HPQ HP Inc

   By Colin Kellaher 
 

HP Inc. (HPQ) on Wednesday said it signed a definitive agreement to buy Apogee Corp., a U.K.-based office-equipment dealer in a deal that values Apogee at about $500 million.

HP said Apogee is Europe's largest independent provider of print, outsourced services, and document and process technology.

Palo Alto, Calif-based HP has been investing in the $55 billion A3 copier market, including last year's acquisition of Samsung Electronics Co.'s (005930.SE) printer business in a deal valued at $1.05 billion.

"The Apogee acquisition extends HP's print leadership by boldly leveraging the industry shift to contractual sales as we aggressively pursue the A3 office market," HP said.

HP said Apogee reported revenue of about $273 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $39 million in 2017.

The company said the acquisition, which it expects to complete by the end of the year, will add about a penny to adjusted per-share earnings in the first full year.

HP said the deal is in line with its M&A and capital-allocation strategy, and that it still expects to return toward the higher end of 50% to 75% of free cash flow to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks in fiscal 2018.

Shares of HP rose 0.3% to $23.14 in early trading. The stock is up nearly 21% over the past year.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 01, 2018 09:59 ET (13:59 GMT)

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