WH Smith’s shareholders have voted almost unanimously in favour of the group’s $400m (£312m) acquisition of US firm Marshall Retail, which was announced in October.
The purchase will broadly double the size of WH Smith’s successful travel retail division and comes almost a year after the purchase of another US-based retailer, InMotion Entertainment, for $198m.
Marshall Retail Group (MRG) is a fast-growing travel retailer, operating 170 stores in North America, with 59 of these inside airports and others in resorts and tourist locations. The company is expected to deliver revenue of around $204m and EBITDA of about $31m for the financial year ending December 2019.
WH Smith has said that it expects to generate annual cost synergies of around $11m by the third full year following completion of the deal from procurement savings and operational efficiencies.
When announcing the deal, Carl Cowling, WH Smith’s Chief Executive, said: “This acquisition will accelerate the growth of our International Travel business and combined with InMotion, the market leading digital accessories airport retailer that we acquired last year, will significantly enhance our scale and growth opportunities in the US, a large and fast-growing travel retail market.”
