Carborundum Universal Valuation Multiples

Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Its reporting segments are construction, resource, energy, and transportation. Market share approaches 20% across many products. Caterpillar operates a captive finance subsidiary to facilitate sales. The firm has a global reach that is approximately evenly balanced between the US and the rest of the world. Construction skews more domestic, while the other divisions are more geographically diversified. An independent network of over 150 dealers operates approximately 2,800 facilities, giving Caterpillar reach into about 190 countries for sales and support services.

Applied Materials is the largest semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment manufacturer in the world. It has a broad portfolio spanning nearly every corner of the WFE ecosystem. Applied Materials holds leading market share in deposition, which entails the layering of new materials on semiconductor wafers. It is more exposed to general-purpose logic chips made at integrated device manufacturers and foundries. It counts the largest chipmakers in the world as customers, including TSMC, Intel, and Samsung.

Linde is the largest industrial gas supplier in the world, with operations in over 100 countries. The firm's main products are atmospheric gases (including oxygen, nitrogen, and argon) and process gases (including hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and helium), as well as equipment used in industrial gas production. Linde serves a wide variety of end markets, including chemicals, manufacturing, healthcare, and steelmaking. Linde generated approximately $34 billion in revenue in 2025.

Siemens is a German industrial technology group headquartered in Munich that supplies automation, electrification, rail and healthcare equipment, software and services. It was founded in Berlin on October 1, 1847 by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske. The group reports through Digital Industries (factory automation and industrial software), Smart Infrastructure (buildings and electrical distribution), Siemens Mobility (rolling stock, signalling and rail systems) and Siemens Financial Services, and holds about 75% of separately listed Siemens Healthineers. It sells mainly to manufacturers, utilities, infrastructure owners, transit operators and hospitals, and in fiscal 2025 generated revenue of €78.9 billion and net income of €10.4 billion with about 327,000 employees. In 2020 it spun off Siemens Energy, keeping a 17.1% stake, and bought Varian Medical Systems for US$16.4 billion; in 2025 it added Altair Engineering for about US$10 billion, its largest acquisition, and Dotmatics for US$5.1 billion. Roland Busch has been chief executive since February 2021, and the shares trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as a DAX member.

Deere is the world’s leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment and a major producer of construction machinery. The company is divided into four reporting segments: production & precision agriculture, or PPA, small agriculture & turf, or SAT, construction & forestry, or CF, and financial services, or FS, its captive finance subsidiary. The core PPA business is the largest contributor to sales and profits by far. Geographically, Deere sales are 60% US/Canada, 17% Europe, 14% Latin America, and 9% rest of the world. Deere goes to market through a robust dealer network that includes over 2,000 dealer locations in North America with reach into over 100 countries. John Deere Financial provides retail financing for machinery to its customers and wholesale financing for dealers.

Hitachi Ltd is engaged in diverse businesses spanning industries, energy, IT, and real estate. The company operates through four business segments. The Connective Industries segment covers elevators, escalators, home appliances, air conditioning, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, medical analyzers, industrial and distribution solutions, water and environmental solutions, and industrial equipment. The Digital Systems & Services segment offers system integration, consulting, cloud services, IT products, software, and ATMs. The Green Energy & Mobility segment focuses on power grids, renewable energy, nuclear power, and railway systems. The Others include real estate management, sales, and leasing. It generates the majority of its revenue from the Green Energy & Mobility segment.

ABB is a Swiss-Swedish electrification and automation group headquartered in Zurich and incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd. It was formed in 1988 by the merger of Sweden's ASEA, founded in 1883, and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie, founded in 1891, creating a group with about $15 billion of revenue and 160,000 employees at the time. Its roughly 20 divisions sit in four business areas: Electrification, Motion, Process Automation, and Robotics & Discrete Automation. It sells electrical distribution products such as circuit breakers, motors and drives, industrial robots and automation systems to industrial, utility, building and infrastructure customers. ABB sold its power grids business to Hitachi in 2020, spun off its turbocharging business in 2022, and in October 2025 agreed to sell its industrial robotics unit, with about 7,000 employees and $2.3 billion of 2024 revenue, to SoftBank Group for $5.4 billion. Major 21st-century acquisitions include Baldor Electric, Thomas & Betts and GE Industrial Solutions. The shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and Nasdaq Stockholm, and Morten Wierod has been chief executive since August 2024.

