Irish packaging company Clondalkin Group has completed a €400 million refinancing and acquired Keller Crescent, an Indiana-based company that provides products to the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
Colman O'Neill, Clondalkin's finance director, said €250 million of the new funds would be used to pay existing debt. The company currently has a total debt of €550 million.
The €150 million balance has been set aside for acquisitions, of which Keller is the first. The fundraising was underwritten by Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers.
The €400 million was raised in two tranches of floating rate note bonds, which carry a variable interest rate of 6-7 per cent.
Mr O'Neill said the bond offering was nine times oversubscribed. Clondalkin, meanwhile, has acquired Keller Crescent for an undisclosed sum. Founded 122 years ago, Keller employs about 1,100 staff at three locations in the US. Its clients include global pharma group Eli Lilly and Alcon, an eye-care company.
Both companies declined to detail Keller's sales or profit figures but reports in trade media have suggested that the US company has an annual turnover of $89 million. Keller is a leading player in providing secondary packaging for the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets in the US.
Clondalkin will now derive 25 per cent of its $1 billion annual revenues from pharma, healthcare, toiletries/cosmetics and personal care products.
Mr O'Neill said the Keller deal would complement its acquisition in April 2006 of Pharma Graphics for $35 million.
"We're now the number one in secondary packaging for the pharma market in the US, which is a highly value added sector," he said. Clondalkin was a listed company until 1999 when it was taken private. It was acquired by private equity group Warburg Pincus in 2004 in a deal that valued the company at €600 million.
Warburg Pincus owns 85 per cent of Clondalkin with management holding the balance. Clondalkin employs 250 staff in Ireland, where 6 per cent of its business is derived.
