Graphic Packaging, Onex and Ecolab seal takeovers

Graphic Packaging, Onex Corporation and Ecolab have all completed acquisitions to boost 2013 business.

Graphic Packaging has completed the £71m deal to buy Contego Packaging, after the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) cleared it, and the purchase of A&R Carton Holding for €19m.

The combination of the firm’s European packaging business with the two acquisitions will form one of Europe's largest folding carton businesses and provide web and sheet-fed converting assets, creating a manufacturing platform similar to US operations, said Graphic Packaging.

Elsewhere, Onex Corporation’s acquisition of KraussMaffei for $736.3m (€568m) in September 2012 was the first European investment from its private equity fund.

Onex Partners III will make an investment of $353m, of which Onex’s share is about $89m as a limited partner in the fund.

Separately, Ecolab closed its deal for Quimiproductos S.A. de C.V, a manufacturer and provider of cleaning and sanitizing and water treatment products to beverage and brewery customers in Mexico.

Quimiproductos had estimated 2012 revenue of $43.4m and operates in Central and South America.