Founded in 1911 by Joseph Eaton, the eponymous company began by selling truck axles in New Jersey. Eaton has since become an industrial powerhouse largely through acquisitions in various end markets. Eaton’s portfolio can broadly be divided into two parts: its electrical and industrial businesses. Its electrical portfolio (representing around 70% of company revenue) sells components within data centers, utilities, and commercial and residential buildings, while its industrial business (30% of revenue) sells components within commercial and passenger vehicles and aircraft. Eaton receives favorable tax treatment as a domiciliary of Ireland, but it generates over half of its revenue within the US.

Safran is a Paris-listed aerospace and defence group formed in 2005 from the merger of Snecma and Sagem. Its propulsion division produces aircraft and helicopter engines and provides parts and maintenance over their operating lives. Other businesses supply landing gear, nacelles, electrical systems, avionics, defence equipment and aircraft interiors. Safran participates with GE Aerospace in CFM International, a major supplier of engines for narrow-body commercial aircraft. Airlines, airframers, armed forces and government customers buy the group’s products and services worldwide. Revenue comes from original equipment, aftermarket parts, maintenance and long-term service contracts. Safran acquired Indian test-systems specialist Captronic from Axon Partners in August 2022.

Founded in 1902, Air Liquide is one of the leading industrial gas companies in the world, serving over 3.8 million customers in 78 countries. The company generated approximately EUR 27.9 billion of revenue in 2025, serving a wide range of industries, including chemicals, energy, healthcare, food and beverage, and electronics. Air Liquide employs approximately 65,000 people.

Parker Hannifin started out in 1917 as Parker Appliance, selling pneumatic brakes. Through the acquisition of branded components, the firm has expanded into aerospace engines, agricultural and construction machinery, freight and passenger vehicles, and industrial automation equipment. Within these larger systems, Parker sells a wide array of small, critical pieces such as hydraulic, electromechanical, climate control, and filtration components. Many of its products are designed to work together, resulting in a high rate of cross-selling.

Zhongji Innolight Co Ltd is a China-based company engaged in the research & development, production, and sales of high-end optical communication transceiver modules, 5G wireless networks, telecom transmission, and fixed network access. The company pays attention to technology research and development and promotes products with high speed, Miniaturization, low power consumption, and low cost that are developed to provide cloud data centers of high-speed Optical transceivers for telecom equipment manufacturers 5G Fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul optical modules are used to transmit optical on metro, backbone, and core networks modules as well as applications for fixed networks.

Mitsubishi Corp. is Japan’s largest general trading house, or sogo shosha, a type of conglomerate unique to Japan. Its core role is that of a trading intermediary in a variety of industrial sectors, including resources businesses like energy and metals as well as non-resources businesses, both industrial ones like automotive and non-industrial ones like food, healthcare, and retail. In addition to acting as a trading intermediary (including midstream processing functions to convert inputs into final products), Mitsubishi also participates in upstream production businesses and downstream distribution businesses.

Atlas Copco is a 140-year-old Swedish company that pioneered air compression technology and remains a leading air compressor manufacturer. Atlas Copco is also a leading manufacturer of vacuum pump equipment, industrial power tools, and portable power and air compression equipment. The company's operations match the geographic breadth of its customers, with a presence in 180 countries. Atlas Copco's revenue is derived from three sources: initial equipment sales, spare parts, and maintenance.

