 The electronics chain started out as a mail order business |
UK electronics retailer Maplin has been sold for �244m ($435m) to venture capitalist firm Montagu Private Equity. The firm, started out in Essex in 1972 as a mail order business, and now has 89 stores in the UK and Ireland and an internet division.
Montagu has bought a 67% stake from restaurant owner Graphite, which backed a Maplin management buy-out in 2001.
Maplin's directors will reinvest a "significant" proportion of the deal's proceeds into the business.
Maplin, which has headquarters in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and employs 1,500 people, was acquired by private equity firm Saltire in 1994 before being sold to Graphite.
Profits have jumped in recent years from �1.4m in 1999 to �12.1m in 2002.
Montagu hopes to open 59 new Maplin stores around the UK over the next three years.
"We are looking forward to working with Montagu Private Equity to realise the full potential of expansion opportunities for Maplin Electronics at home and abroad," said Keith Pacey, Maplin executive chairman.
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