Ilion Group Plc is to be acquired by Dutch hardware and software distributor Landis Group NV after the Landis board decided to recommend a 160 pence a share cash offer which values the Chessington UK-based Unix and network equipment distributor at 40m pounds ($64.4m). Only two months ago, Ilion directors rejected a 114 pence offer from Landis as totally unacceptable and the Amsterdam-quoted company has now decided that Ilion is worth 40% more than its original valuation.
Ironically, Ilion was floated at 160 pence a share in April 1994 but the shares crashed as low as 40 pence last year when margins were squeezed in a price war and chairman and chief executive Wayne Channon quit the company. His successor Serge van Gorkum, a founder of the company’s successful French subsidiary, had begun to turn the company round but a poor performance from the UK operations led to a net profit of just $970,000 in the first half of the current financial year, down from $2.4m last year.
