US private equity firm Kohlberg has agreed a deal to buy a number of packaging plants in Ireland as part of a deal valued at €347 million.
The company is acquiring three plants in total, one of which is in Clara, Co Offaly, and another located in Campsie, Co Derry. A third plant in Elsham, north Lincolnshire, is also included in the sale.
The plants have been sold by Australian packaging giant Amcor, which agreed to divest the properties in order to receive European Commission clearance for its $6.8 billion merger with Bemis.
That all-stock transaction saw Bemis shareholders acquire a 29 per cent of the Amcor business.
Amcor said that, collectively, the three plants generate annual sales of approximately $170 million from the sale of flexible packaging for healthcare products. It means that Amcor is disposing of the entire medical packaging business of Bemis.
Bemis acquired the Clara plant after buying Irish group Steripack’s medical business in a deal valued at about €70 million in 2016. It employed over 200 people in the Offaly facility.
It has had a presence in Derry since 1996 and. as recently as 2017, announce its intention to add another 95 jobs to its 200-strong workforce there.
The company also owns another packaging plant in Arklow, Co Wicklow, which does not form part of the deal.
Final approval
The sale of the plants, which is expected to close shortly, is subject to final approval by the European Commission of Kohlberg as a suitable buyer.
Amcor, which is headquartered in Melbourne and has more than 35,000 employees and annual revenues of $9.3 billion, completed its deal for Bemis earlier this month.
Headquartered in Wisconsin, Bemis employs close to 17,000 people and supplies packaging to food, healthcare and consumer products manufacturers around the world.
Amcor said it expects the Kohlberg transaction to close “in the coming weeks”.
