Ingram Micro up for sale, talks underway

Ingram Micro looks set to start the new year under new ownership with parent company, HNA Group, in preliminary talks to sell the world’s largest technology distributor.

Following increased media speculation during the Christmas period, HNA Technology, a listed arm of the Chinese conglomerate, confirmed discussions were underway with an interested party, in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the interested party is private equity firm Apollo Global management LLC, for a rumoured price tag of US$7.5 billion.

Headquartered in New York, USA, Apollo’s private equity business had approximately US$72 billion in assets under management as of 30 September 2018.

Within the technology sector, the business acquired Rackspace in 2016 in a US$4.2 billion deal.

“Due to changes in market conditions and the company’s strategy, the company is in talks with a concerned party on selling Ingram Micro,” the company stated in the exchange filing.

In September, HNA Technology claimed to hold US$3.55 billion of outstanding debt from the purchase of Ingram Micro, of which US$350 million was due for payment this year.

As reported by ARN, Ingram Micro came under the control of HNA Group in December 2016, following the completion of a US$6 billion acquisition which was first announced in February that same year.

Should the buyout go through, the deal would continue the trend of increased M&A activity among distributors both globally and locally, highlighted by transactions involving Tech Data and Avnet; Synnex and Westcon-Comstor and Arrow Electronics and Distribution Central.