The Liverpool‑based outfit is reportedly eyeing up two assets due for divestment by a pair of multinationals, alongside a smaller company set up by an entrepreneur.
Princes Group was able to raise a hefty £400 million after a London IPO last year, and is set to prioritise a deal‑led growth strategy and the addition of £1 billion to £1.5 billion of revenue through mergers and acquisitions in the medium term.
The news comes as the firm has said that it is ready to raise prices to offset the significant financial pressures it is facing in the wake of the Middle East crisis, citing in particular the cost of fuel and shipping.
In a call to analysts, chief executive Simon Harrison admitted that the group was seeing “substantial” cost increases across its supply chain, and that it would need to act to “recover them”.
On a more positive note, Princes saw its revenue jump by a significant 46% year‑on‑year, boosted by the inclusion of businesses from majority shareholder NewPrinces that are under common control.
However, this masked - to a certain extent a 6.5% drop in like‑for‑like sales (down to £1.9 billion) in its first full‑year results since listing on the London Stock Exchange.
“What we’re looking for is scale. We have a big customer base, so we need significant scale to service it,” said Harrison.
“We also look for industrial capability. One of our objectives is to produce almost everything we sell in one of our own factories, so that industrial know‑how is our second criterion.”
He continued: “The third criterion is, if possible, for there to be a complementary vertical. Diageo with alcohol, Plasmon with baby food are two good examples. And the fourth and final one is that we are ideally looking for underperforming assets from multinational corporations where we can use our turnaround expertise to really drive synergies.”
