Emanuel seals £6.25m TRS sale to rival Regenersis

RICHARD Emanuel, the millionaire Scottish entrepreneur, has sold his mobile phone repair business in the west of Scotland, creating one of the largest electronics groups in the country.

The Monaco-based founder of the DX Communications chain of shops has offloaded Total Repair Solutions at Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, to Regenersis in an equity and debt deal worth 6.25 million.

Emanuel, who will retain an 18 per cent stake in the combined group, last night said: "I am looking forward to playing a major role in what is a greatly expanded business."

The newly-merged group combines 650 TRS employees based at its HQ close to Glasgow airport, with 550 employed by Regenersis at Glenrothes, where the firm repairs set-top boxes, mainly for Virgin. Regenersis will raise 3.3m through an underwritten placing by KBC Peel Hunt.

TRS has established relationships with all the global manufacturers and network operators and handles 100,000 handsets a month. The management team, including chief executive Sergio Tansini, will remain in place. He said: "This is positive news that will safeguard jobs."

The company generated income of 22.5m in the year to the end of March, up from 18.3m, and EBITDA (before deduction of management fees) of 1.4m, against 1.1m the year before.

In 1999 Emanuel sold the DX chain to BT for 42m and went on to build other businesses in Britain, the Netherlands and North Africa.

Regenersis chief executive Gary Stokes said: "Our clients are encouraging consolidation and using fewer but larger suppliers to fulfil their after-sales needs.

"At the moment, ours is a fragmented marketplace and the increasing consolidation we are seeing, and in many ways leading, means that both increased operational scale and the synergy opportunities this provides are crucial to accelerating our long-term ambitions.

"This acquisition not only helps us take a step towards achieving our aims, but it does so in a way that is highly complementary to our existing offering. I look forward to working with TRS in driving our businesses forward."

The board has also identified significant cost synergies and will adopt TRS's superior IT system.

It expects TRS to benefit from being part of a larger group and from the commercial opportunities this will bring.

Regenersis is to raise 3.3m, before expenses, by way of an underwritten placing of 8,352,675 new ordinary shares to institutional and other investors at the placing price of 40p per share.

The proceeds of the placing will be used to repay TRS's debts so that it is acquired on a debt-free basis.

The placing is subject to the approval of shareholders.