Petainer UK Holdings (“Petainer”, “the Company”) today announced that it has signed a binding agreement with KKR Credit for a €100 million debt and equity investment. The funding from KKR Credit will be used to refinance the Company’s capital structure and also finance the implementation of the Company’s growth strategy.
Next Wave Partners (“Next Wave”) will remain the majority shareholders and KKR Credit is taking a substantial minority shareholding. The transaction is expected to complete later in April 2016.
Petainer is a global provider of high performance packaging solutions to a diverse range of consumer food and beverage end markets, including beer, wine, cider, carbonated soft drinks (“CSDs”), water and sauces. Petainer has specialist expertise in high stretch polymer engineering that it applies across much of its product portfolio to create differentiated and market disruptive packaging. The Board believes that the investment from KKR Credit provides substantial resources to Petainer to enable continued rapid growth via new product development and international expansion.
Nigel Pritchard, Chief Executive of Petainer said: “Petainer’s proprietary technology has enabled us to launch disruptive new products like the petainerCooler™ and petainerKeg™, that rival traditional substrates and that are technically superior and minimise waste through customer supply chains. Our lightweight, high performance products also help to reduce carbon footprints, making us a valued partner for customers at a time when regulators and brand owners are placing an increased focus on sustainability.
Today’s announcement is an important milestone in the development of our company. The financial and operational strength of KKR Credit, alongside the continued support of Next Wave Partners, provides the business with a robust financial structure to continue and accelerate our growth strategy, both through market consolidation and the development of our new product pipeline. This is a tremendous next chapter for the company.”
Mark Brown, Director at KKR Credit in London, commented: “We look forward to partnering with Petainer and Next Wave. We believe the company now has the long-term capital structure necessary to pursue attractive strategic growth initiatives. This investment perfectly fits our investment strategy of bringing in long-term capital as a solution to companies and investors who seek to diversify the sources of funding.”
Jonathan Brod, Managing Partner at Next Wave Partners said: “Petainer revenues have almost doubled under Next Wave’s ownership of the business while EBITDA has trebled.
“The Company’s proven ability to achieve such impressive revenue and profitability growth allows Next Wave to provide significant liquidity to our investors while retaining majority ownership of the business.”
The Next Wave Partners team responsible for the investment were Jonathan Brod, Stephen Walls and Ed Crossman.
KKR Credit was advised by Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.
Petainer was advised by Robert W. Baird Limited, Macfarlanes LLP and KPMG LLP (UK).