Emerson Electric is an American industrial technology company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that makes automation and control systems, measurement and analytical instruments, test equipment, industrial software and professional tools. Its products serve process and discrete industries such as oil and gas, power generation, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water treatment and heating and air conditioning in more than 150 countries, and it also makes radar and avionics equipment for aerospace and defence. The company was founded on September 24, 1890 by John Wesley Emerson as Emerson Electric Manufacturing Co. to build electric motors, and in 1892 became the first to sell electric fans in the United States. Over the past decade it has reshaped itself around automation: it sold its Network Power business, now Vertiv, to Platinum Equity in 2016, sold its climate technologies business to Blackstone in stages between 2022 and 2024, and bought National Instruments for $8.2 billion in 2023; Aspen Technology is also a subsidiary. Emerson earns its revenue mainly by selling equipment, systems and software to industrial customers. In 2025 it reported revenue of $18.02 billion, operating income of $2.475 billion and net income of $2.293 billion, with about 71,000 employees. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is led by chief executive Lal Karsanbhai and chairman Jim Turley.

3M is a Minnesota-based diversified technology and manufacturing company, founded on 13 June 1902 as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company in Two Harbors, Minnesota, and headquartered in Maplewood, a suburb of Saint Paul, since 1962. It makes roughly 60,000 products including adhesives, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection and personal protective equipment, and consumer brands such as Scotch Tape, Post-it notes and Nexcare bandages. It reported revenue of $24.9 billion and net income of $3.25 billion in 2025 and employed about 60,500 people. In July 2022 it announced the separation of its health care business, which became the independent public company Solventum on 1 April 2024, with 3M initially keeping a 19.9% stake. In 2019 it bought wound care company Acelity for about $6.7 billion.

Howmet Aerospace Inc offers engineered solutions for the aerospace and transportation industries. The company's products and solutions include investment castings for jet engines and industrial gas turbines; seamless rolled rings for jet engines; fastening systems for aerospace, industrial and commercial transportation applications; forged jet engine components (e.g., jet engine disks); machined and forged aircraft parts; and forged aluminum commercial vehicle wheels, all of which are sold directly to customers or through distributors. It has four reportable segments: Engine Products, which derives key revenue, Fastening Systems, Engineered Structures, and Forged Wheels. Geographically, the company derives maximum revenue from the USA, followed by France, Japan, Germany, and other markets.

Sherwin-Williams is the largest provider of architectural paint in the United States. The company has over 4,800 stores and sells premium paint at higher price points than most competitors. Sherwin-Williams also sells paint-related products in big-box stores and provides coatings for original equipment manufacturers.

Vertiv has roots tracing back to 1946 when its founder, Ralph Liebert, developed an air-cooling system for mainframe data rooms. As computers started making their way into commercial applications in 1965, Liebert developed one of the first computer room air conditioning, or CRAC, units, enabling the precise control of temperature and humidity. The firm has slowly expanded its data center portfolio through internal product development and the acquisition of thermal and power management products like condensers, busways, and switches. Vertiv has global operations today; its products can be found in data centers in most regions throughout the world.

Ecolab produces and markets cleaning and sanitation products for the industrial manufacturing, data center, hospitality, healthcare, and life sciences markets. The firm is the global market share leader in this category with a wide array of products and services, including dish and laundry washing systems, pest control, and infection control products. Additionally, Ecolab sells customized water management and cooling solutions across its end markets. The company has a strong hold on the US market and is growing its presence abroad.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd is engaged in the manufacturing and sale of ships, industrial machinery, and aircraft. The segments of the company are Energy; Plants and Infrastructure Systems; Logistics, Thermal and Drive Systems; and Aircraft, Defense, and Space. The company earns maximum revenue from the energy segment, which handles clean gas, steam power systems, nuclear power systems, compressors, and marine machinery. The Plants and Infrastructure Systems segment of the company deals with commercial ships, engineering, machine tools, and machinery systems; Logistics, Thermal, and Drive Systems provide material handling systems, engines, HVAC systems, and automotive air-conditioners; and the Aircraft, Defense, and Space cover commercial aircraft, defense aircraft, and others. The group also develops nuclear reactor technology and associated engineering capabilities. Its United States advanced pressurised water reactor design was selected for the proposed Comanche Peak expansion in Texas. A subsidiary participated in the development joint venture with Luminant, separately from the existing operating nuclear units.

