Anixter Acquires Italy’s MFU Holding

John Wolz

Anixter International Inc. is expanding its European business by acquiring Italian fastener distributor MFU Holding SpA.

Brescia, Italy -based MFU also provides valued-added services and inventory management programs to OEMs. For the full year of 2006 MFU is expected to have sales of approximately U.S.$66 million. Of the projected sales approximately 80% will be in Italy, while the remainder will be in Spain, Turkey, Germany and other European countries.

Anixter acquired all outstanding shares from MFU management and private equity investors. Anixter is paying approximately $58 million in cash consideration for MFU and assuming approximately $11 million of outstanding debt obligations.

Anixter CEO Bob Grubbs described the acquisition as a “significant step in expanding the European portion of our OEM Supply business from its predominately UK-based presence to include a broader portion of the European marketplace.”

“This acquisition not only expands the geographic scope of our OEM Supply business, but it also brings us a very complementary customer base to our existing base,” Grubbs added. “Given our
stated goal of building a strategic platform that will provide significant opportunity to drive organic sales growth, this acquisition is a very good addition to our existing business.”

Headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, IL, Anixter International reported 2005 sales rose 17.4% to $3.85 billion, with $750 million from fasteners. North American sales grew 14.3% and European 31%. Combined sales in Asia and Latin America were up 19.6%. (see FIN Review of Fastener Stocks in 2005, May 24, 2008)
Web: Anixter.com

Last year Anixter’s �54 million (US$98.8m) acquisition of UK-based Infast Group plc ranked on Richard Hagan’s Top 10 Fastener Acquisitions of 2005.

Headquartered in Gloucester, England, Infast distributes fasteners and C class components to OEMs from 25 UK distributions centers and six in the U.S. Infast has 900 employees and reported 2004 net sales of �157.1 million (US$294.7m) and EBIT of �3.1 million (US$5.8m). Infast became part of Anixter’s OEM supply segment, which is comprised of acquired fastener distributors Pentacon (2002), UK-based Walters Hexagon (2003) and Distribution Dynamics (2004). �2006 FastenerNews.comand Fastener & Fixing Europe