The news that IPL Plastics plans to merge with Dutch firm Schoeller Allibert is one of the more notable deals for an Irish company in 2025, and comes almost a 15 years after one of the biggest Irish corporate spats of the crash when the then chief executive of what was at the time called One51 faced down an attempted rebellion.
The deal, which will create a company with an estimated value of $1.7 billion, will mean IPL chief executive Alan Walsh leads the enlarged company, and comes after private equity firm Madison Dearborn hired bankers to run a sales process. The US firm had taken over IPL Plastics in 2020.
Spun out of the old IAWS, IPL‘s predecessor company, One51, had a short but controversial life. It was, in essence, the rump of IAWS after that company merged with Switzerland’s Hiestand to create Aryzta in 2007.
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Philip Lynch, a hugely influential figure in Irish business at that time, led One51 which was an investment company with stakes in Irish Pride Bakeries, Irish Continental Group and NTR among others, with Protech Plastics following a year later.
At that stage, its share register included a veritable who’s who of Irish business.
But, as the financial crisis took hold, things turned sour. In 2010, Gerry Killen led the “Campaign for Change at One51”, calling for an overhaul of the firm’s operations and the addition of new board members. At a raucous shareholder meeting in July that year, things came to a head.
[ Gloves are off in One51 corporate spatOpens in new window ]
In the end, none of the campaign’s nominees to the board were elected, yet a year later, Lynch was removed as chief executive amid a plunging share price and controversy over his €1.4 million pay packet.
Mr Walsh, then chief financial officer, was named to the top job and has remained in place since.
[ Philip Lynch dismissed by investment group One51Opens in new window ]
It is notable that IPL Plastics – it took the new name in 2018 to reflect its pivot fully to that industry – has recovered from that nadir and grown to the scale it has in the years since. However, Aryzta – something of the star performer – hit stormy waters itself.
At the time Lynch was removed, Aryzta appeared to be going from strength to strength. In the years since, it has cycled through chief executives and seen its market capitalisation plunge by more than two-thirds, even with a strong recovery in recent months.
In business, nothing ever stays the same.
