How Do You Print a Golf Ball? – July 2016 M&A Activity

Newspapers

Hearst Corporation has consolidated the Houston, Texas newspaper industry, bringing a multitude of suburban newspapers under the management of its major daily, the Houston Chronicle, with its purchase of the Houston Community Newspapers & Media Group. Gannett acquired the North Jersey Media Group which publishes, among other titles, The Record (né The Bergen Record). The acquisition puts Gannett in direct competition with Advance Publications for the dwindling number of New Jersey newspaper readers. Advance publishes The Star-Ledger which by circulation is the largest newspaper in New Jersey. 

Consolidation and trading titles continued among the smaller newspaper publishers as well. Mainstreet Newspapers in Jefferson, Georgia acquired The Barrow County News and immediately announced the discontinuation of the acquired title. Daily News Publishing in Memphis, Tennessee purchased the Hamilton County Herald from Swartz-Morris Media. Donnelly Distribution in Pennsauken, New Jersey, which specializes in the distribution of retail advertising inserts, acquired Broad Street Media which publishes free papers into the Philadelphia market.

Corrugated Products

Kapstone Paper & Packaging announced the acquisition of the maker of corrugated boxes and retail displays, Central Florida Box. Kapstone is the fifth largest producer of containerboard and corrugated products and largest producer of Kraft paper in the US, operating four paper mills and 21 corrugated converting plants.

Packaging Corporation of America acquired TimBar Packaging & Display, located in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in a deal valued at $386 million, approximately 1.2 times trailing revenues of $324 million, a price reported to be a modest 4.3 times EBITDA including the value of tax benefits to the buyers and expected synergies post-transaction. Packaging Corporation of America, which acquired Boise in 2013, is now the fourth largest producer of containerboard and corrugated products in the US, operating eight paper mills and 90 corrugated plants.

* Graphic Arts Advisors, publisher of The Target Report, served as advisors to the principals in this transaction.