Founded in 1912, Illinois Tool Works has become a diversified industrial manufacturer through acquisitions and innovations that follow customer needs. ITW operates through seven business segments, with no segment representing more than one-fifth of revenue. ITW’s automotive OEM segment sells vehicle components; its food equipment segment sells commercial kitchen appliances; its test and measurement and electronics segment sells inspection and analysis equipment; its welding segment sells welding equipment and consumables; its polymers and fluids segment sells industrial and consumer adhesives, solvents, and coatings; its construction products segment sells building fasteners and tools; and its specialty products segment sells medical, packaging, HVAC, and airport ground equipment.

Nan Ya Plastics Corp manufactures and sells a variety of polyester and electronic products. The company engages in the manufacture and sale of plastic products, polyester fibers, petrochemical products, and electronic materials. Geographically, the company generates a majority of its revenue from Taiwan and the rest from China and other markets.

Cummins is a leading manufacturer of diesel and other engines used in heavy- and medium-duty commercial trucks, off-highway equipment, and locomotives, in addition to prime power and standby generators. The company also sells powertrain components, which include filtration products, transmissions, turbochargers, aftertreatment systems, and fuel systems. Sales are approximately 60% US and Canada and 40% rest of the world. Much of Cummins’ foreign sales (China, India, and so forth) are through joint ventures. The company operates 650 distributors and over 19,000 dealer locations across 190 countries. Cummins’ business model is unique as it competes with many of its heavy-duty truck manufacturer customers, which also make their own engines.

LG Energy Solution is the third-largest battery maker for electric vehicles with about 11% global share in 2024, according to SNE Research. The EV battery segment is the largest revenue contributor, which accounted for more than 60% of total revenue in 2024. LGES also manufactures batteries for mobility, mobile phones, laptops, electrical devices, and energy storage systems. The company was spun off from LG Chem’s battery division in December 2020 and listed on the Korea Exchange in January 2022. It has global manufacturing facilities in Korea, China, Poland, and the United States. Key customers include General Motors, Tesla, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Stellantis.

Merck KGaA operates in three main segments: life science, electronics, and healthcare. The life science segment provides laboratory consumables and instruments to researchers in academia and applied fields, including the biopharmaceutical industry. The electronics segment offers specialty materials to manufacture a variety of products, such as semiconductors and flat-screen televisions. In the healthcare segment, Merck develops, manufactures, and sells branded pharmaceuticals with significant therapeutic concentrations in oncology, multiple sclerosis, and fertility. In 1995, the E. Merck family publicly sold part of the company, resulting in the current 30% public ownership of the firm.

Honeywell traces its roots to 1885 with Albert Butz’s firm, Butz Thermo-Electric Regulator, which produced a predecessor to the modern thermostat. Other inventions by Honeywell include biodegradable detergent and autopilot. Today, Honeywell is a global multi-industry behemoth with one of the largest installed bases of equipment. It operates through four business segments: aerospace technologies, industrial automation, energy and sustainability solutions, and building automation. Recently, Honeywell has made several portfolio changes to focus on fewer end markets and align with a set of secular growth trends. The firm is working diligently to expand its installed base, deriving around one third of its revenue from recurring aftermarket services.

Shin Etsu Chemical is an industrial conglomerate that was founded in 1926. Some of its largest product groups are silicon metal, polymer, silicone, rare-earth, and cellulose products. It holds top rankings in several markets, notably as the largest PVC and silicon wafer producer globally. Shin-Etsu is most exposed to the construction, semiconductors, and pharmaceutical sectors. Shin Etsu employed 27,274 people as of March 31 and has production bases in 17 countries.

Since its founding in 1940, Air Products has become one of the leading industrial gas suppliers globally, with operations in 50 countries and 19,000 employees. The company is the world's largest supplier of hydrogen and helium. It has a unique portfolio serving customers across industries, including chemicals, energy, healthcare, metals, and electronics. Air Products generated roughly $12 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025.

Based in Toronto, Barrick is one of the world's largest gold miners. In 2025, the firm sold about 3.3 million attributable ounces of gold and about 220,000 metric tons of copper. At end-2025, Barrick had about two decades of gold reserves along with significant copper reserves. After buying Randgold in 2019 and combining its Nevada mines in a joint venture with competitor Newmont later that year, it operates mines in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The company also has growing copper exposure, driven by the expansion of its Lumwana mine in Zambia and the development of its Reko Diq copper and gold project in Pakistan. It intends to undertake an IPO of its joint venture stakes in Nevada Gold Mines and Pueblo Viejo along with its Fourmile deposit later in 2026.

