Gear4music goes from strength to strength with acquisition of AV Distribution

9th September 2021

Specialist lawyers from Walker Morris have advised long-standing client, Gear4music, on the acquisition of AV Distribution Ltd (trading as AV Online).

The acquisition, which is conditional on FCA approval under Change of Ownership provisions, is for a consideration of £6.2 million (on a debt/cash free basis and assuming normalised levels of working capital) and is expected to complete in or around December 2021.

AV Online is an online retailer of Home Cinema and HiFi equipment. It is anticipated that AV Online will greatly benefit from being transferred onto Gear4music’s highly scalable European e-commerce platform and being rebranded to ‘AV.com’

Corporate Partner Richard Naish, who led a multidisciplinary team from Walker Morris commented:

“We’ve worked closely with Gear4music over a number of years having advised it taking private equity investment, its AIM IIPO in 2015 and since then on a number of fundraisings and acquisitions. Gear4music is the UK’s largest retailer of musical instruments and music equipment, having grown revenues from £24m in 2015 to £120m in 2020, and will significantly increase the Group’s addressable market.”

Walker Morris fielded a multidisciplinary team led by corporate partner Richard Naish supported by Daniel O’Connell (Corporate), Simon Slade and Luke Riley (Tax), Laura Oxley and Lucy Gordon (Employment), Ryan Doodson (Commercial), Jess Padget (Regulatory), Matthew Lingard (IP) Josh Waddington (Banking & Finance), Ruth Bamforth (Pensions) and Andrew Maclean (Real Estate).