Capital Partners to sell Gekoplast to K-Holding

Capital Partners owns Gekoplast via private equity funds managed by its subsidiary TFI Capital Partners.

TFI holds a total stake of 75.1% in Gekoplast, which is split between its fund Capital Partners Investment I FIZ (73.7%) and CP FIZ (1.4%). Meanwhile 11.1% of the shares are in the hands of Gekoplast management, and the remaining 13.8% are owned by institutional and individual investors.

On 31 October, Capital Partners Investment I FIZ and K-Holding entered a binding tender offer for a 73.7% stake. 

According to Capital Partners, K-Holding intends to wholly acquire Gekoplast before 30 November.

K-Holding is a holding company headquartered in Sacile, Italy. It controls Karton, which manufactures corrugated polypropylene sheets and reusable packaging made of the same material. 

The expected IRR on the investment in Gekoplast is expected to be more than 25%, TFI CEO Adam Chełchowski told unquote". 

Previous funding
After establishing the company in 2011, Capital Partners wholly owned Gekoplast until 2014, when it sold a 15% stake via an IPO on the Warsaw stock exchange to institutional and individual investors.

Around 12% of shares were issued to Gekoplast management and other key employees in three parts between 2014-2017 via a stock option programme.

As result of the IPO and the management stock option plan, the Capital Partners Investment I FIZ fund eventually held a 73.7% stake. An additional 1.4% stake is held by the Capital Partners CP FIZ fund and was bought on the secondary market.

During Capital Partners' ownership, the company underwent a restructuring of one of its production facilities, before merging and moving production assets to one location. This was partially financed with a bank loan. It also saw the sale of redundant assets and investments in production capacity of polypropylene sheets, Chełchowski said.

Company
Established in 2011, Gekoplast was formed when Capital Partners merged two former competitor companies in Poland. These were an arm of Nitroerg, then owned by the Polish state and today by copper producer KGHM, and private company Gekokart.

Gekoplast produces corrugated polypropylene sheets and reusable packaging made from it. It exports around 60% of its products to European countries.

The company recorded an EBITDA of PLN 11.6m in 2016 from a turnover of PLN 90.5m. It predicts an EBITDA of PLN 14.5m for 2017 and a turnover of PLN 100.7m.

People
TFI Capital Partners – Adam Chełchowski (CEO).

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