TransDigm manufactures and services a broad set of specialized parts for commercial and military aircraft. The firm has three segments: power and control, airframes, and a small nonaviation segment, which serves mostly off-road vehicles and mining equipment. It is an acquisitive holding company focused on buying up smaller firms that make proprietary aerospace products with substantial aftermarket revenue. TransDigm regularly employs financial leverage to amplify its operating results.

Elite Material Co Ltd is engaged in the manufacturing and selling of printed circuit boards, copper-clad laminates, electronic-industrial specialty chemicals, raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods of electronic components. The Group has three reportable segments: The domestic segment produces and sells different types of printed circuit board products, electronic-industrial specialty chemicals, and electronic components, the Foreign segment produces and sells prepreg for printed circuit board and copper-clad laminate, and the Other segment includes investment and product exchange business. Geographically, it operates in Taiwan, China, and Other countries.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd is a technology, engineering, manufacturing, and financial services conglomerate operating globally. It enters into contracts to construct various facilities, develop solutions for offshore and onshore hydrocarbon projects, serve power plants, build ships, and perform other engineering projects. Its integrated capabilities help customers throughout the entire value chain, from design to delivering a project. The company's operating segments are: Infrastructure projects, Energy projects, Hi-Tech Manufacturing, IT & Technology services, Financial services, Development projects, and other segments. A majority of its revenue is generated from the Infrastructure projects segment. Geographically, the group generates maximum revenue from its operations in India.

Sumitomo Corp. is a general trading house, or sogo shosha, a type of conglomerate unique to Japan. Its core role is that of a trading intermediary in a variety of industrial sectors, including resource businesses such as energy and metals as well as nonresource businesses, both industrial ones like machinery and nonindustrial ones like food, media, and retail. In addition to acting as a trading intermediary (including midstream processing functions to convert inputs into final products), Sumitomo also participates in upstream production businesses and downstream distribution businesses.

BASF is one of the world’s leading chemical companies. It's headquartered in Germany near the Rhine River, which helps with logistics-related savings. Founded in 1865, it produces a vast array of chemicals, plastics, resins, and agricultural solutions. While the company serves multiple industries, it most prominently serves the automotive, agricultural, construction, and pharmaceutical industries. BASF is a first mover in the energy transition and aims to rapidly expand its recycled and bio-based product portfolio.

With roots tracing back to the early 1900s, Rockwell Automation is the successor to Rockwell International, which spun off its avionics segment in 2001. It is a pure-play industrial automation company that operates through three segments. Its largest segment by revenue, intelligent devices, sells factory floor-level devices such as motors, drives, sensors, relays, and actuators. Its software and control segment sells visualization, simulation, and human-machine interface software and control products such as programmable controllers, computers, and operator terminals. Its smallest segment, lifecycle services, offers digital consulting, engineered-to-order services, and other outsourced services such as remote monitoring, cybersecurity, and asset and plant maintenance and optimization.

Coherent Corp is a vertically integrated manufacturing company that develops, manufactures, and markets lasers, transceivers, and other optical and optoelectronic devices, modules, and systems, as well as engineered materials, for use in the communications, industrial, instrumentation, and electronics markets. Its reporting segments are Datacenter Communications and Industrial. Its geographic areas are North America, Europe, China, Japan, and the rest of the world.

Sandvik is a manufacturer of specialized tools and mining equipment used predominantly by global mining, engineering, and automotive customers. The group is composed of three segments: mining and rock solutions, rock processing, and machining. Sandvik was founded in 1862 and listed on the Nordic Exchange in Stockholm in 1901.

Spun off from Roche in 2000, Givaudan is one of the world's leading flavor and fragrance manufacturers, with a presence in more than 80 countries. It sources more than 11,000 different ingredients from over 100 countries. The company serves end consumer markets with fragrances for personal, home, and laundry care brands, including prestige perfumes. In flavors, customers are in beverages, savory, snacks, sweet goods, and dairy. Givaudan has nearly 10,000 employees, and its perfumery team is the largest in the industry.

