Opulentia to build €100m-turnover plastics & rubber group in UK

London – Private equity firm Opulentia Capital has launched a plan to acquire companies in the UK plastics & rubber industry towards building a group with cumulative sales of over £100 million (€114 million).

Gibraltar-headquartered Opulentia has established Ruplas Group Ltd as a vehicle to acquire convertors with at least 10 years’ experience and revenues between £4 million and £30 million.

Recycled plastics will form a large part of the group as Opulentia sees that this segment will have a significant growth in the near future, said its 7 Oct company statement.

Growth, it commented, “maybe slowed through the pandemics but all the lost ground will surely be recovered as the march towards more sustainable consumption will continue with renewed vigour.”

Opulentia went on note that despite its scale – annual sales of £27 billion and 162,000 employees – the UK plastics & rubber segment “is very much a fragmented segment comprising of 5,800 companies.

“Where there is fragmentation, Opulentia is a specialist of consolidation with similar experience in both the leisure and food space.”

The group added that the Ruplas board of directors has been joined by Bruce Margetts, currently MD of Bericap UK, a large plastics caps and closures producer, with 26 production units around the world.

“I look forward to offering my knowledge and experience to help build the group and grow the companies acquired,” said Margetts, who is a former president of the British Plastics Federation who also spent 18 years with RPC Group.

“Our goal is to build a £100 million revenue group in this space. Acquire and invest in plastics, rubbers and other related leisure businesses,” said Bogdan Georgescu, director of Ruplas Group Ltd.

“The model is to be involved with long established and well run companies, for which they can benefit from being part of a larger group and take business to the next level,” added Georgescu.

Asked about ambitions in the rubber industry, the Ruplas executive informed ERJ that “any converters that use EPDM, or SBR, BR etc as raw materials we would be more than willing to open an investment discussion.”

While noting that industry rubber companies “can be very different in operations”, Georgescu said “to provide to each member the benefits of being part of a larger group, we do not need very strong synergies between members.”

Opulentia Capital is a mergers, acquisitions & private equity firm with offices in Gibraltar, Ljubljana, London, Melbourne, Nicosia and Sheridan in Wyoming, US.