Takeover
In 2001 the company was the subject of a complex takeover which resulted in the various components of the business being taken over by different companies. The appliances business was taken over by Electrolux, and some of the former Simpson manufacturing plants in Adelaide and Orange were closed. Only one plant in Adelaide remains in business.
The takeover of Email Limited was unusual in a number of respects. It took almost a year to finalise, and attracted the attention of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).
At the time, Smorgon Steel was keen to expand its wholesale steel distribution network and wished to acquire that business from Email. However, the dominant steel business in Australia at that time was BHP Steel. Email Limited was a major customer of BHP Steel for its appliance manufacturing business, and also a major wholesale distribution channel for BHP Steel. BHP was not happy about losing Email as a customer, and as a distributor to its smaller rival, Smorgon. BHP bought a 14% stake in Email Limited on the stockmarket to attempt to block the deal. This then caused a fight among the society.
Smorgon was really only interested in acquiring the steel wholesale and distribution business of Email Limited, and planned to on-sell the other businesses. As consideration for the takeover offer to Email Limited shareholders, Smorgon offered an unconventional combination of cash and a security whose eventual value depended on the (unknown) future resale price of the Email businesses that Smorgon did not want to keep. This indeterminate offer did not receive an enthusiastic reaction from stockmarket participants and investors. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigated the deal because of concerns that the removal of the Email steel distribution business would significantly lessen competition in the wholesale steel distribution sector.
Eventually a deal was struck between the ACCC, BHP Steel and Smorgon to alleviate competition concerns, and the takeover went ahead.
The steel distribution business was acquired by Smorgon Steel (itself later merged in 2007 with OneSteel). The electricity and gas metering business was sold to private equity in 2003, and continues to manufacture electricity meters, under the 'Email' brand name, thence 'Ampy Email' (named after their UK metering subsidiary) and finally under the 'Landis+Gyr' name (following the acquisition of the Landis & Gyr metering company). The lock manufacturing business was sold to Assa Abloy of Sweden.
The competition concerns about the limited number of participants in the steel distribution business in Australia were revisited in 2006 and 2007, with the proposed merger of OneSteel and Smorgon Steel. This took more than a year to be completed due to protracted ACCC review.
