An agreement reached between global packaging giant Sonoco (Hartsville, South Carolina / USA; www.sonoco.com) and private equity firm Metalmark Capital (New York, New York / USA; www.metalmarkcapital.com), under the terms of which the former will acquire specialty packaging solutions manufacturer Tegrant Corporation (Arlington Heights, Illinois / USA; www.tegrant.com), will result in the creation of a new protective packaging giant in North America.

According to Sonoco CEO Harris DeLoach, the USD 550m cash and debt deal, expected to close in November this year, is the largest in the company’s history and expected to be accretive to Sonoco’s 2012 pro forma earnings. Tegrant is expected to generate sales of USD 440m in 2011. Based on this projection, Sonoco could post revenues of about USD 5 bn in 2012. The new businesses will be overseen by existing Tegrant CEO Ron Leach, who has agreed to stay with Sonoco.

Illinois-based Tegrant operates three key business units: Protexic, which it claimed to be North America’s leading moulded expanded foam manufacturer; ThermoSafe, which Tegrant says is the world’s leading provider of temperature-assured solutions for temperature-sensitive packaging solutions; and Alloyd, which produces and designs packaging, printed products and blister packaging machines. All in all, the group operates more than 30 plants in the US, Mexico and Ireland, with more than 2,000 employees.

Commenting on the agreement, DeLoach said that, “Tegrant brings to Sonoco immediate access to faster growing markets such as medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and health and beauty, while providing us expanded access to a variety of industrial components and automotive markets.”

Sonoco last posted revenues of about USD 4.1 bn. After acquiring Associated Packaging Technologies (APT, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania / USA; www.aptechnologies.com) for USD 120m (EUR 88m) in June 2010 (see Plasteurope.com of 17.11.2010), the group brought all its plastics activities together under the new Sonoco Plastics brand.

The agreement illustrates the increasing trend towards consolidation in the plastics packaging sector, as witnessed by Reynolds’ (Chicago, Illinois / USA; www.reynoldspkg.com) recent takeover of Graham Packaging (York, Pennsylvania / USA; www.grahampackaging.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 12.09.2011 – or the recent merger of Constantia Flexibles Holding (CF, Weinburg; www.constantia-flexibles.com) with parent company Constantia Packaging (Vienna / Austria; www.constantiapackaging.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 29.09.2011. For a more detailed overview of the global plastic packaging market, see also Plasteurope.com of 10.10.2011 and of 04.10.2011.