Koch, Goldman Sachs to buy Flint Group for over $3 bn

Koch Industries and Goldman Sachs private equity arm yesterday struck a deal to buy Flint Group from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, in a deal that reportedly values the Luxembourg-based printing-ink maker at more than €2.2 billion ($3 billion).

Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division had earlier tied up with Koch Equity Development LLC, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc, to acquire  Flint Group's entire share capital from funds advised by CVC Capital Partners.  Koch Equity Development  and  Goldman Sachs agreed to invest in a newly-formed entity to acquire Flint Group.

Flint is one of the world's leading suppliers of inks and other print consumables like flexographic printing plates, blankets, image transfer products and chemicals for press rooms, to the packaging and the print media industries.

The company has a global footprint and holds number one or number two positions in most of its segments.

It employs some 6,600 people across 137 sites in 40 countries and generated revenues of €2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) in 2013.

In 2004, CVC Capital acquired and merged Akzo Nobel's former ink production unit ANI with BASF Printing Systems, which it had acquired from chemicals giant BASF.

In 2005, CVC Capital acquired Flint Ink Corp, a US-based supplier of printing ink and colorants, in and merged ANI and BASF Printing into Flint Ink Corp and renamed the company Flint Group.

Koch, one of the largest private companies in the US with annual revenues of about $115 billion and Goldman Sachs said that they would support the strategy developed by the Flint's management team of pursuing targeted business mix evolution towards more attractive and higher growth printed packaging market while maintaining the company's strong position in the resilient print media business.

As a first step after the acquisition, Koch and Goldman intend to reduce Flint's debt by 20 per cent from the current €1.8 billion.