UTC: Honeywell merger off table

Aerospace conglomerates United Technologies Corp. and Honeywell recently rekindled merger talks, but a deal doesn’t appear to be in the works.

CNBC reported Monday that Farmington-based UTC, which is Connecticut’s largest employer, recently held merger talks with New Jersey-based Honeywell, to create a combined  $94 billion company.

But UTC issued a statement late Monday saying a deal is no longer in the works due to “significant regulatory obstacles, customer concerns and valuation issues.”

“In particular, United Technologies has communicated to Honeywell that combining two of the world’s largest players in the aerospace and commercial building segments would face insurmountable regulatory obstacles and strong customer opposition, and could either be blocked outright or conditioned on significant divestitures after a lengthy and disruptive review period that would destroy shareholder value,” UTC said in statement. 

Honeywell initiated the latest merger talks, but conversations between both sides have been going on for a year, CNBC said.

In 2015, UTC CEO Greg Hayes approached Honeywell CEO David Cote about a possible merger of equals, CNBC said. In the latest talks, Honeywell, which now has a greater market valuation than UTC, was the acquirer.

UTC and Honeywell previously negotiated a merger in 2000, but that deal fell apart after General Electric submitted a last-minute competing offer for Honeywell that sidelined the deal. The GE-Honeywell partnership never materialized after European regulators rejected the merger over anti-trust concerns.

As of May 2015, UTC had 24,000 Connecticut employees in various business units including East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney, and Otis Elevator and Carrier Corp., both based in Farmington, according to Hartford Business Journal’s Book of Lists.