Avnet Inc, the Phoenix, Arizona-based electronics components distributor, has strengthened its position in the UK market with the 37.5m pound ($60m) acquisition of Diploma Plc’s 94% shareholding in SEI/Macro Group.
The purchase flows from Avnets’s purchase in June of Marshall Industries Inc (CI 3,693) and an agreement in August to merge with its European affiliate SEI Management BV. SEI/Macro was a product of a strategic alliance between Diploma and these two companies, and Avnet will own the remaining 6% of SEI/Macro through its acquisition of SEI.
Avnet chairman and CEO Roy Vallee said that once the SEI Management and SEI/Macro acquisitions were completed, Avnet would be the second largest components distributor in Europe with annual sales projected to exceed $2bn.
