Polestar has a new owner – the group has been acquired by Sun European Partners.
Sun has taken an undisclosed equity stake in the business, after being named as the likely new investor earlier this month.
Further funding has been provided by GE Capital, which replaces Bank Leumi as Polestar's provider of working capital.
Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert said legal processes to finalise the details of the deal were still in process, restricting what he was able to say at the present time. He described Sun as "specialising in market-leading positions with one strategy in mind – growth and expansion."
"We've been hamstrung because we didn't have an equity sponsor, so for a few years we haven't been able to move forward as quickly as we would have liked to. Now we can," Hibbert stated.
Sun European Partners is the European wing of US-based Sun Capital Partners. The company has been an active consolidator in various sectors, including packaging.
The takeover deal is for the £300m-turnover Polestar UK Print business, and excludes the Hungary-based Revai facility.
Hibbert said various options were being evaluated for the Hungarian operation, with a decision expected in the next couple of weeks.
Polestar has been owned by a syndicate of investors including BlueBay Asset Management, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and RBS since a financial restructuring involving a debt-for-equity swap at the end of 2006.
For more on this story, see this week's PrintWeek magazine |
