Entering November, with the US presidential election on Nov. 3, I felt that the pace of merger & acquisition activity in the industrial products sector would slow considerably, especially if now President-Elect Joe Biden emerged as the winner. I figured the corporate sector would largely pause major capital spending until the dust of the heated election settled and await what Biden's plans are for corporate taxes, infrastructure spending and regulatory matters.
So far, that's certainly not the case.
Industrial M&A activity actually increased in November compared to the past couple months, dominated by major names in the building products market. We covered 15 M&A news announcements made in November, starting off with buying group AD's planned merger with Delta Distributors and ending PPG's announced pending acquisition of coatings supplier Ennis-Flint.
The biggest news, by far, was the unexpected announcement that The Home Depot is buying HD Supply — No. 4 on ID's Big 50 List — for approximately $9.1 billion including debt, with a stated acquisition price of $8 billion. If you haven't seen it yet, check out our recent "5 Minutes With ID" episode where I dive into what that deal means for both companies involved, and the greater MRO market.
The month also included news involving four major building products distributors, with three of them — PrimeSource, US LBM and Foundation Building Materials — saying they are being privately acquired. ID doesn't consider building products as part of our core coverage of the industrial products sector, but it's in the ballpark, and these deals were too big to not include here.
The 15 M&A news items we covered in November followed 11 in October, 12 in September, 11 in August and eight in July.
Below, see what we covered in November, in chronological order of their announcement:
- AD Merging With PVF Group Delta Distributors on Jan. 1 - announced Nov. 2
- FloWorks' Sunbelt Supply Acquires Oliver Equipment Company - announced Nov. 4
- Distributor EGW Water & Plumbing Makes Texas Acquisition - announced Nov. 5
- Myers Industries Acquires Rotational Molding Supplier Elkhart Plastics - announced Nov. 8
- PrimeSource Sold to Different Private Investment Firm - announced Nov. 11
- Building Materials Distributor US LBM Privately Acquired - announced Nov. 11
- Reuniting: Home Depot Buying HD Supply in $8B Deal - announced Nov. 14
- Flow Control Distributor Vessco Privately Acquired - announced Nov. 14
- Foundation Building Materials to Be Privately Acquired - announced Nov. 15
- PIP Acquires Primax, Gains Caiman Brand - announced Nov. 17
- Ferguson Acquires Distributors Old Dominion Supply, Atlanta Construction Fabrics - announced Nov. 17
- Norco Acquires Fellow Welding Supplies Distributor Arc Services - announced Nov. 20
- SouthernCarlson Expands Northwest, Acquires Manor Hardware - announced Nov. 25
- Builders Materials Giant BMC to Acquire Mid-Atlantic's TW Perry - announced Nov. 30
- PPG Buying Coatings Maker Ennis-Flint for $1.15B - announced Nov. 30
Check out our October M&A recap here
Check out our September M&A recap here
Oh, and in case you haven't seen it yet, check out ID's 2020 Big 50 List here, or watch our video countdown here: Part 1 (#50-31), Part 2 (30-11), Part 3 (10-1).
Despite our best efforts, there’s always deals announced that either wasn’t on our radar, or that weren’t made public. But, this list should provide a good idea of most M&A activity applicable to the industrial supply market.
If your company has M&A news to share, M&A or otherwise, contact ID editor Mike Hockett at [email protected].
As always, the best way to stay on top of industrial supply M&A news is to make sure you're subscribed to ID's free daily e-newsletter.
