ITT plans summer selloff of switches unit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ITT Industries Inc. (ITT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expects to sell its switches unit some time this summer, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit in New York, Steve Loranger, ITT's chairman and chief executive, said the company had already received "a lot of buyer interest" in the unit, which makes switches and keypads for phones, personal digital assistants and other electronic devices.

"We expect to market it in the June-July timeframe," Loranger said. "But we'll be done with it when we get the right deal. We haven't set a formal time frame."

Loranger said the rise in merger and acquisition activity by private-equity groups made it a good time to be a seller. But he said aggressive bidding by private-equity groups was also making it harder for ITT and other companies to grow their businesses through deal-making.

"It is a more difficult acquisition market," he said.

He said that of the deals ITT had walked away from recently because prices were too high, "half went to private equity and half went to strategic buyers."

Loranger said acquisitions in the $200 million to $500 million range were "ideal" for ITT because they were "big enough to make a difference, but not so big they pose a risk to the enterprise."