Carmel poised to gain HQ of new public company

Carmel is poised to land the U.S. corporate headquarters of a soon-to-be public company that already boasts $2 billion in annual revenue and employs 1,300 in the Indianapolis area.

Ireland-based Ingersoll-Rand PLC announced this week that it plans to spin off its commercial and residential security unit, which is based in Carmel, into a independently operated public company.

The spinoff will be incorporated in Ireland, but an Ingersoll spokeswoman said Thursday that the U.S. headquarters will be based in Carmel at the division’s current location on Pennsylvania Street.

“The new security company is anticipated to be an Irish PLC with its North American corporate offices in Carmel, Indiana,” the spokeswoman said via e-mail.

The company has yet to be named, and Ingersoll said it expects the process to be completed within 12 months.

Though the operations already exist there, the announcement is quite a coup for Carmel, which is on the verge of landing a large public company without much effort from economic development officials.

The 450-employee headcount in Carmel and the $2 billion in annual revenue it generates could grow. Ingersoll said the company is expected to have the “financial flexibility to take advantage of future growth opportunities.”

Ingersoll declined to be more specific about those growth plans.

City officials from Carmel did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday morning.

Ingersoll, whose U.S. headquarters are in Davidson, N.C., said it chose to separate the security division in Carmel to focus on its industrial, transport refrigeration and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning businesses.

The Carmel operations will continue to provide electronic and mechanical security products for commercial and residential customers.

“Given the distinct strengths and strategies of the two proposed companies, the board believes that this structure will enable investors to value our different businesses separately, creating value for both companies and their shareholders,” Ingersoll Chairman and CEO Michael W. Lamach said in a prepared statement.

Ingersoll’s Von Duprin manufacturing plant on the east side of Indianapolis has made panic-door closures and bars since 1908 following the invention of the panic exit device by local hardware salesman Carl Prinzler and engineer Henry DuPont.

The product was marketed by Vonnegut Hardware Co. under the name Von Duprin, a contraction of Vonnegut, DuPont and Prinzler.

The security division in Carmel is located at the former Pennsylvania Street campus of Conseco Inc., now CNO Financial.

Besides Von Duprin, the new company’s portfolio of brands will include Schlage, LCN, Interflex, CISA, Briton, Bricard, BOCOM Systems, Dexter, Kryptonite, Falcon and Fusion Hardware Group.

Ingersoll Rand operates more than 100 manufacturing plants in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Canada.

Worldwide, the Ingersoll security division has 7,000 employees.