Spectrum Buys Armor All

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. completed the acquisition of Armored AutoGroup Parent Inc. (Armored AutoGroup) from Avista Capital Partners for $1.4 billion in cash and assumed debt. The deal was announced on April 28.

Armored AutoGroup's brands include Armor All and STP brands, two of the most recognizable brands in the automotive aftermarket appearance products and performance chemicals/additives categories, and the market-leading A/C Pro brand in the do-it-yourself automotive air conditioner recharge category.

“We are pleased to complete this exciting and accretive acquisition which adds market-leading, iconic brands in attractive auto care retail categories to Spectrum Brands’ diverse portfolio of strong consumer brands,” said Spectrum CEO Andreas Rouvé. “This highly profitable business is expected to enhance our margins and free cash flow profile, further improve our customer mix and shelf space in complementary channels, offer substantial international growth potential by leveraging our existing global infrastructure, and enhance our overall scale and product diversification with a new, large and growing do-it-yourself auto care aftermarket category.

“We look forward to working with the employees of Armored AutoGroup to achieve a smooth integration and accelerate the growth of the Armor All, STP and A/C Pro brands here and abroad,” Mr. Rouvé said.

According to David Maura, chairman of Spectrum Brands, the acquistion is a perfect fit with our strategy to buy and build high brand equity businesses, with strong margin structures, low capital spending requirements, and significant free cash flow generation.


“We welcome the Armored AutoGroup employees to the Spectrum Brands family and look forward to driving this outstanding business to even greater levels of performance and delivering outstanding quality, innovation and service to our customers,” he said. “We also remain committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet and fully intend to deploy our growing free cash flow stream to rapidly delever our balance sheet as we have in the past.”