Companies: APC   

Advanced Power Components (APC) has bought data input devices distributor Contech Electronics for up to £1 million in cash, in a deal that further diversifies its business.

Guided by CEO Mark Robinson, AIM-quoted APC, a specialist distributor of electronic components (as well as a manufacturers’ representative), says the earnings-enhancing takeover of Contech diversifies its business by taking APC into new technologies and markets.

Contech is anything but a distributor of commoditised components – rather, it deals only in highly specialised product, supplying everything from specialist keyboards and barcode scanners to card readers and touch screens to markets ranging from medical to broadcasting and industrial.

Like APC, the acquired business, which made £154,000 pre-tax from £1.26 million sales for the eight months to March, adopts a higher-margin ‘design in’ approach, following customer projects from their initial concept through to production and support.

APC, which recently acquired components group Novacom for a maximum £1.6 million in cash, is more than holding its own in a tough UK electronic components market. Recent results for the half to the end of February showed a pre-tax profit increase to £270,000 (2007: £250,000), on improved turnover of £4.7 million (2007: £4.3 million).

Shares in APC, which have dropped from a 52-week peak of 42.25p, edged up by three per cent to 17.5p this morning, valuing the business at a modest £3.9 million.

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