ATLANTA (Dec. 3, 12:35 p.m. ET) — BWay Corp. has acquired Ropak Packaging, a division of Linpac Group Ltd., in a deal valued at about $265 million.
Ropak, based in Fountain Valley, Calif., injection molds rigid shipping containers for industrial and consumer applications.
Ropak has seven plants in North America, including a plastics recycling operation at its Springhill, Nova Scotia, facility. It was No. 29 in the most recent Plastics News ranking of North American injection molders with estimated sales of $220 million.
BWay, based in Atlanta, also makes rigid packaging. Its product offerings include pails, drums and tight-head containers made from plastic, metal and hybrid materials.
The acquisition gives BWay an opportunity to broaden its product portfolio and expand its reach; it’s a “natural and exciting combination,” said Kenneth Roessler, BWay’s president and CEO, in a news release.
BWay itself has a new owner. Private equity firm Platinum Equity LLC of Los Angeles finalized its purchase of BWay last month, in a deal worth approximately $1.24 billion.
BWay immediately launched operational and M&A initiatives to strengthen and grow the company, according to the release.
BWay has total sales of $1.2 billion. About 40 percent of the company’s 2011 net sales were in plastics.
The company has 11 plastics plants, and 22 overall, in North America. It is North America’s 13th largest injection molder and is No. 26 in PN’s ranking of North American blow molders.
This is the latest in a series of divestures for the Birmingham, England-based Linpac, following the company’s debt restructuring in 2009.
In March, One Equity Partners of New York purchased Linpac Allibert, the company’s returnable transit packaging arm. In 2011, the company sold five non-core business units to funds managed by Chamonix Private Equity.
Bway will acquire Ropak from Linpac Group via a stock purchase. The purchase will boost BWay’s earnings power and should be a deleveraging event for the company, according to the release.
