6th Jan 2005 07:00
Wolseley PLC06 January 2005 Wolseley plc £41 Million Spent on Four New Acquisitions Wolseley plc, the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing andheating products and a leading supplier of building materials to professionalcontractors, provides an update on recent acquisitions. Since Wolseley's last acquisitions announcement on 27 September 2004, anadditional four distribution businesses in Europe and North America have beenacquired for an aggregate consideration of approximately £41 million in cash. These acquisitions bring Wolseley's total spend on acquisitions, including debtacquired, since the beginning of the financial year, to approximately £183million. In total, the ten acquisitions completed to date are expected to addapproximately £290 million to group turnover in a full year. Goodwill related tothese ten acquisitions is estimated to be around £68 million. Details of the additional four acquisitions are set out below. North American Plumbing and Heating Distribution In December 2004, Parnell-Martin Management LLC ("Parnell-Martin") was acquiredin the USA. Parnell-Martin is a wholesale distributor of plumbing products from17 locations across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia andFlorida. The acquisition of Parnell-Martin will increase Wolseley's market sharein the region and will enable Parnell-Martin to benefit from access toFerguson's distribution centres. Parnell-Martin had sales of $93.0 million(£48.9 million) in the year to 31 December 2003 and net assets, excluding netdebt, of $34.9 million (£18.3 million) at that date. Also in December 2004, Ferguson acquired Record Supply Company, Inc. ("RSupply"). R Supply is a four branch, wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating,air conditioning, waterworks, irrigation products and industrial tools,operating in the northern regions of Nevada and California. R Supply had salesof $30.0 million (£15.8 million) in the year to 31 December 2003 and net assets,excluding net debt, of $9.3 million (£4.9 million) at that date. Wolseley Canada acquired the shares of TAPS Wholesale Bath Centre Inc. ("TAPS")in December 2004. Based in Toronto, TAPS is the largest retail plumbing showroomin Ontario. The single facility, which has a reputation for quality andexcellence, will enable Wolseley Canada to continue its expansion into theprofitable retail showroom market through replication of the TAPS concept toother metropolitan areas across Canada. TAPS had sales of C$14.0 million (£6.3million) in the year to 31 December 2003 and net liabilities, excluding netdebt, of C$0.3 million (£0.1 million) at that date, due to excellent workingcapital management. The previously announced acquisition by Ferguson of substantially all of theoperating assets of the Clark Group family of companies completed in November2004, following Court approval. The Clark Group's main business is thefabrication and distribution of fire protection equipment, headquartered in St.Louis Missouri. European Distribution In November 2004, Brossette in France acquired the trade and assets of BML, aspecialist distributor of products to public works projects, operating from onebranch south of Paris. The company had sales of €5.6 million (£4.0 million) inthe year to 31 December 2003 and net assets, excluding net debt, of €0.7 million(£0.5 million) at that date. The segmental split of the total acquisition spend since 1 August 2004 has been: Division No. of Acquisitions Spend £ million European Distribution 5 130 North American Plumbing & Heating 5 53Distribution TOTAL 10 183 Charlie Banks, Group Chief Executive of Wolseley said: "These bolt-on acquisitions will further strengthen our presence in Europe andNorth America, and they support our strategy of growing the business throughacquisition and organic growth. We are well on the way to achieving our targetbolt-on acquisition spend of £200 million in the current financial year." Exchange Rates The following exchange rates have been used for the six acquisitions notedabove: £1 = $1.90, £1 = €1.41, £1 = C$2.30. Press/Investor Enquiries: Wolseley plc 0118 929 8700Guy StainerHead of Investor Relations Brunswick 020 7404 5959Nina Coad Notes to Editors Wolseley plc is the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing andheating products and a leading supplier of building materials to professionalcontractors in North America, the UK and Continental Europe. Group sales for theyear ended 31 July 2004 were approximately £10.1 billion and operating profit,before goodwill, was £619 million. Wolseley has around 50,000 employeesoperating in 13 countries namely: UK, USA, France, Canada, Ireland, Italy, TheNetherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg andDenmark. Wolseley is listed on the London and New York Stock Exchanges (LSE:WOS.L, NYSE: WOS) and is in the FTSE 100 index of listed companies. -- ENDS -- This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Ferguson