In a deal worth EUR 160m, Belgian protective packaging producer Pregis (Wellen; www.pregis.com) on 14 October 2011 announced that it had reached a definite agreement to sell its Kobusch-Sengewald (Warburg / Germany; www.kobusch-sengewald.com) specialised flexible packaging film business to investment group Sun European Partners, the European advisor of US investment firm Sun Capital Partners (Boca Raton, Florida; www.suncappart.com).

The German company’s 1,100 employees generated sales of EUR 211.6m in the financial year ended 30 September 2011. Kobusch-Sengewald produces a range of products, including flexible films, ready-made bags, pouches and sleeves across six facilities located in Germany, the UK and Egypt. The Warburg-based group’s CEO Borg Kvamme welcomed the transaction, saying, “We are excited about the prospect of becoming an independent company and building on our leading position in the European plastic packaging market.”

Sun Capital has been building its own plastics packaging portfolio over the past few years, including with its most latest acquisition of Austrian film manufacturer Unterland Flexible Packaging (Langkampfen, Kufstein; www.unterland.at) – see Plasteurope.com of 09.08.2011. According to Sun European Partners’ Philippe Neuschaefer, this is the group’s sixteenth packaging transaction in the past five years. In July this year, the holding group had announced the creation of two separate plastic packaging groups: pan-European flexible packaging specialist Britton Group (Winsford, Cheshire / UK; www.brittongroup.com) and pan-European rigid packaging specialist Paccor (www.paccor.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 07.06.2011.