Regulatory News

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.

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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: