LONDON — Oslo, Norway-based Dyno Industrier ASA has sold its plastics division, which makes automotive and electronic components, rotational molded parts, marine products and industrial and food packaging.
CVC Capital Partners Europe Ltd. of London paid 930 million Norwegian kroner ($120 million) for 70 percent of Dynoplast AB. Dyno is keeping a stake, and the remainder is owned by the plastic unit's senior managers, led by Olav Meland, president and managing director, who has a 5 percent stake.
A day after the sale to the London-based investment firm, Dynoplast said it is buying Autoliv Sverige AB's injection molding plant in Vargarda, Sweden.
Dynoplast plans to transfer Autoliv's production equipment to the Dynoplast automotive components plant at Saderkaping, Sweden. The Autoliv plant makes air-bag covers and seat belt parts. The deal will add $5 million to Dynoplast's annual sales.
Dynoplast and Stockholm, Sweden-based Autoliv intend to work together outside Europe, including in the United States, according to Anders Ahlen, general manager of Dynoplast's Swedish subsidiary. Autoliv and Dynoplast have signed a long-term cooperation agreement under which they will develop new plastics safety products including air bags and safety belt systems at Dynoplast's new development center at Goteborg, Sweden.
In a telephone interview, Ahlen said Dynoplast expects to expand its auto parts production in North America and Latin America. The company has its eye on Brazil, plus the United States or Mexico.
In 1997, Dyno reported that its plastics unit delivered sales of $204 million. Dyno claimed the division's profitability has been unsatisfactory for years, and that the disposal will allow Dyno to concentrate on its core explosives and chemical sectors.
The plastics division includes industrial packaging plants in Norway, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Wales, France, and Belgium; food-packaging units in Norway, Germany and England; automotive and electronic component molding in Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands; and rotomolding and marine product units in Norway and Saint John, New Brunswick.
Dyno's industrial packaging includes blow and injection molded containers, and, more recently, intermediate bulk containers. Its food-packaging operations include thermoformed trays and sealing film, and dairy packaging.
The division rotomolds boats, blow molds marine equipment and makes foam buoyancy products.
Meanwhile, Dynoplast Ltd. of Deeside, Wales, the firm's British industrial bottle and canister blow molder, has acquired Ten Cate Mouldings BV's British packaging business, based at Somercotes, England, for about $1.68 million.
Dynoplast stepped into the breach after RPC plc dropped plans in July to purchase the Dutch container molder, which also has a container blow molding plant at Oldenzaal, the Netherlands.
Dynoplast closed the Somercotes plant and a sales office in Maidstone, England, cutting about 20 jobs. It moved three Battenfeld Fisher blow molding machines from Somercotes to Deeside in September.