Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) deal data for 2020 shows global value at $2,836 bn down from $3,370 bn in 2019. Whereas packaging dropped to $14bn in 2020 from $17bn in 2019. That reports a slightly worse decline in packaging M&A value compared with the market overall. In volume terms, M&A deals globally were reported down 7.5% whereas packaging M&A volumes were reported down 22%. So, fewer packaging transactions but generally larger than pre-COVID.

These drops may be surprising given how resilient vast swathes of the packaging sector proved to the COVID pandemic. Labels may not have been flying off the shelves in Starbucks or Sephora but consumers were still shopping in Auchan, Aldi, and Albert Heijn! As the crisis rolled across the globe from February 2020 onwards, stock markets tumbled. Even publicly traded packaging companies, listed on stock exchanges around the world, saw their market capitalisations cut by 10s of percent. And if shares are your currency for making acquisitions, you suddenly find that your war-chest is not full of Swiss Francs – it’s Venezuelan Bolivars!

Furthermore, deal-doers tend to mark-to-market, so the PLC downgrading impacts on even private company valuations. So, who was brave enough to make acquisitions in labelling? Why were they making them? What does it mean for the industry? What does it mean for entrepreneurs? Never mind the end of COVID, where is the end of the rainbow? 

Find out on the second day of the FINAT European Label Forum 2021 where Nick Mockett of Moorgate Capital, UK and Norman Bremer of IK Investment Partners/Optimum Group tell you all about the mergers & acquisitions and the private equity point of view. Register now!