European Micro Holdings buys Sunbelt UK

European Micro Holdings Inc has completed the acquisition of Sunbelt UK Ltd, the Wimbledon, London-based subsidiary of PC Wise inc, headquartered in Miami. Sunbelt buys in computers and memory and rebadges it under the Nova brand name. Established in 1992, 1997 turnover was $16.5 million with $742,500 pre-tax profits. Shareholders will receive an undisclosed cash payment and performance related earn-out along with newly-issued common stock of European Micro Holdings Inc. European Micro’s most recent SEC filings stated that its market is not dominated by any one competitor, but in comparison with other distributors like CHS Electronics, Ingram Micro, Inacom Corp and Tech Data Corp, it laid claim to signficantly better gross margins. The others range between 6.5 per cent and 10.3 per cent while European Micro claimed a healthy 12.9 per cent. For the year to June 1998, it generated $111.5 million sales and $4.5 million profit. European Micro Holdings Inc is purely a holding company and it owns the hardware distributors, European Micro Plc in Manchester, European Micro GmbH in Dusseldorf and Nor'easter Micro in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Additionally, it has a 50 per cent stake in Big Blue Europe, an Amsterdam-based distributor of new and used parts, primarily to computer maintenance companies. Co-presidents John Gallagher and Harry Shields own 37% and 31% of European Micro Holdings Inc, respectively.®