British firm buys Brooks

WOLSELEY, the British builders merchants, has acquired the Brooks Group for €183 million.

Brooks, the third largest builders merchants in Ireland behind Grafton and Heiton Group, was put up for sale by its Finnish parent UPM-Kymmene Corporation some months ago.

A number of bidders for Brooks had emerged including Heitons and the McMahon family.

Brooks has 18 branches across Ireland and employs 430 employees.

For the year to end December 2003, the company had sales of €195m and operating profit, before goodwill amortisation, of €9.4m.

Net assets, excluding debt, were €57.4m.

Wolseley chief executive Charlie Banks said in a statement yesterday: “We are delighted to announce this acquisition which is in line with our strategy to expand our heavyside operations in Europe.

“Brooks is an excellent company and, along with Heatmerchants, our plumbing and heating distributor, provides Wolseley with a platform for further organic growth in the Ireland market.

“We look forward to welcoming the Brooks management and employees into the Wolseley group and to driving the business forward together.”

The company also said that it plans to sell a number of Brooks’ freehold and leasehold properties for €53m.

Wolseley said it believes that there will be significant opportunities for cost-savings between Brooks and Heatmerchants, which is the company’s existing Irish business.

Wolseley is the world’s largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products, with sales of £8.2 billion.

The Brooks deal may play a significant role in the ongoing takeover battle being waged between Grafton and Heitons.

Had Heitons secured Brooks it would have almost certainly prevented its takeover by Grafton because of competition issues. Grafton has had one offer for Heiton rebuffed. The Irish Takeover Panel set next Friday as a deadline to come back to the table.