Kobe Steel's wholly owned construction-machinery subsidiary has agreed to buy 70% of CNH's construction equipment business for $700mn on an enterprise-value basis, with CNH keeping the other 30%. Kobe Steel's board approved the deal on 9 November 2026, and the subsidiary signed a share transfer agreement with CNH the same day.
What is being bought
CNH Industrial N.V. and its affiliates will first move the business into two companies it has already set up: Case Construction UK Limited, based in Basildon, England, and Case Construction U.S. LLC, based in Racine, Wisconsin. The Kobe Steel subsidiary will then take 70% of each. The US shares will be bought through a new subsidiary of the Kobe Steel subsidiary. Both company names are expected to change by completion, and the new names are undecided.
The business operates under the CASE Construction Equipment, New Holland Construction and Eurocomach brands. Kobe Steel says it sells small and medium machines for commercial construction and large machines for infrastructure and public works, with sales and service networks in North America, Europe and Latin America.
Price and financing
The $700mn covers the 70% stake and is converted at ¥157.90 to the dollar, or ¥110.5bn. Acquisition-related costs are estimated at ¥4.0bn, for a total of about ¥114.5bn. The final price will be set at completion after adjustments for the two companies' net interest-bearing debt and working capital.
Kobe Steel plans to fund the purchase with bridge loans from its main banks and then refinance them, choosing the instruments and timing according to financial-market conditions. The company says it is still assessing the effect on its results and finances and will announce any forecast revision promptly. Its current-year forecast, published on 5 August 2026, is for sales of ¥2.69tn and operating profit of ¥150bn.
What the target earns
The figures below are for the business that will be moved into the two new companies. CNH supplied them under IFRS, unaudited and on a pre-tax adjusted basis, and Kobe Steel cautions that they may differ from what the business would report if run on its own. CNH said the 2023 figures are not available.
| Measure | Year to December 2024 | Year to December 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3,053mn | $2,956mn |
| EBITDA | $253mn | $167mn |
| Net assets | $462mn | $501mn |
Revenue fell and EBITDA dropped between the two years shown, while net assets rose.
Conditions and timing
Completion depends on competition-law approvals in the relevant countries and other customary conditions. The share transfer is planned for the third quarter of the 2027 fiscal year.
Kobe Steel's stated rationale is to build a global machinery business as part of its 2024 to 2026 mid-term plan. It says the CNH business complements its excavator, crane and construction-digital offerings, and that it wants to combine its K-DIVE solutions with CNH's satellite-positioning technology under a strategic partnership. The filing reports no capital, personnel or trading relationship between Kobe Steel and the CNH companies.
A separate amended shelf registration filed the same day for Kobe Steel's ¥200bn bond programme, with ¥169bn still available, only adds the extraordinary report as a reference document. It states no bond issue tied to the deal.