Notes to the financial statements
For the 52 weeks ended 1 March 2008
7. Acquisitions
On 11 October 2007, the Group announced the agreement to acquire a number of leasehold properties, together with an assembled workforce, from Focus DIY for a cash consideration of £39.6m. As at 1 March 2008, 27 stores had been assigned to the Group. Acquisition costs of £1.8m were also incurred. At acquisition, the business had a book value of assets of £nil. The fair value of net liabilities acquired was £2.4m comprising property, plant and equipment of £1.5m, current assets of £1.6m, current liabilities of £0.6m and provisions of £4.9m. In addition, the intangible assets were determined to have negligible value, consequently goodwill of £43.8m was generated on the transaction. This goodwill represents the synergies, assembled workforce and future growth potential of the business acquired.
Details of revenues generated from these stores have not been disclosed as only certain of the stores were re-branded and trading prior to the period end, and consequently the revenue generated is not material in the context of these financial statements. No pro forma information for the 52 weeks ended 1 March 2008 has been included as the acquired stores have been amalgamated within the existing store portfolio, rendering any disclosures impractical.
On 15 April 2008, the Group received notification that this transaction had received clearance from the Office of Fair Trading, subject to undertakings by the Group that one store will now not be traded and is likely to be offered for sale externally. This has not had a material effect on the accounting for the transaction.
There were no acquisitions during the short period to 3 March 2007.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
