The building materials firm Grafton is to buy Heiton Group in a cash and stock deal that values the DIY home improvements group at around €336 million, the two firms said this evening.
Under the terms of the agreed deal, Grafton will pay €2.64 in cash and 0.58667 of a new Grafton unit for each Heiton share.
The deal values each Heiton share at around €6.54, based on Grafton's closing price of €6.65 on Wednesday, the firms said.
Heiton shares closed Thursday at €6.25, while Grafton's stock ended at €6.62.
Grafton has persistently sought to acquire Heiton, which also operates a specialist builders merchants business in the UK, as it seeks to increase its scale of operations and compete with larger rivals.
Its latest offer, first indicated as a tentative one last week, follows months of pursuit of Heiton, which rejected three previous approaches earlier this year.
Its last approach, made in June, valued each Heiton share at €6.35.
"We compete against Kingfisher in DIY and Wolseley in builders merchanting and it makes sense for us to get together to compete with companies of that scale," Grafton's Chairman Michael Chadwick said.
"The enlarged group will continue to pursue a strategy of participating in the ongoing consolidation of the UK merchanting sector, whilst also further strengthening the position of its Irish businesses through small, bolt-on acquisitions and greenfield developments," the firms said in a statement.
Grafton, which already owns about a third of Heiton shares, said it would fund the cash portion of the deal worth around 136 million euros from its existing cash resources and some debt.
Grafton reported a pretax profit of €102 million in 2003. Heiton reported a profit before tax and exceptional items but including goodwill of €28.8 million for its financial year to April 30.