British Growth Fund (BGF), the growth equity fund backed by five UK banks, has exited Plastique, a UK-based plastic packaging manufacturer through an acquisition by utilities technology provider Esco Technologies.
BGF, which is financed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered, invested £5m ($8.5m) in Plastique in 2014, taking a stake of undisclosed size.
The banks established the $2.5bn UK government-mandated fund in 2011 to offer long-term financial support to the country’s small and medium-sized companies.
Plastique produces thermoformed plastic packaging for clients from sectors including food retail, pharmaceutical, personal case and household goods.
Publicly-listed Esco made the acquisition through a subsidiary called TEQ, an acronym of Thermoform Engineered Quality, which uses clean room technology to manufacture thermoformed packaging products for medical and pharmaceutical firms.
Esco, which did not disclose how much it paid for Plastique, provides hardware and software to the electricity, gas and water industries, and engineers filtration products for use in the aerospace and space sectors.
Plastique’s management team will remain in place following the acquisition but BGF investor Rory Pope will step down from the Plastique board.
– Image courtesy of Plastique Group Ltd.