Acquisition of John Liscombe Limited

Electrocomponents plc

1 March 2021

Electrocomponents announces acquisition of John liscombe limited

·      John Liscombe Limited (Liscombe) is a leading supplier of industrial safety and personal protective equipment (PPE)

·      Combined with Needlers, Liscombe significantly expands our PPE expertise across more customer verticals to create a platform to accelerate growth in EMEA

·      Acquisition of Liscombe for £11 million on a cash-free and debt-free basis is accretive to adjusted earnings per share and comfortably covers Group cost of capital within first year

Electrocomponents is pleased to announce the acquisition of Liscombe, a leading specialist supplier of high-risk hand protection and PPE products to industrial blue-chip customers in the UK and the Netherlands. Together with Needlers, our recent PPE acquisition within the food manufacturing vertical, the two businesses will provide a full range offer and expertise across key sectors within safety and PPE. The combination will enable the Group to capture a greater share of wallet with existing customers and establish a meaningful presence in a product category in which we anticipate attractive underlying growth over the long term.

The acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive and comfortably cover the Group cost of capital in our first full year of ownership pre synergies, excluding COVID-19 related revenue and profit. The £11 million consideration will be financed out of our existing debt facilities. Liscombe will continue to be run by the existing management team, reporting into the Needlers MD, Mark Day.

LINDSLEY RUTH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, COMMENTED:

"The acquisition of Liscombe is aligned to our strategy of selectively adding high-quality, value-creating bolt-on acquisitions to the Group. Liscombe's safety and PPE products are already purchased by a significant number of our existing Electrocomponents' customers. We see significant opportunity for Liscombe, and Needlers, to capitalise on leveraging Electrocomponents' global presence, broad range, private-label expertise, operating efficiencies and omni-channel distribution capabilities. We welcome Liscombe to the Electrocomponents Group."

Enquiries:

Lucy Sharma, VP Investor Relations                                  Electrocomponents                             020 7239 8427

Martin Robinson / Olivia Peters                                        Tulchan Communications                   020 7353 4200