Ingram Micro Inc. has acquired its second company under Chief Executive Alain Monié, who set plans to grow the world’s largest technology distributor when he took the top job earlier this year.
The Santa Ana-based company last week announced it will acquire certain IT business units of Aptec Holdings Ltd. in Dubai for undisclosed terms.
The company’s second deal in as many months is expected to close this quarter and add some $250 million in annual revenue for Ingram.
That’s a relatively modest sum for Ingram, which posted sales of $36.3 billion in 2011, by far the most of any company in Orange County last year.
Aptec founder and Chief Executive Ali Baghdadi will lead the acquired units and report to Shailendra Gupta, president of Ingram’s growing Asia-Pacific region, which saw sales of just more than $2 billion in the second quarter.
The buy bolsters Ingram’s presence in the Middle East and North Africa, where spending on IT is expected to increase at an annual rate of 7% in coming years, topping $80 billion by 2015, according to Framingham, Mass.-based market tracker IDC Corp.
Aptec offers an array of products targeting data centers, storage, security, networking, and software markets, as well consultancy and integration services, according to Damon Wright, Ingram’s executive director of investor relations.
• Headquarters: Santa Ana
• Business: technology distribution, services
• Founded: 1979
• Ticker symbol: IM (NYSE)
• 2011 revenue: $36.3 billion
• Recent earnings: $61.3 million in Q2
• Market value: About $2.34 billion
• Notable: Acquisition of Dubai-based Aptec Holdings second in two months
“We’ve really had a strategic initiative to grow our business in faster growth markets as well high-margin opportunities,” he said. “This one hits on both of those.”
Aptec operates in the North Africa and the Middle East. It was established in 1980 and has more than 3,800 resellers, as well as 350 workers.
Ingram works with tens of the thousands of resellers overall.
Monié has laid out a much more aggressive growth plan than his predecessors since taking the reins of Ingram in January, looking to several segments to improve the company’s razor-thin margins. The company typically nets less than a penny on the dollar, and competes against several big distributors, including Phoenix-based Avnet Inc. and Arrow Electronics Inc. in Englewood, Colo.
Monié put his stamp on Ingram in July with an $840 million cash buy of Indianapolis-based wholesale distributor BrightPoint Inc.
The acquisition bolstered Ingram’s position in the rapidly expanding mobile services sector, which brings higher margins and a customer base of more than 25,000 resellers that helped move some 112 million wireless devices in 2011.
The deal, expected to close later this year, stands to be Ingram’s largest in its 32-year history, trumping its 2004 buy of Australia-based Tech Pacific Ltd. for $530 million.
