BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Packaging to Strategic / Industry buyers
Industry operators, larger competitors, and corporate buyers acquiring for synergies, geographic expansion, or capability fill. Typically pays a premium for clear strategic fit but discounts for integration cost and overlap.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 9.9x across 17 disclosed deals (P25: 6.38x, P75: 11.98x). Median EV/Revenue 1.31x across 29 deals. Median deal value: $165M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 31 deals total (31 from 2018+), filtered to Strategic / Industry acquirers of packaging businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Sealed Air Corporation (2) · AptarGroup, Inc. (2) · Canfor Corporation (1) · TJC LP (1) · ProAmpac Intermediate, Inc. (1) · Huhtamäki Oyj (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Strategic / Industry acquisitions of packaging businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Canfor Pulp Products Inc. | Canfor Corporation | $11.5M | 5.1x | 0.18x |
| 2025 | Imaflex Inc. | TJC LP | $86.9M | 10.7x | 1.07x |
| 2025 | TC Transcontinental Packaging Inc. | ProAmpac Intermediate, Inc. | $1541.6M | 8.2x | 1.31x |
| 2025 | Zellwin Farms Company | Huhtamäki Oyj | $18.0M | — | 0.90x |
| 2024 | Orora Packaging Solutions | Veritiv Corporation (:VRTV) | $1200.0M | 9.9x | — |
| 2024 | Pactiv Evergreen Inc. | Novolex Holdings, LLC | $6901.1M | 6.1x | 1.34x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Strategic buyers — operators in adjacent geographies, larger competitors, or corporate consolidators — price for synergies and capability fill. They tend to discount integration cost and overlap risk but pay above market when there's clear strategic fit (key customer relationship, license, geography, technician/professional team). Multiples are competitive with PE for fee-viable deals; below PE for sub-scale acquisitions.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to packaging businesses acquired by strategic / industry buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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