REG - Lords Group Trading - Acquisition of DH&P Plumbing and Heating

Lords TradingAnnouncement

01/04/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220401:nRSA8637Ga&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 8637G  Lords Group Trading PLC  01 April 2022

 For immediate release  1 April 2022

 

 

Lords Group Trading plc

('Lords', the 'Company' or the 'Group')

 

Acquisition of DH&P Plumbing and Heating

 

Lords, a leading distributor of building materials in the UK, is pleased to
announce that it has acquired a 90% interest in the leading plumbing and
heating businesses, DH&P Trade Counters Holdings Limited and DH&P HRP
Holdings Limited (together 'DH&P'), for a total consideration of £9.3
million (the 'Acquisition').

 

The remaining 10% interest in DH&P's issued share capital will be retained
equally by the business' current vendors, who will remain in their management
roles with the business.  The Acquisition has been funded from Lords'
existing resources and is expected to be immediately earnings accretive post
completion.

 

DH&P Trade Counters Holdings Limited is a leading plumbing heating
merchant, consisting of five branches located with a strong regional focus in
Ipswich, Chelmsford, Southend, Benfleet and Colchester.  The business further
extends the Group's existing plumbing and heating network of nine branches
represented under the Mr Central Heating brand.

 

The DH&P HRP Holdings Limited business is a national distributor of
plumbing and heating spares servicing 400 customers, whose operations align
strongly with the Group's APP Wholesale division that distributes plumbing and
heating products nationwide to 2,400 customers.

 

For the year ended 30 July 2021, DH&P generated revenues of £27.6 million
and underlying EBITDA of £2.0 million.

 

The Acquisition consideration will be satisfied by an initial £8.93 million
cash payment and a deferred cash element of £357,000 to be paid in 12 months,
on a cash-free, debt-free basis.  Simultaneous call and put options over the
remaining 10% of DH&P's issued share capital will be held by the Group and
DH&P's vendors, respectively, which will not be exercisable prior to 31
March 2025 and the price subject to DH&P's EBITDA performance.

 

Shanker Patel, Chief Executive Officer of Lords, said: "We are delighted to
announce this excellent extension of Lords' plumbing and heating business.
 DH&P have built up a solid business and we are really excited to welcome
the 46 DH&P employees to the Lords Group family.  Importantly, the
acquisition will be highly complementary to our existing Mr Central Heating
and APP Wholesale businesses within the Plumbing and Heating division and will
help to increase our customer base, broaden our product offering and enhance
our UK geographic coverage."

 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to
constitute inside information pursuant to Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014
as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended.  Upon the publication of this announcement
via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now
considered to be in the public domain.

 

- Ends -

 

 

FOR FURTHER ENQUIRIES:

 

 Lords Group Trading plc                                     Via Buchanan
 Shanker Patel, Chief Executive Officer                      Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000
 Chris Day, Chief Financial Officer

 Cenkos Securities plc                                       Tel: +44 (0)20 7397 8900
 Ben Jeynes / Max Gould / Dan Hodkinson (Corporate Finance)
 Alex Pollen (Sales)

 Buchanan Communications                                     Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000
 Henry Harrison-Topham / Stephanie Whitmore                  LGT@buchanan.uk.com (mailto:LGT@buchanan.uk.com)

 Kim Looringh-van Beeck / Kiki Norman

 

Notes to editors:

 

Lords is a specialist distributor of building, plumbing, heating and DIY
goods.  The Group principally sells to local tradesmen, small to medium sized
plumbing and heating merchants, construction companies and retails directly to
the general public.

 

The Group operates through the following two divisions:

 

·       Merchanting: supplies building materials and DIY goods through
its network of merchant businesses and online platform capabilities.  It
operates both in the 'light side' (building materials and timber) and 'heavy
side' (civils and landscaping), through thirty locations in the UK.

 

·       Heating and Plumbing: a specialist distributor in the UK of
heating and plumbing products to a UK network of independent merchants,
installers and the general public.  The division offers its customers an
attractive proposition through a multi-channel offering.  The division
operates over 15 locations enabling nationwide next day delivery service.

 

Lords was established over 35 years ago as a family business with its first
retail unit in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.  Since then, the Group has
grown to a business operating from 45 sites.  Lords aims to become a £500
million turnover building materials distributor group by 2024 as it grows its
national presence.

 

Lords was admitted to trading on AIM in July 2021 with the ticker LORD.L.
For additional information please visit www.lordsgrouptradingplc.co.uk
(http://www.lordsgrouptradingplc.co.uk) .

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  ACQJBMMTMTMJTFT