About seven months after market rumours first emerged that private equity group Lindsay Goldberg (New York / USA; www.lindsaygoldbergllc.com) is looking to sell Weener Plastic Packaging Group (Weener / Germany; www.wppg.de) – see Plasteurope.com of 17.11.2014 – the rigid plastics packaging producer now has a new majority owner. After investing about EUR 250m, 3i (London / UK; www.3i.com) now controls most of the shares in Weener, with the remainder in management’s hands. A company spokeswoman declined to provide further details when approached by Plasteurope.com. The takeover, the price of which is much lower than the originally targeted EUR 400m, still has to be approved by the relevant competition authorities.

The UK-based investor’s managing director Ulf von Haacke said 3i plans to “further increase the company’s market share and global footprint through a buy-and-build strategy.” Following the takeover, 3i business leaders’ network member Leslie van de Walle, a former CEO of Rexam, will join Weener’s advisory board.

Weener designs, develops and produces caps, closures, jars and bottles for the personal care, food and beverage as well as home care markets. The company generated sales of about EUR 270m in 2014 and has seen a compound annual growth rate of about 8% from 2010-2014. Its 2,000 employees are spread across 24 plants in 15 countries, and produce for a range of leading brand names such as Nestlé, P&G, Unilever and Beiersdorf.

3i’s portfolio also includes cosmetic industry goods producer Geka (Bechhofen / Germany; www.geka-world.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 06.03.2012. Although the latter’s portfolio in some ways complements that of Weener, the spokeswoman said there are no plans to merge the two companies.

Speciality chemicals distributor Azelis (Antwerp / Belgium; www.azelis.com) is also still part of 3i’s portfolio, although the investor has reached an agreement to sell the company to Apax Partners (London / UK; www.apax.com). This particular deal is expected to close before the end of Q2 this year – see Plasteurope.com of 27.02.2015.