Leeds manufacturer moves ahead with £691m deal
RASPBERRY PI manufacturer Premier Farnell has seemingly come to a decision in the tug-of-war over its future.
The Leeds-based electronics manufacturer has today said it is progressing with a bid by US company Avnet which offered £691m for the company, (giving it a market capitalisation of £868m) over one by a Swiss company, Datwyler.
Yesterday rival suitor Datwyler said it would not be drawn into a bidding war, and that the its offer would lapse at the deadline – this weekend, on 21 August.
The battle over Premier Farnell’s future ownership came to a head in July.
Having all but signed on the dotted line for the Datwyler offer which valued the company at £792m, a surprise bid from Avnet came in.
The company withdrew its recommendation of the Datwyler offer of 165p per share when the 185p per share offer from Avnet came in, which would see its subsidiary Bidco acquire the Yorkshire business.
The $5.2bn fortune 500 company’s offer was apparently too good to refuse.
Now Premier Farnell has announced that the two companies had agreed on the terms of a cash offer, subject to the opinion of a majority of its shareholders.
A meeting on 12 September will determine the official status of the deal.
In its Q1 results, Premier Farnell reported revenues of £247.2m, up from £240.m in the same period the year before, though the company has been suffering “challenging trading conditions” in North America which affected its bottom line in March 2016.
