The Carlyle Group buys British packaging supplier Chesapeake

GLOBAL asset manager The Carlyle Group yesterday announced that it has acquired UK-headquartered packaging supplier Chesapeake from private equity house Irving Place Capital and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.

The deal value is understood to be near £500m, with debt already in place. Financing was provided by Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, UBS and Barclays.

Capital for the investment will also come from the €5.3bn (£4.5bn) Carlyle Europe Partners III fund.

Nottingham-based Chesapeake produces consumer and pharmaceuticals packaging and posted revenues of €580m in 2012.

The firm hires nearly 5,000 staff across 38 sites in 9 countries.

ADVISERS THE CARLYLE GROUP

DAVID WALKER

LATHAM & WATKINS

Carlyle was advised on the transaction by Moorgate Capital, Latham & Watkins, Credit Suisse and KPMG. Nicholas Mockett led the Moorgate Capital team. Mockett has advised on packaging M&A for 20 years. He recently advised on the $245m (£161m) Contego Healthcare and $125m Contego Cartons disposals. Latham & Watkins gave legal advice to Carlyle and the team was headed up by David Walker and Dominic Newcomb. Walker was previously head of private equity at Clifford Chance and has over 20 years’ experience. Newcomb is a partner in the London finance practice and represents both lenders and borrowers in a wide range of domestic and cross-border financing and restructuring deals. KPMG’s team was led by Robert Ohrenstein, Tony Cheadle, Aneesh Maloo, Simon Page and Ian Elphick. Ohrenstein and Maloo led the financial diligence, Cheadle and Page provided tax advice and Elphick led the Pensions advice.