Halfords buys National garage chain for £62m

Halfords has agreed to buy the owner of the National garage chain for £62m in cash to rev up the group's expansion of its garage business.

The purchase of Axle Group will add 239 tyre and 60 general service garages and 60 mobile tyre-fitting vans to Halfords' network. After completion, Halfords will have about 604 garages, 234 consumer vans and 190 commercial vans.

Axle also owns Viking, a tyre wholesaler. Halfords said it would invest £17m in the overall business and spend about £2m on integration costs.

The acquisition was announced after the market closed on 1 December alongside a fundraising to pay for the deal. On Thursday morning Halfords said it had raised £63.4m of gross proceeds by placing shares with investors at 320p each.

Graham Stapleton, Halfords' chief executive, said: "This acquisition helps cement our position as the UK's largest vehicle service, maintenance and repair business. It will also see us deliver on our established strategy of evolving Halfords to become a motoring services focused business, with motoring revenue set to represent more than 70% of our pro-forma revenue following the acquisition."

Halford shares rose 6.6% to 341.4p at 08:20 GMT.