Alantra advises HQ Equita on refinancing of The Packaging Group

Bad Homburg/Engelskirchen/Frankfurt — Alan­tra, a global invest­ment banking and asset manage­ment firm focu­sed on the mid-market segment, advi­sed HQ Equita, the direct invest­ment arm of HQ Capi­tal, on the refi­nan­cing of its port­fo­lio company The Pack­a­ging Group (“TPG”). TPG is a global leader in the design and manu­fac­ture of premium pack­a­ging machi­nery for the food, pet food and chemi­cal indus­tries. — Alan­tra struc­tu­red and arran­ged new credit faci­li­ties in a compe­ti­tive process to repay share­hol­der loans from HQ Equita and to refi­nance exis­ting debt. In addi­tion, the company recei­ved new acqui­si­tion and CapEx lines for orga­nic and exter­nal growth.

TPG deve­lops and manu­fac­tures pack­a­ging machi­nes for filling dry, free-flowing bulk mate­ri­als into various types of bags made of paper or plas­tic lami­nate. The machi­nes provide pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons for flour, sugar, baking mixes, confec­tion­ery, pet food, and various chemi­cal products, among others. The service and spare parts busi­ness also accounts for around a quar­ter of TPG’s sales. The company, with 210 employees at four inter­na­tio­nal produc­tion and sales loca­ti­ons, was crea­ted in 2018 by merging FAWEMA and HDG (form­erly: Steindl Group) under HQ Equita.

The finan­cing volume provi­ded by a consor­tium consis­ting of Commerz­bank and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank (OLB) supports TPG in expan­ding its tech­ni­cal compe­ten­cies and geogra­phi­cal reach through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons in order to further expand its market posi­tion as a globally active plat­form in the pack­a­ging machi­nery market. The streng­the­ned debt capi­tal base also enables TPG to expand a produc­tion site and build a third state-of-the-art “green­field” produc­tion faci­lity. In addi­tion, it is inten­ded to acce­le­rate invest­ments in sales, as well as rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, and to further insti­tu­tio­na­lize the organization.

Florian Wiem­ken, who is mana­ging HQ Equita’s invol­vement with TPG, said: “This finan­cing package is very well struc­tu­red and allows TPG to grow sustain­ably. Germany is a leader in the highly frag­men­ted pack­a­ging machi­nery market and the acqui­si­tion line will allow TPG to acce­le­rate its orga­nic and exter­nal growth in this envi­ron­ment. Alan­tra led a very compe­ti­tive process with the finan­cing banks and did an excel­lent job on this transaction.”

Robert von Fincken­stein, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of Debt Advi­sory in Alantra’s Frank­furt office, added: “The refi­nan­cing of TPG is alre­ady the fifth tran­sac­tion for HQ Equita in the past four years and our twelfth debt advi­sory mandate in the past twelve months. It also conti­nues the string of successful tran­sac­tions Alan­tra has comple­ted for its clients in the pack­a­ging indus­try, inclu­ding HQ Equita’s sale of Rovema to Haniel in 2017 and IMA’s acqui­si­tion of Odewald’s Oystar dairy busi­ness in 2015.”

About Alan­tra
Alan­tra is a global invest­ment banking and asset manage­ment firm focu­sed on the mid-market segment with offices in Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America. With over 330 experts, the Invest­ment Banking unit provi­des inde­pen­dent advice on M&A, corpo­rate finance, loan port­fo­lios and capi­tal market tran­sac­tions. The Asset Manage­ment unit mana­ges assets of around 4.5 billion euros in the asset clas­ses private equity, active funds, private debt, real estate and wealth manage­ment. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.alantra.com.

About HQ Capital
HQ Capi­tal is one of the leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment mana­gers for alter­na­tive capi­tal invest­ments. Since 1989, HQ Capi­tal has inves­ted globally in private equity and U.S. real estate for insti­tu­ti­ons and fami­lies. Over 145 employees manage and invest appro­xi­m­ately $12 billion (as of Septem­ber 30, 2018) from 10 loca­ti­ons in North America, Europe and Asia.
HQ Equita is the invest­ment busi­ness of HQ Capi­tal. For more than three deca­des, the focus of HQ Equita has been on invest­ments and share­hol­dings in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. From Bad Homburg, around 15 specia­lists support medium-sized compa­nies in their growth and trans­for­ma­tion. Since 1992, HQ Equita has raised around one billion euros in capi­tal and inves­ted in over 30 companies.