CD&R to Acquire and Merge Label Makers Fort Dearborn, Multi-Color
Deal values combined company at around $6 billion including debt
Private-equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC has struck a deal to buy Fort Dearborn Co. and Multi-Color Corp. and merge the label manufacturers, people familiar with the matter said.
The deal, which is expected to be unveiled later Friday, values the combined company at around $6 billion including debt, the people said.
The closely held companies supply labels for products such as wine and spirits, home- and personal-care products and paints and chemicals. Based in Elk Grove, Ill., Fort Dearborn is dominant in North America, while Cincinnati-based Multi-Color has an extensive global presence. Together, they have annual sales of about $3 billion.
CD&R is buying Fort Dearborn and Multi-Color from private-equity firms Advent International Corp. and Platinum Equity, respectively. Advent acquired Fort Dearborn in 2016 from Denver-based KRG Capital Partners. Platinum took Multi-Color private in 2019 in a deal valued at $2.5 billion including debt and merged it with a subsidiary of its portfolio company WS Packaging Group, another label maker.
With offices in New York and London, CD&R has invested more than $35 billion in 100 companies since it was founded in 1978. This will be the latest in a string of big deals for the firm. On June 1, it announced a roughly $5.3 billion agreement to take software company Cloudera Inc. private alongside buyout firm KKR & Co., and it unveiled a deal Tuesday to buy London-listed UDG Healthcare PLC for a sweetened purchase price of about $3.9 billion.
Industrial companies such as the pair of label makers have been a sweet spot for CD&R, which has done more than $40 billion in deals in the sector over the past decade.
The Fort Dearborn and Multi-Color deals will be the latest example of the firm purchasing two companies and combining them. Last August, it announced deals to buy and merge White Cap, the construction-and-industrial business of HD Supply Holdings Inc., and Construction Supply Group, a distributor of accessories for specialty concrete and masonry.
And in 2018, it agreed to take building-products manufacturer Ply Gem Holdings Inc. private and combine it with Atrium Windows and Doors. It later combined that business with another portfolio company to create the now-publicly traded Cornerstone Building Brands Inc.