Bunzl: FTSE 100 giant gears up for more dealmaking and share buybacks

Bunzl said it was gearing up for another spate of dealmaking today as it bought back another tranche of its shares and reported a boost in earnings over the summer.

In a trading update for the period since June, the FTSE 100 outfit said it had recorded a 5.4 per cent lift in revenues over the summer after striking 11 acquisitions through the course of the year.

It has made four more deals since June alone, with boss Frank van Zanten saying it would continue to set aside cash to inject into businesses.

“Bunzl has delivered another period of good growth that demonstrates the ongoing strength of our compounding strategy and resilient business model,” he added. “I am pleased to see continued momentum in underlying revenue performance and the extension of this year’s acquisition success, with 11 acquisitions announced, and our pipeline remaining active.”

In August, the services group kicked off a £250m share buyback and doubled down on a commitment to allocate £700m for a dealmaking warchest every year.

Since then, it has struck four deals across Europe and New Zealand, including Cermerón, a Spanish regional distributor of cleaning products; Cubro, a Kiwi distributor of mobility aids and clinical furniture; and DBM Medical Group, a specialist distributor of orthopaedic surgery products in New Zealand. 

In October, it completed the acquisition of Arrow County Holdings Limited (“Arrow”), a distributor of cleaning and hygiene products in the UK.

 It said it expected to announce a further buyback at its 2024 preliminary results. In a separate update to the market today, the firm said it had bought back a further £4m worth of shares.

Shares in Bunzl have climbed beyond 11 per cent this year and are trading up around 76 per cent over the past five years.