Sad to say, the packaging group Clondalkin - taken private by Henry Lund and Norbert McDermott with the backing of Candover 18 months ago - has decided that its corporate events should be kept to itself and only allowed to leak out to the media. What's the big secret?

Clondalkin, as a plc, was once one of the most secretive companies. It then had a change of policy and became one of the most progressive when it came to corporate reporting. Now as a private company, Clondalkin has reverted to type and apparently wants to keep its business to itself.

With that gripe out of the way, what we do know about Clondalkin since its late-1999 management buy out (MBO) is that the group is doing reasonably well, with Moodys happy to maintain its ratings on Clondalkin's hefty debts even after this month's #47.5 million (£37.41) acquisition of the Dutch packaging group European Packaging Holdings (EPH). EPH is based in Holland and had sales last year of #67 million, with earnings after tax and interest of #8.9 million.

That Clondalkin was able to do a deal of this size indicates that its bankers and venture capital backers are happy with the group's progress since the MBO. With #425 million of debt after the EPH takeover, Clondalkin is still a highly leveraged operation, as most MBOs tend to be, but Moodys has praised its strong cash flow and its ability to pay down debt ahead of schedule as a result of cost-reduction, property sales and strong management of working capital.

But the Moodys rating is a long way off triple A and its rating on Clondalkin's various types of debt reflects the scale of its leverage as well as price pressure the group is facing as a result of a sharp rise in raw material costs. Moodys also expects Clondalkin to face challenges in its American print division.