Finnish manufacturer of films for packaging and construction applications Walki (Espoo; www.walki.com) is changing hands. For an undisclosed sum, the previous owner, financial investor One Equity Partners (OEP, New York, New York, USA; www.oneequity.com), has sold the Finnish company to Japanese paper and packaging group Oji Holdings Corp (Tokyo; www.ojiholdings.co.jp/english). One Equity had acquired Walki from private equity firm CapMan (www.capman.com) in July 2018.

In the past five years under the OEP umbrella, Walki’s turnover increased by around 125% to over EUR 700 mn at last count, partly due to several acquisitions. In 2022, for example, Walki acquired packaging manufacturers Folian (Groß Lüdershagen, Germany; www.folian.com), Westpak (Säkylä, Finland; www.westpak.fi), and Flexipack (Vaasa, Finland; www.flexipack.fi).

In 2021, Walki had also acquired a majority stake in Spanish food packaging manufacturer Plasbel Plásticos (Murcia; www.plasbel.com). In 2019, the Scandinavian converter had first acquired Finnish packaging manufacturer Plastiroll (Ylöjärvi; www.plastiroll.fi) and a few weeks later a business unit of packaging group Mondi (Johannesburg, South Africa; www.mondigroup.com) specialising in extrusion coatings.

Walki has 17 production sites worldwide and employs more than 1,700.