One Equity Partners has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Walki Holding Oy to Oji Holdings Corporation. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. With this acquisition, Tokyo-based Oji Holdings wants to build and expand a platform for its packaging business in Europe and diversify its product portfolio.
Walki, headquartered in Espoo, Finland, employs more than 1,700 people and had sales of €705m in 2022. The group, which operates 17 production facilities in Finland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Poland, the UK, and China, has been part of OEP since July 2018.
Walki is a specialty packaging materials manufacturer, offering consumer and industrial packaging for food and specialty consumer products as well as engineered materials such as insulation and fire-retardant facings, sustainable membranes, and protective clothing applications.
The company develops specialty coating technologies that help to achieve fully recyclable paper packaging, especially barrier paper packaging for direct food contact. The combination of Oji's barrier technologies and Walki's advanced technical lamination will accelerate the development of environmentally friendly fibre-based solutions, writes Oji. These solutions will help brand owners to comply with the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive proposed in the EU, but also with plastic packaging regulations expected to be implemented in several countries in Southeast Asia, India and Oceania by 2030.
Oji Holdings has over 35,000 employees. The company's packaging division produces containerboard, corrugated containers, cartonboard and folding cartons, packaging papers and paper bags. The company also offers tissue and hygiene papers, specialty papers like thermal paper and adhesive products, pulp and energy, publication papers and others.
