Companies related to Dutch distributor ERIKS and its North American affiliate, ERIKS North America, made three acquisitions in April, highlighting a busy month for M&A activity in distribution.
Industrial distributor Lewis-Goetz, Pittsburgh, PA, the largest company owned by ERIKS NA, acquired Action Industrial Group, a South Carolina-based fabricator and distributor specializing in fasteners, gaskets, hose products and industrial construction tools and supplies.
ERIKS Seals and Plastics Inc. acquired Seals and Packings Inc., Dallas, TX, helping ERIKS expand its client base in the U.S. oil and gas industry and further strengthening its product and service offerings to existing and new customers.
And ERIKS Germany acquired Germany-based K&S Antriebssysteme GmbH & Co. KG, which specializes in electric motors, gears and frequency converters and offers a broad range of products as well as modern technology in the field of power transmission.
The building materials sector again delivered one of the biggest deals in distribution, although it didn't produce the volume of recent months.
Builders FirstSource Inc., Dallas, TX, a supplier and manufacturer of structural and related building products for residential new construction in the U.S., agreed to acquire ProBuild Holdings LLC for $1.6 billion.
The purchase unites two of the largest building materials companies in the U.S.; ProBuild was No. 2 and Builders FirstSource was No. 7 on the sector's 2014 MDM Market Leaders list. Builders FirstSource reported sales for 2014 of $1.6 billion, up 7.7 percent over the previous year, and ProBuild Holdings had estimated annual sales of $4.3 billion in 2014.
Rumors of that deal began circulating the previous month, and April yielded hints of another looming, large-scale acquisition in the building materials space.
Distributor US LBM Holdings LLC, Green Bay, WI, is for sale and could fetch $1 billion at auction, according to a report from Reuters.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters said the company's private equity owner, BlackEagle Partners LLC, hired Harris Williams & Co to hold an auction for the company. The report said the "sources asked not to be identified because the sale process is confidential," and that US LBM, BlackEagle Partners and Harris Williams all declined to comment.
Here are other key deals that occurred in April 2015:
Rexel Agrees to Sell Latin American Operations to Sonepar
WESCO to Acquire Hill Country Electric Supply
BlackHawk Industrial Acquires Pioneer Tool Supply
DXP Enterprises Acquires Tool Supply
Stellar Industrial Supply to Merge with Impact Industrial Supplies
WinWholesale to Acquire Security Supply
Ryan Herco Acquires Engineered Machinery
Purvis Industries Acquires Animas Bearing and Oilfield Supply
Penn Jersey Paper Company Acquires Katcef Distributors
nexAir Acquires M&A Welding Supply
Triad Technologies Acquires Mega Fluidline
Munch’s Supply Acquired by Rotunda Capital
Dynabrade Acquires National Detroit
Apex Tool Group Acquires Yecen
