Arrow Asia Pac to acquire Adilam

By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor -- Electronic News, 3/30/2007

Arrow Electronics Inc. subsidiary Arrow Asia Pac today announced an agreement to acquire the component distribution business of privately owned Adilam Pty. Ltd. on June 1.

Adilam, a leading electronic component distributor in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), adds to Arrow’s already strong global electronics supply chain reach. Indeed, while headquartered in Melville, N.Y., Arrow serves as an electronics supply channel partner for more than 600 suppliers and 140,000 OEM, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of 260 locations in 55 countries and territories.

"There are significant synergies between the two companies,” said Peter Kong, president of Arrow Asia Pacific, in a statement. “This is one of our strategies to further strengthen our leadership position in the ANZ market."

The distributor said that under the combined entity there will be no change to the local structure of Arrow and reporting relationships of Arrow's existing employees. Adilam employees, however, will be transferred to Arrow Australia and assigned new positions.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The news comes just days after Arrow announced it expected to initiate share repurchases in Q2 under their previously announced buyback program. In 2006, the company announced the approval by its board of directors of a program to repurchase up to $100 million of common stock.

The news is also the latest in a string of acquisitions for Arrow. Earlier in the month, Arrow announced that its planned $485 million acquisition of Agilysys Inc.’s Cleveland-based KeyLink Systems Group had been approved by shareholders. That move will make Arrow the leading distributor of enterprise products for both IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. Also in December, Arrow expanded in Europe with the announced purchase of InTechnology plc for approximately $80 million.