Interline Brands Inc. announced an agreement this morning for a $1.1 billion buyout by two private equity firms.
The company, which distributes maintenance, repair and operations products nationwide, said it will maintain its headquarters in Jacksonville after the buyout.
Interline’s headquarters office is on the Southbank near the Acosta Bridge, and it also has a 275,000-square-foot distribution facility on the Westside.
Interline employs a total of 565 people in Jacksonville and 3,600 companywide.
Under the buyout agreement, affiliates of GS Capital Partners LP and P2 Capital Partners LLC will buy Interline’s shares for $25.50 each in cash, a 42 percent premium to Friday’s closing price of $17.94.
Certain members of Interline’s management will also invest their proceeds from the deal into the company.
“This agreement provides excellent value to shareholders. This is also an exciting new chapter for Interline, one that we believe will bring broad benefits to all of our stakeholders,” Chairman and CEO Michael Grebe said in a news release.
“We remain laser-focused on our goals and capabilities, and look forward to working with partners that have proven track records of investments in the distribution sector, as well as financial and operational expertise in global markets,” he said.
The buyout agreement allows Interline to solicit other offers until June 28, and the company said its board of directors “will actively solicit acquisition proposals during this period.”
If there are no higher offers, the company expects to close the deal during the third quarter.
Interline traces its roots to a Jacksonville-based company called Barnett Inc. (which was not related to Barnett Banks Inc.) that went public in 1996 and was merged into a privately owned company in 2000. The merged company was renamed Interline.
The company then went public again in 2004 with an initial public offering at $15 per share.
Interline had sales of $1.25 billion in 2011 and net income of $37.7 million, or $1.12 per share.
The company recently reported first-quarter sales rose 5.4 percent to $313.6 million and net income rose 8.5 percent to $7.5 million, or 23 cents a share.
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