Scrapped: Guy Hands ‘pulls out of takeover plans’ for German Cartonplast
Private equity magnate Guy Hands is said to have abandoned takeover plans for a European packaging business.
His firm, Terra Firma Capital Partners, has withdrawn from negotiations to buy German packaging company Cartonplast, according to Sky News.
The withdrawal raises questions about the ability of one of the most prominent British financiers to land fresh acquisitions.
Sources said Hands had personally offered to underwrite the €125m (£115m) equity component of the deal, such was his confidence about its prospects.
It is understood efforts to persuade other would-be backers to support the deal have failed in recent weeks, however.
An insider said it was possible the talks with Cartonplast’s institutional shareholder Stirling Square Capital Partners could still be saved.
The potential deal was viewed as a test of Hands’ ability to finance new acquisitions after he called off a plan to raise a general buyout fund. That would have been Terra Firma’s first since losing control of music giant EMI eight years ago.
Cartonplast makes pads used while transporting glass containers and cans. It was reportedly valued in the discussions at several hundred million euros.
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