29 January 2008
Hamker acquisition
IFR Capital Plc (“IFR” or the “Company”: IFR.LN), an AIM-listed investment company focused on consolidation opportunities in the European retail food sector, today announces the closing of the Hamker acquisition following the receipt of the relevant merger clearance last week and the satisfaction of all outstanding conditions. IFR now owns 100% of the German operations of Hamker Lebensmittel Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG (“Hamker”).
Hamker is the third acquisition by IFR following its purchases of Nordsee GmbH (“Nordsee”) and Homann Chilled Food GmbH (“Homann”), and represents a significant step towards its vision of creating a diversified European food enterprise.
Heiner Kamps, CEO of IFR states: “We are very satisfied with this enlargement of our portfolio and see mutual benefits for Homann and Hamker.”
Homann and Hamker management will now immediately start the process of realising the synergies which are mainly expected to be derived from the areas of complimentary strengths in product ranges and distribution channels, cost savings in production, overhead and logistics, and joint procurement through the increased sourcing volume.
The acquisition of Hamker is closely aligned with IFR’s long-term objective of creating a leading, vertically-integrated food business with a view to acquiring potentially synergistic businesses to drive IFR’s further growth.
Trading update
IFR management is also pleased to announce an update on trading, including preliminary and unaudited figures for the financial year ended 31 December 2007 (the “Period”). The Company expects to be able to announce its audited final results for the financial year ended 31 December 2007, by the end of March 2008.
Both sales and EBITDA were in line with management’s expectations, with sales for the Period of € 481 m (€ 351 m in 2006) and EBITDA of € 40.2 m (€ 25.8 m in 2006). These results include only 6 months of the Homann business, since its acquisition in July 2007. The Nordsee business saw considerable growth, with an increase in EBITDA of more than 17.0% year on year, accounting for € 30.2 m in 2007 (2006: € 25.8 m). The Homann business generated an EBITDA of € 13.2 m within the last 6 months, ahead of expectations. Heiner Kamps explains: “Regarding Homann we have implemented the first steps which are already showing positive results. For 2008 we expect our measures to yield an even larger crop. As to Nordsee we have not only managed the turnaround but made it sustainable. In spite of the challenging situation on the raw material market I am very positive of our overall achievements.”
IFR expects to generate a turnover of about €800 million in 2008, and the Board reiterates its target of a sales volume of at least €1.5 billion with an EBITDA margin of approximately 10% by the end of 2009.