Global industrial packaging maker Mauser Group is considering an initial public offering in the United States, less than two years after it was bought by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC.
The company has not provided many details in various preliminary IPO filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in the latest filing on Feb. 12 it said only that it wanted to raise an unspecified sum for debt reduction and general corporate purposes.
In its first IPO filing, on August 7, it said it hoped to raise up to $100 million in the stock offering, although that was based on a nominal valuation of 1 euro ($1.11) per share.
CD&R paid $1.7 billion in 2014 for the Brühl, Germany-based Mauser, which operates nearly 100 factories worldwide. It purchased the company from Dubai International Capital LLC in the United Arab Emirates.
Mauser said in the filings that it had sales of approximately 1.24 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in 2014, an increase of 8.5 percent over 2013, and holds the first or second position in its markets. It said that as of Sept. 30, it had outstanding debt of 1.21 billion euros ($1.46 billion).
It said it competes in a global market worth about 7 billion euros ($8.5 billion), out of a worldwide market for rigid industrial packaging equal to about 15 billion euros ($18.2 billion).
The company said it expects the rigid packaging market to grow at 4 percent a year through 2020.
It said it believes its “lifecycle management” business model, selling plastic, metal and fiber drums, intermediate bulk containers, and reconditioning used plastic drums and IBCs, allows it to profitably grow faster than the market.
Mauser said that IBCs and reconditioning products have grown from less than 5 percent of the rigid industrial packaging market in 1995, measured by volume of chemicals filled, to more than 25 percent today.
The company's plastic drum business is its largest single unit, accounting for 31 percent of 2014 sales. Its IBC business, which can include plastic along with wood and steel composite materials, made up 24 percent of its business.
Mauser said it has more than 4,400 employees at 98 factories in 18 countries, and has over 7,000 customers including blue chip companies BASF, Dow Chemical, Evonik and ExxonMobil.
Mauser said it plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the symbol MSR.
It listed the IPO filing entity as Mauser Group B.V., based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and said that entity owned the Mauser-Werke GmbH, which is listed on the firm's website as its global headquarters in Brühl.
