Wendel sells Constantia Labels to Multi-Color for €1.15bn

Constantia Flexibles will become the largest shareholder in Multi-Color after the transaction, holding 16.6% of the company's shares. Constantia Flexibles is 60.5% owned by industrial holding company Wendel.

Constantia Labels has 23 plants in 14 countries, employs 2,800 people and recorded sales of €605m in 2016.

Acquirer Multi-Color operates 45 facilities worldwide, employs 5,500 people and recorded sales of $923m for the year ending March 2017.

The combined group is expected to generate $300m in EBITDA from $1.6bn in sales without taking any potential synergies into account. Synergies are projected to reach $15m by March 2020 through a combination of procurement and manufacturing efficiencies.

Mike Henry, the current CEO of Constantia Labels, will become CEO-elect of Multi-Color and will work closely with current CEO Vadis Rodato, who will retire in 2018.

Debt
A debt package will be provided by BAML and Citigroup.

Previous funding
One Equity Partners (OEP) acquired a 65.79% stake in Constantia Packaging from the Herbert-Turnauer foundation for €429m in a €650m EV deal in October 2009.

OEP then sold the aluminium products division Austria Aluminium Group to B&C Industrieholding and Raiffeisenlandesbank for €223m in March 2012.

In January 2015, it sold Constantia Flexibles, the packaging division, to Wendel for €2.3bn. Wendel financed the transaction with leverage around 5x its €233m 2014 EBITDA.

OEP then sold the last remaining packaging division of the original Constantia Packaging, called Duropack Group, to DS Smith in a €300m trade sale in February 2015.

Company
Founded in the 1960s by Herbert Turnauer, Vienna-headquartered Constantia supplies flexible packaging and labelling to both local and multinational companies in the food, pet food, pharmaceuticals and beverage industries. It employs 10,000 people at 55 industrial sites in 24 countries. Its products are sold in 115 countries worldwide.

People
Wendel – Frédéric Lemoine (chairman).
Constantia Flexibles – Alexander Baumgartner (CEO).
Constantia Labels – Mike Henry (CEO).
Multi-Color Corporation – Vadis Rodato (CEO).

Advisers
Acquirer – Rothschild (corporate finace); Keating Muething & Klekamp (legal); Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (legal).
Company – Goldman Sachs (financial due diligence); Willkie Farr & Gallagher (legal).

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• Topics
• Exits
• DACH
• Industrials
• Austria
• One Equity Partners
• Wendel
• Trade sale