Reports in the financial press as of 3 February 2021 say that Bain is in talks to buy Parksons Packaging in the region of an estimated Rs 3,000 crore or US$ 415 million. Parksons Packaging is one of the companies that has emerged out of the Kejriwal family printing businesses in the 1990s, with its first plant in Daman near Mumbai. In its rapid growth over the past two decades, led by its founder Ramesh Kejriwal, the company has set up plants in Chakan near Pune, in Pantnagar in North India, in Guwahati in North East India, and Sri City in South India. (According to the financial press, thus far, both Bain Capital and Parksons Packaging have declined to acknowledge that the story is anything more than a rumor.)
One of India’s leading monocarton manufacturers, Parksons Packaging, also produces corrugated cartons and packaging related inserts and outserts. It reported a revenue of Rs 500 crore in the financial year 2019-20. Private equity firm Kedaara Capital purchased a minority stake in the company for Rs. 200 crore in 2015. Also reported in the financial press is that the deal is in the advanced stages of discussion and could materialize in the next three months.
Bain Capital is already a leading global supplier of packaging to the beauty and cosmetic industry. In 2018, it acquired Wisconsin US-based World Wide Packaging, a forty-year-old company that had merged with Dairyland Packaging, in the same state in 2005. When Bain Capital acquired World Wide Packaging, it provided packaging materials and components to the cosmetics and personal care industries. The company owned tube-manufacturing facilities with offices on both US coasts and in Suzhou, China, for these segments. Simultaneously, with the acquisition of World Wide Packaging, the company purchased a Chinese cosmetics packaging manufacturer. It merged the two assets into an integrated global cosmetic and beauty brands solutions provider led by the US company’s design and sales prowess.
Bain Capital – bullish on India
Bain Capital Private Equity is a US-based private investment firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1984 by partners from Bain & Company – a consulting firm. As of 2018, Bain managed more than US$ 105 billion of investor capital, and current estimates in the financial press put the amount at US$ 120 billion. Since 2019, the Indian financial press has reported that Bain Capital has been looking to invest about US$ 3 billion in the country in a three-year time frame. Reportedly the company looks at mostly big-ticket investments upward of US$ 500 million.
Since the start of Bain Capital India in Mumbai in 2008 by its chairman and managing director Amit Chandra, the company has been bullish on the country’s growth. It has invested in a wide range of businesses. These include a US$ 550 million investment in Hero MotoCorp in 2011, and investments in Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Larsen and Toubro’s financial services company L&T Finance Holdings, and engineering services provider QuEST Global Services.
This story has been slightly updated on 7 February to acknowledge that the financial press stories thus far may be speculative and based only on rumor. – editor
