It’s like hearing that two gorgeous friends from high school have finally tied the knot after all these years…if those friends made really amazing paper products. Today Neenah Paper announced that it’s acquiring all of the outstanding equity of ASP FiberMark LLC for $120 million. And like all the best relationships, it makes perfect sense in hindsight.
Take, for example, Neenah’s April 30th launch of its luxury packaging website. What looked like a bold challenge to FiberMark’s enticing packaging options now turns out to be the corporate equivalent of “we’re keeping the seat warm for you.”
And as a speech by the father of the bride or groom is customary at such times, we’ll turn the floor over to Neenah’s CEO, John O’Donnell:
“FiberMark is well known in the marketplace for its high touch service as well as a meaningful breadth of premium coated, textured and colored products. The acquisition adds new capabilities that will further accelerate our strategy to expand in targeted growth areas like premium packaging and performance materials, and complements previously announced strategic investments supporting the continued growth of our filtration business. The combination of FiberMark and Neenah increases the size and our reach in many of our addressable markets and provides opportunities to accelerate growth with a wider range of capabilities and products to better serve our customers. From a financial standpoint, the investment represents an attractive use of capital with a mid-teen rate of return, is not dilutive to our EBITDA margins and will be immediately accretive in year one.”
Yes, if you must know, that IS a tear in our eye.
