We advised MB Funds on the sale of Kotkamills Group Oyj to Mayr-Melnhof Group, Europe’s largest producer of cartonboard and folding cartons, for an EV of approximately EUR 425 million.
Kotkamills specializes in the production of barrier board, both Folding Boxboard (FBB) and Foodservice Board (FSB), and Saturating Base Kraft paper (SBK) at its integrated mill in Kotka, Finland. In addition, Kotkamills is a producer of whitewood. Kotkamills has approximately 500 employees and estimated sales of approximately EUR 380 million in 2020.
Completion of the transaction was subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
We advised MB Funds’ on their acquisition of Kotkamills in 2015. After MB Funds’s acquisition, Kotkamills invested EUR 180 million in order to successfully convert a paper mill on the site in Kotka to a state-of-the art modern board mill producing FBB and fully recyclable plastic-free FSB. Since 2015, we have advised MB Funds and the Kotkamills group on a wide range of matters, including a strategic review of Kotkamills’ operations and disposal of Kotkamills’ Malaysian operations in 2016 and Kotkamills’ Imprex business in 2017 as well as various financing matters, including the issuance and listing of Kotkamills’ high yield bond on NASDAQ Helsinki in 2016 and refinancing and delisting of the bond in 2020.
Kotkamills manufactures innovative products created from wood, a renewable natural resource. Kotkamills’ range of sustainable products includes food safe consumer boards, the high-quality saturating base kraft paper Absorbex®, and ecological wood products. The fully recyclable AEGLE® and ISLA® boards, produced since 2016, were complemented in 2018 with water-based dispersion barriers replacing plastics used in packaging and food service applications. All Kotkamills products are environmentally friendly, recyclable and safe to use.
MB Funds is a leading Finnish private equity investor founded in 1988. Total assets under MB Funds management stand at 0.5 billion euro with prime Finnish institutions as its main fund investors. MB Funds has successfully invested in approximately 40 mid-sized companies in the Nordics.
Mayr-Melnhof Group is Europe’s largest producer of cartonboard and folding cartons. The services of MM are focused on these core businesses, which are managed in two operating segments, MM Karton and MM Packaging. The group employs around 10,000 people and generates sales of around EUR 2.5 billion. MM Karton has six European cartonboard production locations with a total annual capacity of more than 1.7 million tons. The product range covers the entire range of recycled cartonboard grades rounded off by a growing position in virgin fiber-based cartonboard. MM Karton has sales worldwide with a focus in Europe.