Sunbeam makes $66 million in Breville offload

February 29th, 2012

Sunbeam parent company GUD Holdings has sold it’s 19.3 per cent share in Breville.

GUD has sold 25 million ordinary shares, worth a once-off pre-tax profit of approximately $66 million, announced on the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday afternoon. This is a 365 per cent increase on the company’s original May 2009 investment.

When Sunbeam’s company purchased almost a fifth of Breville it was done as part of a takeover bid, which was knocked back in a matter of months by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC). The ACCC took issue with what it judged as the lessening of competition in the small appliance market.

In an interview with the The Financial Review GUD Holdings managing director Ian Campbell, said that the ACCC block forced GUD to reconsider its options, though the investment was still a positive one.

“When we took the stake originally it was with a view to get our business and Breville’s together and we were knocked back by the ACCC, so it became an investment rather than a broader strategy,” Campbell said.

Breville also recently announced on-track first half year results.

“I saw Breville’s release for the first half and I thought it was encouraging, and the full-year guidance, and thought that people would probably snap it up,” he added. “I don’t know how you pick the exact time to sell but I was comfortable with the return on that investment.”

“We’ve got a couple of acquisitions we are looking at [at] the moment and some sort of return to shareholders is not out of the question either. We have a buyback in place and we also have some capital losses we could offset against some capital gains.”

Keri Algar

Having once had to sit on the washing machine to stop it from bouncing into oblivion, Keri is today delighted with the new (smoother running) technologies that make housework easier every day. A self-confessed lazy-bones, Keri seeks out quirky inventions that ease the human workload, such as the robotic vacuum cleaner (wow). And as soon as someone figures out a Jetsons-like self-cleaning house, she will happily lay her pen to rest and retire from appliance journalism. Until then, her pick is a fridge that will tell her smartphone when it's time to pick up more beer on the way home. Magic.