United Technologies Corp Plans to Spinoff Otis Elevator and Carrier Heating and Cooling

Earlier this month, United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) announced that its board of directors had agreed to spinoff Carriers and Otis. With immediate effect, the company’s board of directors declared a prorate dividend of Carrier Global corporation with the ticker NYSE: CARR and Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: OTIS) common stock to take effect on April 3, 2020, at precisely 12:01 am EDT. Each shareholder with UTC common stock held on the record date will receive these new shares.

The shareholders of UTC will each receive a share of Carrier common stock and half a share of Otis common stock. It was agreed by the UTC board of directors that issued-trading of these common stocks would begin on or around March 18 on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbols “CARR-WI” and “OTIS-WI” for Carrier and Otis respectively. And by April 3, the separations of both companies would be finalized and their stocks will begin trading the “regular way” on the NYSE.

From March 18, up until the distribution date UTC planned that there would be two markets in UTC common stock on the New York Stock Exchange. One would be the “regular way” market under the “UTX” symbol, here, during trading the UTC shares would have the right to receive shares of Carrier and Otis common stock distributed pursuant to the distributions. While the other would be “ex-distribution” under the symbol “UTX-WI”, here, will not trade with the right to receive shares of Carrier and Otis common stock distributed pursuant to the distributions.  

The company also made it known that fractional shares of either Carrier or Otis would be issued in the planned distribution. Rather, the UTC shareowners would receive cash in lieu in place of fractional shares; they would also retain their shares of UTC common stock. It also added that the distributions were subject to conditions stated in both Carrier’s and Otis’ Registration Statements on Forms 10, as declared effective by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

The company hopes that by making these two companies standalone public companies they would be able to “drive sustained growth and innovation, with more focused business strategies” and also help them maximize value for their customers and shareholders.”

“We are taking another important step in the transformation of UTC and the establishment of two independent companies that are leaders in their respective industries with attractive investment profiles,” said Gregory Hayes, chairman, and CEO at UTC.

Hayes also added that the separation of both companies would allow the company to complete its merger with Raytheon which would be another major step for UTC.

“Executing the separations of Carrier and Otis is also a major milestone to completing the merger of UTC’s aerospace business with Raytheon to create Raytheon Technologies, the premier aerospace, and defense systems and services provider… we will have a balanced and diversified portfolio with best-in-class technologies to address a full range of customer priorities and drive sustainable growth over time,” he said.