Wolseley plc Acquisitions Update - £33 Million Spent on Five Acquisitions

Wolseley plc, the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products to professional contractors and a leading supplier of building materials, has announced five bolt-on acquisitions for an aggregate consideration of £33 million. In a full year, these bolt-on acquisitions are expected to add approximately £45 million to total revenue. Goodwill and intangible assets related to these acquisitions is estimated to be around £23 million. Since the beginning of the financial year on 1st August 2007, a total of 15 bolt-on acquisitions in Europe and North America have been completed for an aggregate consideration of approximately £203 million. These 15 acquisitions are expected to add approximately £263 million to Group revenue in a full year and will be beneficial to the Group's trading margin in the current financial year.

Details of the latest acquisitions are as follows:

North America
On 3rd December 2007, Ferguson acquired the assets of C.B. Group, Inc. trading as JC Plumbing Supply ('JC Plumbing') from James Cheng, John Cheng and Hup Cheng. JC Plumbing is a distributor operating from two facilities in San Francisco. The acquisition of JC Plumbing provides entry into the plumbing fixtures market in the heart of San Francisco. In the year ended 31st December 2006, JC Plumbing had revenue of $4.4 million (£2.2 million) and gross assets of $1.1 million (£0.5 million) at that date.

On 1st February 2008 Stock Building Supply acquired certain assets of Precision Doors & Hardware, LLC. ('Precision Doors') from Fred Sachs, Mike Iwanicki and Steve Thodos. Precision Doors specialises in sales, installation, service and repair of commercial and industrial doors, frames, door hardware, washroom accessories and control systems operating from five locations in the Washington D.C. metro area. In the year ended 31st December 2006, Precision Doors had revenue of $43.3 million (£21.8 million) and gross assets of $8.6 million (£4.3 million) at that date.

On 19th February 2008 Ferguson acquired the assets of Mastercraft Cabinets, Inc. ('Mastercraft') from Kurt Wurstle and DaVida Wurstle. Mastercraft is a cabinet distributor operating from a single facility in Naples, Florida. In the year ended 31st December 2006, Mastercraft had revenue of $5.1 million (£2.6 million) and gross assets of $0.05 million (£0.03 million) at that date.

Europe
On 28th November 2007 Wolseley Eastern Europe a.s. signed an agreement, conditional upon obtaining Slovak competition clearance, to acquire Gama Myjava s.r.o ('Gama'). The offer has now been approved by the Slovak competition authority and completion subsequently took place on 3rd March 2008. Gama is a plumbing, heating and sanitary ware distributor operating from eight branches in Slovakia and five branches in the Czech Republic. In the year ended 31st December 2006, Gama had consolidated revenue of SKK741.6million (£16.0 million) and gross assets of SKK214.0 million (£4.6 million) at that date.

On 29th February 2008 Wolseley UK acquired PFC Corofil Firestops Ltd and its subsidiaries ('PFC') from Geoff Ashling. PFC is a distributor of a wide range of specialist passive fire protection products operating from a single location in Surrey. In the year ended 31st March 2007, PFC had revenue of £1.9 million and gross assets of £0.3 million at that date.

Chip Hornsby, Group Chief Executive of Wolseley said:

'I am pleased to announce these acquisitions. They are excellent businesses that broaden our product and geographic coverage and support our strategy of growing the business through acquisition and organic growth.'

Web: http://www.wolseley.com