A consortium is in advanced talks to buy a majority stake in global distributor Ingram Micro from its Chinese parent company HNA.
Conglomerate HNA Group acquired Ingram in 2016 for $6bn, but over the last year it has faced cash flow problems following a clutch of other acquisitions in various industries.
Reports on both Bloomberg and Reuters have said Asian private equity group RRJ Capital is leading and finalising the consortium deal with HNA, which involves investing $4bn in Ingram Micro that would give it a controlling stake in the operation. HNA has splashed out around $50bn in acquiring companies over the last few years, and it now wants to reduce its debts.
The deal is set to be completed in a “few days”, according to the sources that Reuters and Bloomberg have spoken to. RRJ Capital is based in Hong Kong and Singapore. RRJ, HNA and Ingram Micro have so far not commented on the reports.
Last year, HNA was reportedly in talks to sell Ingram Micro to private equity firm Apollo Global Management, but that deal came to nothing.
IT Europa view:
The actual ownership of these massive global organisations is of less importance to their customers than their day-to-day management and efficient supply of products and services to channels. There was no real impact of Ingram Micro being owned by HNA for the last few years; even the expected addition of many new China-sourced products did not seem to affect its portfolio, dependent as it is on the global giant vendors. So, whoever owns it might mean a change in the level of investment, but this is such a juggernaut, change will become apparent only slowly, if at all. Move along - nothing much to see here.
