Producer and marketer of design-led carpets and floor coverings and LSE-listed Victoria PLC has acquired Abingdon Flooring Limited, a UK carpet manufacturer and its wholly owned subsidiaries.
Victoria has bought Abingdon for an initial cash consideration of £7.655 million. Additional deferred cash consideration of up to £4.5 million will be payable to the vendors of Abingdon, if annual performance targets for increased EBIT are achieved over a three year period.Producer and marketer of design-led carpets and floor coverings and LSE-listed Victoria PLC has acquired Abingdon Flooring Limited, a UK carpet #
Victoria said it will also retain Abingdon's existing bank facilities with RBS.
Operating from three facilities in UK and employing more than 500 people, Abingdon produces in excess of nine million square metres of carpet per annum.
Abingdon is also one of the UK's largest privately owned manufacturers of quality carpets, producing a wide range of products under brands like Stainfree, Wilton Royal and Distinctive Flooring.
Victoria said all key senior management of Abingdon will remain with the business and it will continue to operate independently, whilst benefiting from the synergies of an enlarged group.
For the financial year ended March 31, 2014, Abingdon generated turnover of £75.1 million, EBIT of £2.5 million and profit before tax of £2.2 million.
According to Victoria, the acquisition is in line with its strategy of growing its business with earnings enhancing acquisitions.
The annual turnover of the enlarged group will be more than £160 million, operating from 6 manufacturing sites in the UK and 2 in Australia.
The Abingdon acquisition, Victoria said will be funded using facilities provided by Barclays Bank and from its newly-signed fully-subordinated £10m 2022 unsecured loan note facility or also called Loan Note provided by BGF.
BGF is a UK active growth capital investor in small mid-sized companies, with up to £2.5 billion to invest and is backed by five of the UK's main banking groups - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered but is a fully independent organisation.
This is BGF's first investment into a quoted public company and the Loan Note carries a fixed coupon of 10 per cent, but with no capital repayment for the first five years, with capital then being repaid over the following three years.
Alongside, Victoria also announced that Gavin Petken, BGF's Regional Director for The Midlands will join the Victoria board.
Commenting on the acquisition, Chairman Geoff Wilding said, "The acquisition of Abingdon represents the second significant step forward, following the acquisition of Westex in December last year. (AR)
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