Adam Baskind

Adam Baskind, former CEO and owner of the European Lamp Group, has succeeded in his complaint against Lighting Magazine. The magazine agreed to publish a full correction and pay Mr Baskind damages, which was donated to charity.

Correction

Adam Baskind – Correction Published in Lighting Magazine

July 2006

Our article “Edmundson snaps up lamps market leader” (January 2006) may have been understood as suggesting that Adam Baskind, the founder and owner of the European Lamp Group, was obliged to sell ELG to Edmundson Electrical because the company had made a series of poor business decisions thereby overextending itself. We wish to correct this impression.

Mr Baskind was not obliged to sell ELG to Edmundsons, nor did he do so on unfavourable terms. Mr Baskind founded ELG as a sole trader in 1995 contrary to what was said in our article. His late father had no involvement in the ELG business. ELG’s purchase of Valiant Lamps, Direct Lighting and Lampways was, in each case, funded by ELG cashflow alone and not with funds from the sale of an unrelated printing operation. Again, contrary to our previous suggestion, the purchase of Valiant Lamps and Direct Lighting did not involve the acquisition of £1 million of bad stock. ELG purchased the two trading businesses, plus £1 million of stock, plus fixed assets, all for an exceptionally low percentage in the pound of the stock value alone. The deal was therefore an excellent one from ELG’s point of view.

These acquisitions, together with the additional purchase of Lampways, strengthened ELG greatly, placing it in a position in which it was able to offer on more than one occasion to purchase a business from within Edmundsons. In response, Edmundsons offered to purchase ELG. The terms offered by Edmundsons and accepted by ELG was a payment of a multi-million pound cash purchase price for the ELG business alone. The purchase did not include the ELG business premises. Mr Baskind personally retained the ELG business premises (with Edmundsons remaining as a tenant only). The site, including the ELG business premises and adjacent development land, retained by Mr Baskind personally is worth several million pounds in its own right. The terms of the transaction reflect the true value of the ELG business that Mr Baskind has built up from scratch in just over 10 years.

We are grateful to Mr Baskind for bringing these matters to our attention. In addition to publishing this correction, we have agreed to pay him a sum in damages which will be donated to the Martin House Hospice for Children and Young People, and all legal costs.

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