M&As: Covestro completes sale of US sheets business to Plaskolite; Coveris of its rigid packaging unit

Germany-based materials manufacturer Covestro has closed the sale of its Polycarbonates (PCS) sheets business in Sheffield (US) to Plaskolite. Acrylics sheets manufacturer Plaskolite will continue operations at the facility, which generated sales of about US$170 million in 2017.

The sale of the sheets business is part of Covestro’s efforts to optimise its portfolio. After thorough evaluation, the company decided that the sheets business will not be a strategic fit for its polycarbonates segment in the long run. Besides the sale of the US sheets business, Covestro has also sold its sheets business in India, and is transferring its production in Guangzhou, China, into a speciality films site.

After Covestro had decided that its US sheets business could develop and grow better under a new owner, the company announced in March 2018 to have signed an asset deal with Plaskolite.

Both companies agreed on a purchase price in the high-double-digit million US Dollar range.

In other news, Coveris Group has finalised its sale of its rigid packaging business to Lindsay Goldberg, a private equity investor.

Coveris Rigid with a turnover of EUR560 million is a supplier of packaging solutions with 18 manufacturing sites and 3.500 employees in Europe and in the US. Its customers include local food manufacturers serving high performance plastic packaging for the dairy & spreads, processed & fresh food and foodservice industry. Several non-food applications are completing the comprehensive product offering based on thermoforming, injection moulding and decoration technologies.

With this transaction, Coveris Group pursues the realignment of its business portfolio and is further executing its strategy to focus on high performance and sustainable packaging solutions for food, pet food, medical and pharmaceuticals markets, as well as other growing consumer segments, primarily in Europe.

Jakob Mosser, CEO Coveris Group, stated, “The sale of rigid that follows our recent divestment in the Americas is an important and successful milestone in our strategy to transform Coveris into a European champion for flexible plastic and paper-based packaging solutions.”

The business will rebrand and all Coveris Rigid entities will rename to Paccor, the company name before the rigid packaging business merged into Coveris in 2013.

(PRA)

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