then-Cummins Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger told financial analysts that the company was exploring “a range of options” for the business unit, telling financial analysts that “the business is doing great” but “we just think it can operate separately from us more effectively going forward.”
Previous regulatory filings with the SEC show that Atmus had $1.56 billion in net sales in 2022, with 51% of sales coming from U.S. and Canadian markets.
“We maintain strong global customer relationships, supported by an established salesforce with work locations in 25 countries as of Dec. 31, 2022,” Atmus said in the SEC filing. “Also, as of Dec. 31, 2022, we operate through 12 distribution centers, nine manufacturing facilities and five technical facilities plus 10 manufacturing facilities and two technical facilities operated by our joint ventures, giving us presence on six continents.”
