Cloak and Dagger Inks Fight Counterfeiters – June 2015 M&A Activity
Private equity investment firm The Jordan Company added to its investment in the category of plastic printing substrates primarily used in packaging applications. Transilwrap, acquired by The Jordan Company in 2013 (see The Target Report – November 2013), itself acquired Ellis Industrial Packaging, adding to its line of converted films and specialty plastics used in printing and packaging. Sun Capital Partners acquired Canadian paper and packaging company CanAmPac through its portfolio company PaperWorks, adding to its significant investments in the printing, packaging and paper industries. The acquisition includes the Strathcona mill that manufactures paperboard for packaging exclusively using recycled fibers.
Commercial Printing and Document Management
Taylor Corporation emerged as the winning bidder for printing and document management company Standard Register in the 363 sale in bankruptcy with an offer of $307 million. Based on the most recently reported revenues of $904 million, Taylor’s offer equals 34% of trailing revenues, a price higher than the 29% of projected revenues that Quad/Graphics paid for the presumably more financially sound Brown Printing in April 2014. Standard Register filed bankruptcy just this past March, reportedly unable to meet its obligations from the debt incurred with its own acquisition of print management company Workflow One in 2013 (see The Target Report – August 2013). One day after winning Standard Register, Taylor Corporation announced the acquisition of NEPS, a much smaller New Hampshire-based document management company.
Commercial printer Excelsior Printing is closing its printing operations in North Adams, Massachusetts, after 125 years, transitioning the remaining business to Integrity Graphics in Windsor, Connecticut. The venerable printing company operated in a classic New England brick mill building and had been owned by the Crane family since 1970, operating first under the ownership of Crane & Co., manufacturers of specialty papers including for much of the world’s paper currency, then under David Crane since 2008.
