Tech Data completes SDG acquisition

Distributor Tech Data has finished its acquisition of other disties under the Specialist Distribution Group, SDG, or the wing of Specialist Computer Holdings.

SDG has been a top distributor in enterprise IT products in Europe, specifically in the UK, France, and the Netherlands. Several months after the acquisition announcement – this September – the deal has finally been approved and completed. Tech Data had paid roughly €281 million for SDG.

Tech Data pointed out that for the twelve months ending 31 March, 2012, SDG managed to bring together third party sales worth roughly €1.4 billion. Of these sales, just under half (40 percent) were data centre products including servers, storage and networking, while another 40 percent were broadline products such as PCs and peripherals. The remaining 20 percent were software sales, mostly focused on the data centre.

A preferred supplier agreement is included in the transaction, which will see the seller – through its IT reseller division – comitted to annual purchases through Tech Data for five years. Tech Data thinks this should bring in incremental annual sales of around €400 million.

Tech Data’s CEO, Robert M Dutkowsky, said in a statement that the purchase ties in nicely with the company’s strategy of growing its enterprise business in important European markets.

“The addition of SDG provides us with increased scale and adds approximately 700 talented employees whom we welcome to the Tech Data team,” Dutkowsky said.

He added that the acquisition and the recent Brightstar Europe buy, along with its $185 million of share repurchases for this fiscal year, prove Tech Data’s capability to bring value to shareholders.