Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (OTPP) has acquired a co-control stake in Shenzhen- and Seattle-headquartered packaging solutions firm GPA Global from Swedish private equity firm EQT and other minority shareholders.
GPA’s two founders, Tom Wang and Adam Melton, will roll over their respective ownership and continue to lead the company, the Canadian pension fund said in a statement.
While financial details were not disclosed, Bloomberg reported that the transaction could value GPA at about $700-800 million.
OTPP said this was its first co-control private equity investment in Asia.
The pension fund’s recent investments include Sahyadri Hospitals, the largest private hospital chain in the Indian state of Maharashtra; Greenstone, one of Australia and New Zealand’s leading insurance distributors; and Princeton Digital Group, a pan-Asian investor, operator and developer of data centres.
In the packaging sector, OTPP has invested in companies such as Logoplaste, a Portugal-based manufacturer of sustainable rigid plastics, and TricorBraun, North America’s largest distributor of primary packaging.
Founded in 2017 as Green Packaging Asia, GPA Global currently has a manufacturing footprint in Asia, North America and Europe. The business has more than 600 customers across the beverage, consumer electronics, healthcare, beauty and jewelry end-markets.
EQT, through its third Asia mid-market fund, purchased a co-control stake in GPA in 2017 and has helped the company transition from an Asia-centric business into a global platform, through the completion of seven strategic add-on acquisitions.
David Forde, a managing director within EQT Private Equity’s advisory team, said that GPA had been growing earnings five-fold over EQT’s investment period.
In March this year, EQT announced a merger of its Asia business with Baring Private Equity Asia aimed to create “one of the leading players in active ownership in Asia.” The combination will boost EQT’s invested assets under management in Asia across private capital and real assets to more than 20 billion euros.