Listed company offloads fire equipment firm in £154m deal
LISTED business Premier Farnell is offloading its US fire equipment business Akron Brass.
The Leeds-based electronics and equipment business suffered a demotion from the FTSE 250 late last year and is attempting to refocus its offering.
The IDEX Corporation is acquiring the business for £153.8m.
For the first half of the year, to the end of July 2015, the firm reported revenues of £498m, up from £479m in the same period last year.
Premier Farnell did report that total pretax profit dipped to £30.6m, a decrease of 16% on the same period last year, after being hit by core market slowdown.
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Mark Whiteling, Premier Farnell Interim Chief Executive, said: “Following the completion of the operational review and the conclusions announced in December 2015, the sale of Akron Brass marks the next important milestone in the strategic refocusing of Premier Farnell.
“The review confirmed that there are significant opportunities to improve the operational and financial performance of Premier Farnell. The sale of Akron Brass will enable us to focus on executing the initiatives identified as part of our review in order to restore growth in profitability in FY17.”
Lazard & Co., Limited is acting as lead financial adviser in relation to the disposal. Barclays Bank, acting through its Investment Bank is acting as sponsor and financial adviser to Premier Farnell.
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