Halma: Global Fire History & Acquisition

Halma is a UK-listed serial acquirer of niche highly engineered industrial or medical products that dominate their respective small markets.The company was founded by David Barber who pioneered the model of rolling up and integrating industrial businesses that have strong market power and durable earnings. Barber’s philosophy, which still underpins Halma’s culture today, is best explained in this short speech.

Today, Halma is structured into three sectors with 50 operating companies: Safety, Medical, and Environmental and Analysis. Each sector has ~20%+ net margin and the group aims for 16% growth in profit before tax every year, half from organic growth and half driven by acquisitions. Halma aims to acquire 15-20 profitable, high quality companies each year and between 2003-13 the company paid on average ~8x EBIT.

The 20-year FCF CAGR is 15% and the 33-year dividend per share CAGR is 5%. This has led Halma to become one of the top performing UK businesses over the last 40 years.

Interview Transcript

Disclaimer: This interview is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. In Practise is an independent publisher and all opinions expressed by guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of In Practise.

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How was the business doing when they acquired you, in terms of margins and overall performance?

Our business margins were consistently healthy. I always operated with gross margins between 65% and 70%. The company was always in good shape. In the last 12 months before they acquired us, we made $4,250,000 in EBITDA on sales of $15 million.

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Interview Transcript

How was the business doing when they acquired you, in terms of margins and overall performance?

Free Sample of 50+ Interviews

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