Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s subsidiary Triton and Luxinva has agreed to acquire IFCO reusable plastic containers (RPC) business from Brambles for an enterprise value of $2.51bn.
Image: Brambles to divest IFCO reusable plastic containers business to Triton and Luxinva. Photo: courtesy of rawpixel / Unsplash.
IFCO provides RPC pooling solutions for retailers and producers to decrease costs and optimize sales by enhancing efficiency, product quality, sustainability and safety across the supply chains.
The company’s RPCs are mainly used to ship fresh produce from producers to major grocery retailers in Europe, North America, Latin America, Japan and China.
IFCO operates a pool of more than 270 million RPCs across the globe, which are used for over 1.4 billion shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, bread, and other items.
IFCO reported revenues of $1.09bn, EBITDA of $248m and underlying profit of $133m in the fiscal year 2018.
Brambles is expecting to secure around $2.36bn of net cash proceeds from the deal, after taxes, transaction costs, and balance sheet items.
Brambles intends to use the proceeds from the deal to repay debt to maintain leverage in line with the board approved credit policy.
Subject to customary regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to complete in the second quarter of this year.
Brambles chairman Stephen Johns said: “In August 2018, we announced that we would seek to separate IFCO through either a demerger or a sale by way of a dual track process. As well as progressing the demerger option, a robust and competitive sale process generated strong interest.
“We are pleased today to announce the sale of IFCO which we believe delivers greater value for shareholders, including a significant return of cash proceeds to shareholders.”
Brambles, which produces pallets, crates and containers, serves customers in the fast-moving consumer goods, fresh produce, beverage, retail and general manufacturing industries.
With around 11,000 employees, the company owns about 630 million pallets, crates and containers through a network of over 850 service centers. It carries out operations in over 60 countries, and has majority operations in North America and Western Europe.