ACCO Brands To Acquire Esselte Group - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - ACCO Brands Corp. (ACCO) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Esselte Group Holdings AB, an European office products company, from private equity firm J.W. Childs for $333 million in cash. ACCO Brands plans to combine Esselte with its existing European operations.

Esselte is a leading global manufacturer and marketer of branded office products serving over 10,000 customers in over 120 countries. Esselte takes products to market under the Leitz, Rapid and Esselte brands in the storage and organization, stapling and punch, business machines and do-it-yourself tools product categories. Esselte's 2015 sales were $458 million with adjusted EBITDA of $60 million.

The combination is expected to: yield an estimated $23 million of annualized cost synergies, or approximately $0.13 per share, within 3 years, excluding one-time restructuring, integration and purchase accounting costs; result in $0.12 adjusted EPS accretion in the first 12-month period, including synergies of $0.03 per share but excluding charges; and generate incremental free cash flow of approximately $20 million in year one, growing to approximately $55 million in year three. As part of the acquisition, ACCO Brands will assume an estimated $160 million of unfunded pension liabilities, net of associated deferred tax, predominantly in Germany.