ASM International is a Dutch company that supplies deposition equipment for chip fabrication. It is the leader in atomic layer deposition, a precise deposition technique that is required in the most advanced semiconductors. ASM’s main clients are logic foundries TSMC, Samsung, and Intel, as well as memory foundries SK Hynix and Micron Technology. Foundries and wafer fab equipment providers like ASM work closely, which gives the firm insight into the customer’s innovation and product roadmaps. Once a machine is established in a fab, it can generate service revenue for decades.

Established in Osaka, Japan, in 1924, Daikin Industries is one of the world’s largest residential and commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning product and service companies. North America, Japan, China, and Europe are Daikin’s four biggest markets, with North America accounting for over 30% of the company’s revenue over the years. The air conditioning segment represents about 90% of Daikin’s revenue and operating income, while chemicals and others account for the remaining 10%.

Disco is a Japan-based semiconductor production equipment manufacturer. Founded in 1937, the company manufactures diamond, water, and laser saws, as well as grinders and polishers, used mainly in back-end processes of semiconductor manufacturing, which involves treating processed silicon during the front-end process by thinning and dicing the wafers into bare dies for packaging.It is the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor-grade saws and grinders, with an estimated 60%-70% market share in the semiconductor dicing and grinding industry as of 2025. The company operates three main factories, all located in Hiroshima and Nagano, Japan.

SABIC is a global Saudi chemicals and materials producer manufacturing petrochemicals, polymers, fertilizers and specialty products. The organisation serves customers and counterparties in B2B markets through products, infrastructure, services or investment activity suited to its sector. Its operating model generates income through product sales, depending on the business line and transaction period. The company is classified here using the historical entity that existed when the investment occurred, rather than a later owner or successor brand. This description is intended to distinguish the transaction target from similarly named entities and to give enough business context for a standalone database record. SABIC serves B2B customers through activities spanning Chemicals. Its commercial model generates revenue through Product sales, supported by sector expertise, operating execution and customer relationships.

Established in 1910, Sika produces specialty chemicals primarily used by the construction sector (85% of sales). Its products are mainly used for bonding, sealing, reinforcing, and protecting in the construction and automotive industries. Approximately 70% of its products have a positive impact on sustainability for customers. Sika has a global manufacturing footprint of more than 400 factories spread across over 100 countries.

Novonesis was formed in 2024 through the merger of Novozymes and Chr. Hansen. Following the merger, the company became the world leader in industrial enzymes and microbial solutions, with a nearly 50% market share in both. The firm supplies a wide range of industry groups: household care, food and beverages, bioenergy, agriculture and feed, technical and pharmaceuticals. Its biological solutions create value for its customers by improving yield efficiency and performance, while saving energy and generating less waste. The company is headquartered in Denmark, employs more than 11,000 people, and works across more than 30 research and development and application centers and 23 manufacturing sites.

Bridgestone Corp is engaged in developing, manufacturing, and marketing tires and diversified products. The company manufactures tires and tubes for passenger cars, trucks and buses, construction and mining vehicles, industrial machinery, agricultural machinery, aircraft, motorcycles and scooters, and others. Its tire operations include retread base tire business, automotive maintenance and repairs, retail business, and raw material supplies, as well as tire development, manufacturing, and marketing. The company also provides diversified products that include industrial products, chemical products, automotive components, construction materials, electronic equipment, bicycles, and sporting goods.

Wanhua Chemical Group Co Ltd is engaged in the development, production, and sales of polyurethane and additives, isocyanate and derivative products; the sales of liquefied petroleum gas, propylene, acrylic acid, and other petrochemical products.

Ingersoll Rand was formed through the merger of Gardner Denver and Ingersoll Rand's industrial segment. The firm’s portfolio consists of two business lines: industrial technologies and services, and precision and science technologies. Ingersoll Rand serves a variety of end markets, including industrial, medical, and energy. Its broad portfolio of products includes compression, blower and vacuum, and fluid management. Ingersoll Rand generated roughly $7.7 billion in revenue in 2025.