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Posted January 13, 2020

WESCO and Anixter agree to merge

WESCO International and Anixter International Inc. announced that their boards of directors have unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement under which WESCO will acquire Anixter in a transaction valued at approximately $4.5 billion.


Anixter’s prior agreement to be acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has been terminated, following CD&R’s waiver of its matching rights under the agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, each share of Anixter common stock will be converted into the right to receive $70.00 in cash, 0.2397 shares of WESCO common stock and preferred stock consideration valued at $15.89. Based on the closing price of WESCO's common stock on Jan. 10, 2020 and the liquidation preference of the WESCO preferred stock consideration, the total consideration represents approximately $100 per Anixter share.

The combined company will have revenues of approximately $17 billion, and will have a comprehensive and balanced portfolio that unites WESCO’s capabilities in industrial, construction, and utility with Anixter’s expertise in data communications, security, and wire and cable.

“The transformational combination of WESCO and Anixter will create a premier electrical and data communications distribution and supply chain services company. With increased scale and complementary capabilities, we will be ideally positioned to digitize our business, expand our extensive services portfolio and supply chain offerings, and deliver solutions to our customers whenever and wherever they need them around the globe," said John J. Engel, WESCO's chairman, president, and chief executive officer. 

"Today's announcement is the culmination of a comprehensive process that showed, from the start, what a strong business the team at Anixter has built," said Sam Zell, chairman of the Anixter board of directors. "The agreement with WESCO is a great result for our stockholders who will receive significant near-term value and stand to benefit from the combined company's growth and prospects."

“This is the result of a very thorough process to determine the value of our company,” said Bill Galvin, Anixter's president and chief executive officer. “It's also a recognition of the enormous value created by our talented people, Anixter's deep industry relationships, innovative technology solutions, and global reach. Looking ahead, the combination with WESCO will allow the combined company to build on our complementary capabilities and create new ways to serve customers and partners.”

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