Italian PET preform specialist Nuovaplast (Villa Lempa, Teramo; www.nuovaplast.com) has been taken over by Valgroup (Lorena, São Paulo, Brazil; www.valgroupco.com), a major polymer producer, processor and recycler that has operations in Brazil, Spain, the US, Mexico and Uruguay.

Commenting on the deal, Valgroup’s president Luigi Geronimi said: “With this operation we want to diversify, also geographically, the core business of the group, expanding our presence in Europe. The acquisition of Nuovaplast will allow us to enter a new market with an already well-established position and the development of synergistic relations with the main suppliers and customers in the sector and achieving economies of scale.”

The previous owners were Italian private equity group IGI (Milan; www.igisgr.it/en) and minority shareholder Roberto Tomasoni. IGI had bought a 74.7% stake in Nuovaplast in January 2019 with previous owner Tomasoni retaining a 25.3% share.

Nuovaplast moulds PET and rPET preforms for the mineral water, oil, milk, detergents and personal care segments. It employs a staff of 45 and has a turnover of about EUR 90 mn. The company runs about 20 presses at its site in Villa Lempa, consuming 75,000 t/y of PET and producing more than 3 bn preforms annually.

Under IGI’s ownership, Nuovaplast – through a new company called 3R – also invested in another plant for producing recycled PET from post-consumer bottle flakes.

Valgroup converts more than 600,000 t/y of virgin resins into rigid and flexible plastic packaging and more than 100,000 t/y of post-consumer recycled plastic. With its holding company based in Luxembourg, most of its activities are located in Brazil, notably in Duque de Caxias, Nova Iguaçu, Ipojuca, Betim and Poços de Caldas. With a total of 39 plants in six countries, the group’s current turnover is around USD 1.5 bn (EUR 1.43 bn). To date, its presence in Europe has been marginal and limited to recycling PET resins at a plant in Spain.