OREANDA-NEWS.  April 26, 2012. MERLION has announced a merger with Aksima - a leading Moscow distributor of household appliances and electronics. The management of both companies expects the merger to cardinally increase the efficiency of their business in the household appliances and electronics market and will enable the merged business structure to become a leader in the CE (Consumer Electronics) distribution market in 2012, reported the press-centre of MERLION. 

MERLION has been developing its CE distribution line since 2009, having increased its share to 14% of the total sales volume. MERLION’s household appliances division is to be merged with Aksima into a new business structure. The newly formed structure will be developing under the general MERLION brand. Via MERLION will also be implemented all the functions of business process maintenance, including logistics, financial management, etc. The new business structure is to bring together the employees of Aksima’s commercial departments and managers of the sales and procurement departments responsible for household appliances and electronics in MERLION. The newly formed business structure is to be headed by Vladimir Deryabin, Aksima's Director General until March 31, 2012.

“This merger offers us great prospects", commented Vyacheslav Simonenko, MERLION’s Director General. “The newly formed business structure will receive a major product portfolio and a whole range of key distributorship contracts from Aksima. In addition, we get a streamlined CE channel and high competences of operation in the given retail segment. In its turn, MERLION will provide the new business structure with the resources of Russia’s major IT distributor, including finance, logistics, and staff. A vast network of MERLION‘s retail partners should also be taken into account. Although it was a traditional IT channel, over the past years we have become more active in the household appliances and electronics segment. For this purpose, our partners do not even need to expand their selling spaces significantly as terminal sales have proved to be effective. This is demonstrated by the example of our own retail projects - CITILINK and POSITRONIKA. With the support of our partners in POSITRONIKA network, we expect the newly formed business structure’s sales system to cover all regions and cities of Russia. The merger of our two companies is to produce a major synergistic effect which will enable us to cardinally strengthen our positions in the household appliances and electronics distribution market.”

The parties have already started integrating their business processes and forming a new unified structure. On April 2, the warehouse integration procedure began, which allows the partners of both companies to access warehouse stock of both distributors.
According to the management of MERLION and Aksima, the newly formed business structure will retain the obligations of both parties to suppliers, customers, clients and counterparties.

The parties intend to complete the initial stage of the new business structure formation by the end of the second quarter of the current year. The financial as well as other aspects of the transaction constitute confidential information and are not subject to disclosure.