Stirling Square Capital Partners (Stirling Square), a pan-European private equity firm, is to sell CPL Holdings (Cartonplast), an operator of sustainable pools of returnable transport packaging materials (RTP), to German private equity investor Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) and the DBAG-advised DBAG Fund VII.
Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.
Stirling Square created the Company in 2013 with a simultaneous double buy-out of private equity-owned Cartonplast Group GmbH and family-owned Trading Cartonplast Iberica SA. Since then, Stirling Square has worked closely with management to achieve seamless integration, efficient and effective partnerships with clients, as well as organic and external expansion. Cartonplast is currently on track to deliver four-year compounded growth rates of 6% in RTP rentals and 8 per cent in operating profit in its otherwise stable, resilient sector.
Headquartered in Dietzenbach (Germany), Cartonplast operates a pool of c45 million RTP units that are rented as interlayers in the palletised transport of bottles and cans for the beverage, food and cosmetics industries. The Company provides just-in-time logistics service across a vast network straddling 130 client delivery sites in 20 countries and 7500 filler collection sites in 30 countries. It uses only hygienically serviced, reusable plastic materials, promotes the substitution of cardboard with recyclable RTP, and contributes to better industry-wide sustainability.
Under Stirling Square’s stewardship, the management team was expanded and empowered, substantial pool investments were made to support growth in existing and new markets, and strategic acquisitions were consummated in Brazil, France and Germany. Cartonplast is currently rolling out new services in plastic pallets in Europe and in plastic layer pads in Brazil.
Gregorio Napoleone, co-founder of Stirling Square, says: “We are very pleased with Cartonplast’s achievements under the leadership of Serkan Koray, and are proud of having assisted his management team through pervasive transformation. Cartonplast’s business model is unique and has tremendous growth potential across geographic boundaries, end-user industries and RTP segments. The Company is well structured to seize future opportunities.”
Serkan Koray, CEO of Cartonplast, says: “Stirling Square has been critical in helping us grow as a business and as a team, at a time when we aimed to consolidate customers’ loyalty and international mega trends continued to validate our business model. We are ready for our next phase of expansion and look forward to working with DBAG on capitalising upon our momentum.”
