Sale of European Personal Care liquids

3 July 2018

McBride plc

Sale of European Personal Care liquids

McBride plc, the leading European manufacturer and supplier of Co-manufactured and Private Label products for the Household and Personal Care market, today announces that it has agreed to sell its European personal care liquids business to Royal Sanders Group for a cash consideration of £12.5m.

In its half year results of 22 February 2018, McBride announced plans to launch an accelerated transformation programme to return its Personal Care & Aerosols (PCA) division to break even within 18 months. Since February, the Group has announced proposals to close it UK aerosols operations at Hull. As a result of this action and the absorption of certain volumes into our French aerosols operation, the Group expects its ongoing aerosols operation to be at break-even profitability levels by July 2019.

As the next step in the PCA transformation programme, the Group today announces that it has agreed terms with Royal Sanders for the disposal of the Group's European Personal Care liquids activities, which comprises two manufacturing sites at Bradford, UK and Ieper, Belgium, which supply customers with a range of personal hygiene, haircare and oral care products.

The proposed transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, will comprise the disposal of the trade and assets of the Group's European personal care liquids business for a cash consideration of £12.5m (subject to any post-closing working capital adjustments), payable on completion. In the 12 months to June 2017 the business generated revenues of £58.8m and an EBITA loss of £1.9m. Gross assets at 31 December 2017 were £19.8m. For the 12 months to 30 June 2018, the business is expected to generate revenues of £56.0m and an EBITA loss of £2.8m. Proceeds of the sale will be used to pay down Group net debt and settle transaction costs. The transaction is expected to complete during the last quarter of 2018.

Rik De Vos, Group Chief Executive, commented;

"The agreement to sell our European Personal Care liquids activities follows a comprehensive review of the business and marks the final element in the transformation plan for our European PCA activities. The transaction enables the business to be developed as part of a dedicated personal care manufacturer of greater scale and positions McBride's European operations as a focused Household business with a clear strategy to deliver sustainable profitable growth." 

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Note: This announcement contains inside information which is disclosed in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation which came into effect on 3 July 2016.

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