Soanar sold

Fermionics Group is acquiring the businesses of Hagemeyer Asia Pacific Electronics across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and India. The businesses include Soanar Electronics, Soanar Plus and Hcom.

Soanar and Hcom will remain 'stand alone' but there may be marketing, channelling and product sourcing opportunities.

The Soanar and Hcom businesses will continue to be managed by Bob Crabbe in his capacity as CEO and current staff and management will remain in place.

Crabbe said the purchase effectively doubles the revenue base of his electronics activities and that presents some opportunities he will take advantage of in the future.

For the ANZ operations and personnel "it brings with it some pretty warm feelings because we revert to ownership by an Australian company."

Soanar has been a component distributor since 1963 when it was founded by George Soanes under the Arlec group and was acquired by Hagemeyer in 1999.

Soanar has since expanded in the Australian and New Zealand elec-tronic component distribution markets having acquired and absorbed the operations of REC Electronics, KC Electronics, Mayer Krieg and RVB in Australia and New Zealand and launched a South Asian beachhead in Singapore which has since expanded to Malaysia, Thailand and India.