AptarGroup Inc. has a deal in place to acquire CSP Technologies Inc. a specialty plastic packaging maker, for $555 million.
Auburn, Ala.-based CSP also has manufacturing sites in Atlanta and Neiderbronn, France. Its products include desiccant polymers and protective packaging including blister packaging, vials, films and components all designed to keep products safe from moisture, oxygen, volatile organic compounds and odors.
Those products can be integrated into the packaging itself — including vials, bottles and closures — or introduced as a drop-in.
Markets include medicine and nutraceuticals, food safety, electronics protection, drug delivery products, medical devices and diagnostic products.
“This strategic transaction meets our disciplined criteria for acquiring companies with strong positions in attractive markets, proprietary technologies, solid margins and robust growth fundamentals, said Aptar CEO Stephan Tanda, in a statement.
“Similar to Aptar, CSP Technologies has an innovative culture with intellectual property that drives product development and enables highly engineered solutions, including their three-phase polymer technology,” he continued in the statement.
Aptar is buying CSP from Wendel Group, a French firm that's more than 300 years old, including the last four decades in investments, including a 2.6-percent stake in Saint-Gobain SA and 60.6 percent of Constantia Flexibles GmbH.
CSP's sales grew from $103 million in 2014 to $136 million in 2017 under Wendel's ownership, the seller said.
“CSP's management team has done a terrific job over the past several years expanding the Company's capabilities and building a foundation for its long-term growth,” Wendel Group CEO André François-Poncet said in a statement.
Wendel Group said CSP was the company's first North American investment following the opening of an New York office in 2013, and the company has now decided to simplify its portfolio and focus on larger investments.
Wendel said it invested $199 million of equity in CSP in 2015 and then additional $29 million to finance an acquisition in March 2016. The company reports it will net proceeds of about $345 million on the deal, about $140 million more than Wendel's valuation of the firm.