The UK fund management company Doughty Hanson has completed its €1.1bn acquisition of the Moeller Group from its former owner, Advent International. Doughty Hanson now owns 75% of Moeller, with Advent keeping 15% and the remaining 10% being held by the company`s managers.

Moeller is now pressing ahead with its plans to expand in high-growth markets, especially in Eastern Europe and Asia. It is building a factory in India, opening a logistics centre in the Czech Republic and setting up a subsidiary in Bulgaria.

Following the takeover, one of Moeller`s board members, David McLemore has left. The company is now being run jointly by its chief executive Theo Kubat and chief financial officer Robert Gärtner.

Kubat says that Moeller plans to expand through innovative products, new developments and "targeted, calculable acquisitions". The company, he adds, "will continue on its march to the top of the electronics sector".

Moeller`s UK managing director Paul Corbett, describes the change of ownership as "extremely positive" and pledges that, in the UK, Moeller "will continue to increase its share of the industrial control, automation and distribution equipment markets". For UK customers, he adds, "it is business as usual".

In the first three months of the current financial year (to the end of July), the turnover in Moeller`s core business rose by 14%.