BOUCHERVILLE, Quebec -- Uni-Select has announced that the minority shareholders of its subsidiary Uni-Select USA have tendered 100 percent of their shares in the company, accepting the terms of the offer to purchase submitted late in August. The event is significant as a number of the minority shareholders have been involved with and have supported Uni-Select since its initial foray in the United States in 1998, according to Uni-Select. Among the shareholders agreeing to tender their shares are members of the Buzzard family, which are 10 percent shareholders of Uni-Select USA.

Minority shareholders were paid $44.8 million (CDN) for approximately 13 percent of the stock of Uni-Select USA.

"Shareholders holding close to 3 percent of the stock are also customers of Uni-Select and have, in a number of instances, indicated their preference to retain their holdings, Uni-Select USA having enjoyed significant growth; nonetheless as these members of the Uni-Select Network sold their stock, they maintained their commitment to purchase automotive products from Uni-Select. We view these developments as a vote of confidence and we will remain true to our mission statement to grow Uni-Select into one of North America's leading automotive and related product distribution organizations and to achieve this goal we will remain focused on being a customer driven organization," stated Richard Roy, president and chief executive officer of the company.

As Uni-Select USA will be a wholly owned subsidiary, the non-controlling interest (related to Uni-Select USA) recorded by Uni-Select will be eliminated, resulting in immediate accretion to its net earnings per share. As illustration, over the trailing 12 month period, Uni-Select would have added between 12 cents to 15 cents per share (CDN) to its net earnings had it been the sole shareholder of its subsidiary.