Ruck: Pentacon Operations to Remain the Same

John Wolz

Rob Ruck is looking forward to his second year as CEO of Pentacon Inc. and his first year receding to the past.
Pentacon spent most of the past year teetering financially, culminating in a filing for bankruptcy and a late-stage acquisition by Anixter International Inc.
Ruck said the Anixter acquisition won�t trigger many changes at Pentacon. �This is a capital market event as opposed to an operational event,� Ruck explained. �It is a pretty clean deal.�\
Ruck said the buyout �cleans up the balance sheet� of nearly $100 million of debt �so Pentacon can start fresh. �
And after his first year, starting fresh would be �refreshing,� Ruck told FIN.
Pentacon is likely to remain the name, though there may be some future �blending of the name� with Anixter. Pentacon/Anixter, he suggested.
There will be some juggling of branches of the former Maumee Industries/Fort Wayne facilities to be closer to customers, but that was in the works prior to Anixter, Ruck noted.
A key to the future is keeping fastener suppliers happy. That is why Pentacon announced the deal to suppliers first in a May 23 conference call to tell them �the trade is getting paid in full,� Ruck explained.
Last December billionaire Sam Zell � as chairman of Anixter � took an equity piece of Pentacon buying bonds. But the stock buyout came up late in the process.
It started with a query as to whether Pentacon could be for sale, and �you read the results,� Ruck summarized the deal. The transaction is now �a blur � it went so fast.�
In addition to the suppliers, Ruck emphasized that �I�m very happy all the creditors are in support of this.�
However, stockholders, including many in the fastener industry, lose 90% of their stock value in the deal.
Ruck said Pentacon will be active in the industry after being �distracted for the last six months.� And Pentacon will continue to run as a stand-alone business after the Anixter deal closes during the third quarter, Ruck added.
�Our task, our challenge, is to live up to expectations and focus on employees, customers and suppliers,� Ruck proclaimed. In his 13 months at the helm Ruck said he �never lost sight of the goal.� �2002 FastenerNews.com