On November 11, 2024, Thule Group announced the acquisition of Quad Lock, the global market leader in performance phone mount solutions, giving cyclists, motorcyclists, and other adventurers access to their mobile phones while being active. The acquisition was subject to regulatory approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board, which now has been obtained. The acquisition has today been completed and Quad Lock is part of Thule Group as of December 4, 2024.
Quad Lock has a turnover of SEK 1.4 billion with a 25 percent EBITDA margin, and fits well with Thule's brand and strategy of developing market-leading positions in attractive niches.
The press release from the acquisition can be read on the Thule Group website.
Purchase price
Thule Group and Quadrant Private Equity ("Quadrant") along with two founders and other minority shareholders of Key TopCo Pty Ltd ("Quad Lock") have signed a binding agreement through which Thule Group has acquired 100% of the shares in Quad Lock.
The purchase price amounts to AUD 500 million, or approximately SEK 3.6 billion, on a cash and debt free basis. The purchase price corresponds to a multiple of 10x Quad Lock's adjusted EBITDA for the last twelve months. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Thule's earnings per share, EBIT margin and sales growth.
Financing
The transaction is financed through a combination of existing cash and credit facilities (approximately 79 percent of the purchase price), newly issued shares (approximately 21 percent), and deferred performance-based compensation to selected Quad Lock management shareholders (approximately 1 percent).
Issue of Consideration Shares
The Board of Directors has today, based on the authorization from the Annual General Meeting 2024, resolved to issue 2,105,065 new shares in Thule Group (the "Consideration Shares"), corresponding to 1.91 per cent of the total number of shares and votes in Thule Group, on a fully diluted basis. The Consideration Shares are issued at a price of approximately SEK 351 per share, which corresponds to the volume weighted average price of Thule Group's shares on Nasdaq Stockholm during the 10 trading days up to and including 8 November 2024. 19,039,487 shares in Quad Lock, with a total value of AUD 103.6 million (approximately SEK 739 million), constitute the total consideration for the Consideration Shares and are paid in kind by the sellers to whom the new shares in Thule Group have been issued. The total number of shares in Thule Group will increase by 2,105,065, from 105,733,097 to 107,838,162. The share capital will increase by approximately SEK 23,526.94, from approximately SEK 1,181,710.22 to approximately SEK 1,205,237.16.