By: E&P Staff Britain's CVC Capital Partners private equity firm on Thursday acquired Sweden's ANI Printing Inks and the printing inks and plates operations of Germany's BASF.
CVC said it will merge the businesses. Details of the transactions were not disclosed. The acquisitions and merger await regulatory approvals.
In a joint announcement, the companies called ANI's product line and regional coverage "very complementary to BASF's printing inks operations." The merged business will be headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. BASF has made plates since 1965 and inks since 1970, when it acquired K+E, based in Stuttgart.
Founded in 1997, BASF Printing Systems has functioned largely as a stand-alone business within the BASF Group. It comprises 16 companies at 20 sites on four continents. According to BASF, plate technology in recent years "has increasingly diverged from the chemicals business." A BASF line of photopolymer plates has been undergoing testing in London at the world's largest newspaper flexographic print site, which produces Britain's Daily Mail, The Independent, and Metro.
With subsidiaries throughout Europe and in Asia, South Africa, and South America, ANI was spun off from Akzo Nobel Coatings and became an independent, privately owned company through a management buyout in early 2002.
The merger will create the third-largest ink maker, after Sun Chemical and Flint Ink, and the number-two plate manufacturer. ANI employs 960 people, and BASF Printing Systems has 2,600 employees worldwide. Last year, ANI sales totaled 231 million euros and the BASF's Printing Systems had sales of 600 million euros.
Specializing in large leveraged buy-outs, CVC Capital Partner was founded in 1981 as Citicorp's European private-equity arm. In 1993, it completed its own management buy-out. Total funds under management exceed $9 billion. Since 1981, CVC has acquired more than 235 companies for more than 43 billion euros.
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