HORIBA bought all of Process Instruments, a Utah maker of Raman spectroscopy analyzers that monitor chemical processes in real time, founded in 1994. It has more than 100 systems in petrochemical plants and a large share of the North American market. The price was about ¥1.94 billion. About Process Instruments The company's analyzers are built for harsh refinery and petrochemical sites and can check dozens of product streams with one instrument. Before the deal it had sales of about ¥516 million, a small net loss and net assets of about ¥1.17 billion. The deal HORIBA bought it through a Utah company set up for the purpose under HORIBA Instruments, and placed it in its Process & Environmental business. President Lee Smith said HORIBA's global marketing and technology would take its process Raman products into markets it could not reach before.
