CCL Industries Inc. to acquire Innovia Group for €810 million

Canada-based converter, CCL Industries Inc. has announced it is to acquire the Innovia Group for €810 million (approx. £679.5m GBP) from managing shareholder, the Smithfield Group.

The transaction, which is expected to close at the end of Q1 2017, follows a highly successful period for Innovia, during which it has substantially enhanced the capabilities and performance of both its high-tech film and banknote businesses.

CCL is the world’s largest specialty label business and is publicly quoted on the Toronto Stock Exchange with a market value in excess of CAN $8 billion (approx. £4.8 billion GBP). It employs more than 20,000 people and operates from 156 production facilities across 35 countries on six continents.

CCL has a complementary presence in the markets in which Innovia operates, with capabilities in security printing, polymer extrusion and surface engineering that are deployed across all business segments. Innovia’s pre-eminent R&D and high technology capabilities provide a platform for CCL to grow and further enhance its offer in these markets.

“This transaction is another transformative acquisition for CCL, propelling the company to world leadership in the disruptive, fast-growing polymer banknote market while strengthening our depth in the materials science arena with proprietary BOPP films technology for the label, packaging and security sectors,” commented Geoffrey T. Martin, President and CEO of CCL.

“We expect to find significant operational, customer and product innovation growth opportunities between Innovia and our end-use facing businesses at CCL Label, CCL Design, Checkpoint and Avery. We are very pleased to welcome Innovia’s deeply experienced industry people to our company and look forward to an exciting future together.” 

For Innovia, the acquisition follows the company’s increasing strategic focus on high value-add and differentiated films with world leading technology. It divested its legacy cellophane business earlier this year while making significant growth investments over the last three years, including a state of the art new facility to produce polymer banknote substrate in Cumbria. 

Mark Robertshaw, Chief Executive of Innovia Group, said: “CCL will be an excellent long term owner for the employees and customers of Innovia. CCL recognises and values Innovia’s world leading technology, R&D and differentiation in films and security and sees a high degree of complementarity with CCL’s own capabilities and markets to establish new growth opportunities for their business.”