News

New York, May 1, 2014 – Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York-based middle-market private equity firm, today announced that Castle Harlan Partners V has agreed to sell Pretium Packaging to Genstar Capital, a private equity firm based in San Francisco.

Pretium Packaging, headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri, is among the nation’s largest manufacturers of customized, high-performance rigid plastic bottles and containers. With more than 650 customers, including global consumer packaged goods companies, as well as national, regional and local customers, the Company supplies a wide range of bottles and containers to food, personal-care, household, healthcare and pharmaceutical end markets. The Company currently operates ten manufacturing facilities, nine in the United States and one in Canada, employing more than 1,000 personnel.

Castle Harlan Co-President Bill Pruellage said, “The past four years have been an excellent and rewarding partnership with Pretium’s management team. The company has realized a number of strategic and operational initiatives and is well positioned for continued growth.”

Castle Harlan acquired Pretium Packaging in February 2010 in a transaction that also included the acquisition and subsequent merger of PVC Container Corporation, the parent of Novapak Corporation. The sale of Pretium is expected to close in June 2014.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Pretium, and Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP acted as legal advisor.

Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle market companies worldwide. The Castle Harlan team of 18 investment professionals has completed 54 acquisitions with a total transaction value in excess of $11 billion. Castle Harlan, along with its affiliates, has managed investment funds with equity commitments of over $6 billion. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s. Since 1999 Castle Harlan has invested in Australia and Southeast Asia with its affiliate CHAMP Private Equity in Sydney and Singapore.

Castle Harlan’s current portfolio of companies includes Shelf Drilling Holdings Ltd., the leading provider of shallow water jack up drilling rig services in Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East; Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of books and entertainment products to libraries and retailers; and, Gold Star Foods, a leading nutritional food distributor to K-12 schools in California, Arizona and Nevada.