By Mike Davey
Boucherville, Quebec — February 9, 2016 — Uni-Select has been on something of an acquisition drive over the last year. News has just broken of yet more acquisitions in the works or recently completed for the Quebec-based supplier.
Uni-Select has officially acquired all the shares of Pièces d’autos M.A.G. and has entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of Jean Talon Auto Parts and Centre de Pièces Gagnon. The Jean Talon Auto and Pièces Gagnon acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and expected to close within 60 days. The deals significantly increase Uni-Selects reach in its home province of Quebec.
Pièces d’autos M.A.G. has been in business since 2007. Its team has served the market for over eight years from one location in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The 11 parts experts who contributed to building its reputation and position in the market will join Uni-Select. Jean Talon Auto operates six locations in Montreal and has been in business for over 30 years. The 56 people employed by Jean Talon Auto will also join the Uni-Select team after the deal closes. Pièces Gagnon specializes in heavy duty and industrial parts. Its team of 16 professionals will also join Uni-Select upon conclusion of the transaction.
“We are proud to add M.A.G. to the Uni-Select family in the Sherbrooke area and to have these long-time Uni-Select customers, Jean Talon Auto and Pièces Gagnon, continue to serve the Greater Montreal Area,” said Gary O’Connor, President and Chief Operating Officer, Automotive Canada.
As mentioned previously, the company has been on something of an acquisition drive recently, snapping up distributors in Ontario and BC (see “Uni-Select acquires distributors in Ontario and BC” and “Uni-Select acquires T.N. Discovery Auto Collision”) as well as acquiring Refinish Solutions through its subsidiary FinishMaster. The acquisitions haven’t gone unnoticed in the business world. The company was the second best performing stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2015, providing a return of 128.17 percent.
Mark Brown, writing for Canadian Business, noted that the stock would have performed even better if it had been on the exchange earlier in the year: “If not for its late addition to the index, Uni-Select—a distributor of automotive parts and paint products—would have been the runaway winner on the index with a 128.2% return,” Brown writes. “The company sold off the assets of its Uni-Select USA business to an affiliate of Icahn Enterprises L.P. for $340 million and put that money into several new acquisitions of its own.”
The latest acquisitions are part and parcel of the ones we’ve already seen, adding to Uni-Select’s reach.
“We are very pleased to add these terrific businesses and teams to our network of corporate stores in the important urban Montreal and Sherbrooke markets,” said Henry Buckley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Uni-Select.
For more information, please visit uniselect.com.
