Huws Gray £520m Acquisition of Grafton Merchant Businesses

HUWS GRAY has agreed the acquisition of Grafton Group plc’s merchant businesses in a £520 million deal.

Huws Gray Acquisition

Huws Gray will be acquiring the Buildbase, Civils & Lintels, PDM Buildbase, The Timber Group, Bathroom Distribution Group, Frontline and NDI brands.

The businesses come under Grafton’s Traditional Merchanting Business. Freehold properties with development potential and that form part of the business, valued at circa £25 million, are being retained by Grafton.

The agreement follows the announcement in April 2021 of a strategic review which advised exiting the building materials distribution market. Grafton’s merchant business revenue had fallen in the year to 31 December 2020 to £828.2 million (2019: £1.02 billion) and adjusted operating profit of £18.8 million (2019: £33.3 million).

Superior Returns

Gavin Slark, Chief Executive Officer of Grafton said: “This is an attractive outcome for Grafton and is in line with our strategy of deploying our capital resources towards higher growth potential businesses offering superior returns.”

Grafton says it will continue to develop its Selco Builders Warehouse network and other specialist distribution and manufacturing businesses.

The acquisition by Huws Gray will be notified to the Competition and Markets Authority but Grafton says the transaction’s completion is not conditional on the CMA’s response.

Huws Gray’s purchase from the Grafton Group follows a number of other recent acquisitions after backing from private equity investors, Inflexion. Inflexion also bought out roof tile manufacturer, Marley, in August 2019.

Other Huws Gray acquisitions include Builders Supplies (West Coast) Ltd in 2021, and AC Trusses, Uriah Woodhead & Son in Bradford, with sister business, Nelsons of Keighley in 2020.

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