Carlyle’s General Lighting completes Malaysia acquisition
General Lighting (GLC), a Saudi Arabia-based portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, has agreed to buy Davex, Malaysia’s largest lighting fixtures manufacturer and supplier, for MYR183 million ($60 million). The company sees the acquisition as a platform for accessing the Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia markets.
"The acquisition of Davex comes as a perfect complement to GLC's product offering, fitting with the requirements of our core Middle East and Africa markets," said Eng. Fahad Al-Hobayb, CEO of GLC. "Also, a number of opportunities exist to extract synergies from the combination of our two organizations."
Carlyle acquired a 30% stake in GLC in 2010 via its $500 million Carlyle MENA Fund, which focuses on Turkey, North Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council region. It was the private equity firm's first investment in the Gulf region.
GLC has operations in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and sells its products to nine countries in the Middle East and 13 countries in Africa. In the past two years the company has set up offices in Morocco and South Africa.
Davex was founded in 1983 and, until the General Lighting acquisition, was a wholly owned subsidiary of MWE Holdings, a textiles player that has since branched out into electronics, real estate and facilities management, logistics and financial services. The company, which has more than 300 employees, has worked on projects including the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia and Singapore's Changi Airport.
The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year.
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