VBH, the Stuttgart based hardware distributor, reports that it has been undergoing ‘financial restructuring’.
New private investors are reportedly injecting €26m into the group, with the main contribution provided by Ascalon, a private investment company owned by Victor Trenev, who is said to be investing €20m.
In an official announcement, VBH finance director, Jeurgen Kassel said: “Mr Victor Trenev has been a holder of VBH shares for many years and has good knowledge of our company and the markets in which we operate. He considers his engagement with VBH as having important strategic potential in order to support the further development of the European hardware market. After the increase in share capital, he will potentially have a stake in excess of 50% of VBH Holding AG. This equity participation however, will have no influence on the operational activities of the group companies. VBH will continue to operate as an independent company in all markets.”
VBH in the UK reports profit growth each year for the last five years. The company is financially independent of the German Holding Company and only operates in UK markets, ‘plus a small amount of export business’.
Managing director of VBH, Peter Rowlands, commented: “The hardware market in Continental Europe has been tough going in the last couple of years, especially since the political tensions with Russia have been directly hitting exporters such as VBH. Most of the main European manufacturers and suppliers have been forced to make adjustments in their operations to reflect the reality of reduced market and VBH in Germany is no exception. However, as the largest world wide distributor of branded hardware, VBH is well placed to take advantage of market restructuring and the new financing structure in Germany will ensure that cash is available to invest in new logistic solutions and customer facing technologies.
“In the UK, we are market leaders in branded hardware and expect to continue to grow profitably. We are confident that we have the right tools in place to continue to consolidate our share of the UK hardware market and our industry leading customer service and large product portfolio means that our customers will always have excellent choice and service to keep them coming back.”
