Ingersoll-Rand Co., which is planning to set up in Bermuda, said it will close five refrigeration plants and cut an unspecified number of jobs last week.

The move will increase the number of facilities scheduled to be closed to 25, according to Chief Financial Officer David Devonshire who made the announcement at a Lehman Brothers Inc. conference in Coral Gables, Florida.

Mr. Devonshire did not say which factories are involved, except that they would be at IR's Hussmann commercial and retail refrigeration unit.

The company was withholding specific information "until we are able to communicate with the affected employees," reports said spokesman Paul Dickard said.

Ingersoll-Rand is based in Woodcliff Lake, but none of its manufacturing plants are located there.

In October, the company's board of directors approved a plan to change its place of incorporation from New Jersey to Bermuda.

Under the plan, which is subject to a shareholder vote next month, Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd., a newly formed Bermuda corporation, would become the parent of Ingersoll-Rand Co. Even so, the corporate headquarters where there are 140 jobs, would remain in Bergen County.

The company has been closing factories and fired 4,000 workers because of declining sales and profits. Ingersoll signalled that additional cuts were coming during its third-quarter conference call with analysts last month, but never indicated where they would be, Mr. Dickard said.

Revenues in the company's climate control sector, which includes the Hussmann and Thermo King brands, decreased by three percent in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2000, and operating margins fell from 9.4 percent to six percent because of a decline in highly profitable truck trailer volume, the company said.

Overall, Ingersoll-Rand's third-quarter profits fell 87 percent to $33.9 million, or 20 cents a share, as sales dropped 5.1 percent to $2.38 billion. The company, best known for its Ingersoll-Rand brand of industrial equipment and compressors, also makes Bobcat loaders, Schlage locks, and Club Carr golf carts.