Australian logistics company Brambles has completed the £2bn sale of its packaging arm IFCO to investment giants Trinton and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The two investment companies acquired the reusable packaging specialists for an enterprise value of US$2.5bn

Brambles acquired IFCO in March 2011 and announced in August last year it would seek to spin-off the business via a demerger or sale.

IFCO said the transaction has created “a fully independent company, able to act agile and flexibly and to offer the industry’s most efficient and sustainable fresh foods packaging solutions”.

The company’s packaging is used in over 1.6 billion shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, bread, and other items from suppliers to retailers every year.

IFCO has 32 subsidiaries around the world, which serve more than 320 retailers and over 14,000 producers in over 50 countries.

Wolfgang Orgeldinger, who remains CEO of IFCO, commented: “We are very excited about the future and very proud to say that IFCO is an independent company again. This independence and the support by our investors will help to drive growth by expanding our customer base, strengthen the ties with existing customers, and enable us to act more flexibly to opportunities and challenges within the markets that we serve.

“I am sure that we will build on the record financial results we achieved last year. IFCO is well positioned for its future as an independent company. Since there will be no impact on our operations, we will continue business as usual and offer our customers the high-quality services and solutions they know.”

In its 2018 financial year IFCO generated revenues of more than US$1.1bn with headline growth of 8%.

Topics