Treofan’s deal to acquire Max Speciality Films collapses

Treofan and Max India will cancel their negotiations around the earlier agreed deal for the sale of Max Speciality Films (MSF) which was set at around US$97m.

The deal for the subsidiary of New Delhi-based Max India had been agreed in September last year after almost two years of negotiations.

Treofan said their focus had shifted to restructuring and growing their core businesses in Europe and the Americas.

Max India said it now plans to transfer the Max Specialty Film division into a separate subsidiary.

Max Speciality Films specializes in manufacturing specialty barrier and bi-axially orientated polypropylene (BOPP) films to cater to the needs of applications including food packaging, overwrap, consumer products and label manufacture.

Their leather finishing foil business division has an installed capacity of 52,000 tons per annum.

India leads the way in terms of average growth rate of BOPP film from 2012-2016 with 11.5%, followed by China (9.5%) with Western Europe (1.3%) reporting the lowest rate, according to AMI’s 2012 market report.  

Change of focus

A spokesman for Treofan described the acquisition as “not the right thing to do at the moment”, to FoodProductionDaily.com.

“We do continue to look at global growth but that is not necessarily acquisitions. The process started two years ago and our new CEO brought a new strategy onboard about being an intelligent organisation and acquisitions are just one means, production agreements and efficiency agreements are other ways of growing the business globally.

“The strategy is a long term strategy with set priorities, like restructuring the German organisations and our core markets. The focus is on expanding our global footprint and not just putting money into one acquisition.”

When asked about rumours of a disagreement in the value of the business being the reason for the collapse of the deal the spokesman refused to comment but said that the market environment had changed in the past two years and Max Speciality Films will continue to produce film for Treofan.

Core business aim

Treofan Group distributes BOPP film under the brand names Treofan and TreoPore.

The group employs around 1,200 people, operates four production sites in Germany, Italy and Mexico and sells in more than 90 markets worldwide.

“Within the framework of our new corporate strategy, the focus currently is clearly on successfully restructuring and profitably growing our core businesses in Europe and the Americas,” said Peter Vanacker, who took over as Treofan CEO in September 2012.

“We are also growing our global presence by establishing an intelligent structure that, in a first phase, will primarily aim at creating strategic co-operations or license agreements with trusted partners.

“This provides us with the flexibility needed, considering the most recent changes in global BOPP business.”