Floorings group Victoria in £86m deal for Spanish tiling firm
Victoria, the Kidderminster carpet and floorings group, has been on the takeover trail again, snapping up a Spanish ceramic tile company for £86.2 million.
It is also raising another £60.5 million from a share placing. This will pay for part of the acquisition of the Spanish firm, Saloni, with the rest of the money coming from a new banking facility provided by the company's lenders, HSBC and Barclays.
It follows last year's acquisition of the Keraban tile group in Spain and Italy's Ceramiche Serra for around £290 million in total.
Saloni is a manufacturer of mid to high-end ceramic and porcelain tiles, with its main markets in Spain and France. Last year it generated revenues of £94.7m and earnings of £13.9m.
Victoria's chairman, Geoff Wilding, said: "We believe that Saloni is a high-quality addition to the group.
"Notwithstanding its strong organic growth prospects, there are meaningful operational synergies with our existing Spanish ceramics company, which we will move quickly to realise. Even before these synergies, the acquisition of Saloni will be materially earnings accretive in the first full year of ownership and it also continues to increase the geographic diversity of our revenues and earnings.
"Post-completion, over 65% of Victoria's earnings will be generated from outside the UK – continuing our transformation into a genuinely international flooring business."
Reorganisation at Victoria last year saw the end of carpet manufacturing at Kidderminster after more than 110 years, with the loss of over 60 jobs.
Kidderminster remains the company's head office and the centre of its UK distribution operation.
