United Tech Gearing Up for Major Buy: Report

United Technologies Corp is lining up financing in the double-digit billions of dollars to support a major acquisition in the United States, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The U.S. industrial conglomerate is tapping the credit market for funds that could top $20 billion, said one of the sources.

The sources declined to say which company United Tech planned to buy as terms of the offer are still being worked out and any potential bid could still fall apart. The sources asked not to be identified as the plans are confidential.

United Tech spokesman John Moran declined to comment. The company has a market value of $67 billion and had $5.4 billion in cash as of June 30.

Aerospace supplier Goodrich Corp, which has a market value of nearly $11 billion, and smaller rival Rockwell Collins Inc, which has a market value of $8 billion, are seen as attractive targets for United Tech, according to people familiar with the industry but not directly involved in the matter.

Over the years, Cessna aircraft maker Textron Inc and large industrial conglomerates such as Tyco International and Honeywell International have also been mentioned as possible targets for United Tech.

United Tech Chief Executive Louis Chenevert has repeatedly said the company is interested in doing more deals. But he and Chief Financial Officer Greg Hayes have complained that they have found ``substantial disconnect'' between what they are willing to pay and what potential sellers expect.

Chenevert, who came up through the company's aerospace business and headed Pratt & Whitney before taking the top job at corporate, holds up his $1.8 billion acquisition of General Electric Co's security business as the sort of deal he would like to replicate in the near future.

In 2008 United Tech made a hostile $2.64 billion takeover offer for Diebold Inc, a maker of automated teller machines. That effort was ultimately fruitless, and Chenevert has since said he would be reluctant to go hostile again after that experience.