Maplin Electronics, the gadgets and electronics retail chain, may soon be put up for sale by its owners, Montagu Private Equity. The private equity firm bought Maplin for £244 million from Graphite Capital in September 2004 and is now understood to be sounding out potential buyers. KPMG has recently been retained to explore strategic options for the electronics chain, and is believed to be in early-stage discussions with several other private equity groups. Montagu borrowed around £120 million to buy the business, of which it has already paid off about £80 million. An estimated sale price of £400 million would result in a hefty windfall, if realised. It has to be said that Montagu has done a very good job with the company, having doubled the number of stores to 176 since it took the chain over. Total staff number around 2000 now, a 50 per cent increase since 2004. EBITDA is currently at £40 million.
