Abacus Group has confirmed it is talking to prospective buyers. The Newbury, UK-based company has been encountering the market's choppy waters and profits for the half year to end of March were £4.5m, down from £6.8M year on year.
No news on who these prospective buyers might be as yet. It is difficult to look beyond Arrow or Avnet in the distribution sector. It is highly unlikely the catalogue distributors would be interested. Of the other larger distributors, Future Electronics is not typically acquisitive. US company Nu Horizons, still relatively fresh-faced in Europe, might be interested though this would be a much bigger buy than its other European acquisitions. Would Taiwan's World Peace Group see this as an opportunity to break into a new market?
The news looks to have followed a strategic review by the Abacus board. It is an attractive business for any buyer looking to spread its European wings, with operations in the UK, Eire, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Abacus makes much of its role as a local distributor. It has a string of regional offices throughout the UK supporting virtually every region. It is a tactic which has attracted some customer loyalty.
There could of course be more than one buyer. Abacus is not a pure distribution group. Through acquisition it has a manufacturing arm consisting of Alpha3 which undertakes electro-mechanical sub assembly work, and presumably supports the distribution arm. It also owns Dubilier, the e-mech component manufacturer, and Eledis which makes switches.
Possibly not big enough to attract a trade buyer, these could be the subject of a management buy-out.
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