Founded as Pannonplast, one of Hungary’s largest plastics processors, successor company Pannergy Nyrt (Budapest / Hungary; www.pannergy.hu) has decided to rid itself of all its plastics activities.

After focusing on the manufacture and sale of geothermal energy in mid-2007, the newly specialised company is now selling 95.3% of its Pannunion businesses to Pannunity – a company founded specifically for the takeover by Island Lux & Partners (Luxembourg), an investment fund indirectly controlled by Sun Capital Partners. The transaction is valued at about EUR 20m.

Pannunion comprises several companies in Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine, including Unical, Almand and Unionplast. In part thanks to its high-quality blow- and thermo-moulded packaging, the group managed to generate EUR 55m in sales.

The Hungarian activities will likely be merged with the number of acquisitions Sun Capital has made in the plastics packaging field, as was the case with Albéa (Gennevilliers / France; www.albea-group.com) and Betts Global (Colchester / UK; www.betts-india.com). Sun Capital also recently acquired British film manufacturer and processor Britton Flexibles (Winsford; www.brittongroup.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 18.04.2011 – and Veriplast.