TPG Capital buys Chinese packaging company HCP Holdings

TPG Capital, the US private equity firm with $51.5 billion under management yesterday acquired Chinese packaging company HCP Holdings Inc, from the founder of the company, according to a yesterday statement on HCP website.

HCP did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but Bloomberg, citing a source, said that the deal was valued at about $500 million including debt.

Jeff Chen, a member of the founding Chen family and the current CEO of HCP, will take the role of an executive director and TPG will appoint Eddy Wu, currently the Asia Pacific president of the supply chain and logistics specialist VWR International, as HCP's new CEO, according to the statement.

Founded in 1960 in Taiwan by its current chairwoman Shen Fang Chen, HCP Holdings, switched its business operations to China in 1989.
 
Shanghai-based HCP is a cosmetics packaging molder with manufacturing units located in the Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Suzhou, the US and Mexico.
 
With about 3 per cent of the global market for cosmetics plastic packaging, the company has seen its sales grow rapidly in recent years, from $102 million in 2007 to $160 million in 2011, and has projected revenues of $185 million for the current financial year.

The firm has cosmetics giants including L'Oreal Paris, Procter & Gamble, Shiseido and Maybelline among its customers.

HCP obtained latest technologies for the development and production in cosmetics packaging and international exposure after it acquired bankrupt New Hampshire, US-based Bridgeport Metal Goods in 2004 for an estimated $6.5 million.

It is constructing a new production plant in Mexico by the end of February 2010, and has plans to build another one in Europe, in order to tap the East European market.

Reuters had reported in November 2011 that Morgan Stanley's Hong Kong-based Asia private equity unit was in talks to buy a majority 80 per cent stake in HCP for $500 million.