What Would You Do With $500,000,000

If you were Graybar?

Yes, it’s a lot of money and many people are wondering, perhaps speculating, on what Graybar will do with a half a billion dollar unsecured loan. This gives them $300 million more than they had before.  It’s an intriguing question and ranges from “nothing” to “retiring prior loans / lines of credit that had higher interest rates” to “how can they spend the money?”

(And since Allen and I had some time to spend on the phone today, we thought we’d try to spend someone else’s money!)

From asking around, we’ve learned:

• There is no personal liability.
• There are no real estate attachments
• There are no stock attachments nor A/R commitments.
• Part of these loans were renewal of old loans and cleaned up documents from as long ago as 5 years ago.

But, according to some “in the know”, there are plans for the money.

But remember, the plan could be keeping the money “dry” and not using it … essentially saving it for a rainy day.

But, why post something if we can’t share ideas on how it could be used….

• $500,000,000 would buy about $2 billion in distributor sales, so could Graybar go on a buying spree? These could be electrical distributors, automation houses (they bought AVAD), lighting distributors, etc.
• Perhaps an expanded renewables initiative …. solar, entering the smart grid marketplace?
• Do they need a cash cushion for business they want to pursue, especially if they are concerned about receivables / delayed payment?
• Could some be invested into their industrial automation strategy? They are hiring many people around the country now (don’t know if any are funded by Schneider Electric).
• Or in more salespeople (Grainger is expected to hire 300 new inside salespeople this year).  After all, Graybar’s Bill Mansfield was quoted as saying manufacturers are reducing their salesforces
• Perhaps enter a new business through an acquisition … buy a solar distributor? a PT distributor? an ESCO to support their energy initiative?
• Or expanding their utility business by purchasing HD Supply’s utility group (which now includes their electrical group)?
• Or funding the opening of new locations (they are looking to open 7-10 new locations per year for the next several years)
• Maybe take a page from Grainger and do end-user marketing to build their brand and drive business?
• From a financial viewpoint, is the loan viewed as liquidity / cash and an asset for a potential acquirer of Graybar, enabling some internal funding of Graybar being acquired? Could someone like Motion Industries (Genuine Parts) be interested in entering the electrical industry? Or another large distribution company? Or a private equity firm?

Lot’s of choices.  With cash much can be done.  It’s doubtful that Graybar invested its time to do nothing with the money.  So what do you think they should do? If you had this much money (to spend in the business), how would you spend it?  What could be a “game changer” to accelerate their business?