Thiokol to Purchase Irvine Aircraft-Parts Maker : Acquisition: The defense contractor says the $170-million deal for Huck Manufacturing is an effort to diversify.

IRVINE — Defense contractor Thiokol Corp. said Monday that it has agreed to pay about $170 million to acquire Huck Manufacturing Co., an Irvine aircraft parts company.

Huck’s parent company, auto-parts maker Federal-Mogul Corp. of Detroit, is selling some operations to pay down heavy debts.

Thiokol agreed to pay $150 million in cash for Huck and assume about $20 million in debt. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

Thiokol, which makes engines for rockets, said it bought Huck to branch out from its traditional defense and space businesses.

No changes in management or employees are planned for Huck, said Thiokol, which is based in Ogden, Utah.

In Southern California, the company employs about 60 at its Irvine headquarters and 300 at a plant in Carson. The company started in Detroit in the early years of World War II, producing bolts that were stronger and quieter than the traditional rivets used to fasten the metal skin to an airplane.

Huck moved its headquarters to Irvine in 1981--shortly after Federal-Mogul bought it--to be nearer its customers and the Carson plant, which at the time was Huck’s only aerospace manufacturing plant.

Federal-Mogul, an auto-parts manufacturer with annual sales of $1.1 billion, has been buffetted by slow car sales. It is also laboring under a load of debt from an ambitious program of buying other companies. All of this is part of an elaborate restructuring to get the company ready for the 1990s.

“This company has gone through some wrenching changes; they’ve tried to do more in a shorter span than any company I know,” said Gurudutt M. Baliga, an auto industry analyst at the McDonald & Co. brokerage in Cleveland.

Baliga is critical of the way Federal-Mogul has bought new companies recently: “The acquisitions were never properly evaluated or assimilated,” he said.

But he does give the company high marks for preparing for the future and getting rid of older subsidiaries like Huck that don’t fit into its core business of making parts for auto engines.

“Very few companies have the guts to make these changes, especially during difficult economic times,” he said.

As for Huck, the new owner won’t change its prospects much, Baliga said. Its business has been quietly but steadily increasing for years, he said. That’s because the business isn’t tied entirely to the commercial aircraft industry, which has had soft sales. Buses, trucks and industry account for about $75 million worth of Huck’s $175 million in annual sales, Baliga said. Of the other $100 million, about half comes from refitting older airplanes.

Acquisition

Thiokol Corp., a defense contractor, said Monday it is buying Huck Manufacturing Co. in Irvine, a subsidiary of Federal-Mogul Corp.

Huck Manufacturing Co.

Headquarters: Irvine

Employees: 1,400 worldwide (360 in Southern California)

Annual sales: $175 million

Products: Fasteners for aircraft, vehicles and industrial uses

Thiokol Corp.

Headquarters: Ogden, Utah

Employees: 12,000 worldwide

Annual sales: $1.25 billion

Products: Rocket engines, weapons and other space and defense products

Federal-Mogul Corp.

Headquarters: Detroit, Mich.

Employees: 12,500

Annual sales: $1.1 billion

Products: bearings, seals, lighting and electrical systems for cars and trucks

Source: Companies listed