It looks like global films producer Klockner Pentaplast Group is on the selling block again.
Bloomberg News reported earlier this summer that Strategic Value Partners Investment Group — the Greenwich, Conn.-based firm that bought Klockner Pentaplast last year — is working with financiers Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Jefferies Group LLC to find a buyer for the firm.
Klockner Pentaplast spokeswoman Nancy Ryan, at the firm's regional headquarters in Gordonsville, Va., declined to comment. Klockner Pentaplast is based in Montabaur, Germany, and employs more than 3,000 at 17 plants worldwide.
In the year ended March 31, Klockner Pentaplast posted sales of almost $1.6 billion, up more than 2 percent vs. the prior year. The firm's pretax profit was up 9 percent to about $215 million in the same comparison.
Klocker Pentaplast's annual North American film sales are estimated at $600 million, placing the firm 12th in Plastics News' most recent ranking of film & sheet manufacturers. Klockner operates five plants in the U.S. and one in Canada, as well as single plants in Germany, Argentina, Brazil, China, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
The firm bills itself as the world's leading producer of films for pharmaceutical, medical device, food, electronics and general-purpose thermoformed packaging. It also makes film for printing and specialty applications.
Klockner Pentaplast was founded in 1965 and was sold to financial investors Cinven LLP and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 2001. Private equity firm Blackstone Group bought the firm for $1.8 billion in 2007.
Since 1997, Klockner Pentaplast has made 20 acquisitions, but financial challenges led to its credit rating being downgraded by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's in 2011. That move led to SVP acquiring the firm last year for almost $1.3 billion in debt and equity.