Japan's Toppan picks up 49% stake in Max Speciality Films for Rs 200 cr

As part of the partnership, Toppan will invest approximately Rs 200 crore, through a combination of primary and secondary share issuance. The investment by Toppan is subject to customary closing conditions, including but not limited to shareholder or other approval(s).

MSF has undertaken key expansion efforts in the past 12-18 months. The MSF board last year approved an investment of Rs 250 crore to set-up its fifth BOPP line, which will help augment production capacity by a significant 60 percent to over 70,000 tonnes per annum. A substantial portion of the proceeds from this transaction will be utilised for MSF’s on-going capacity expansion.

The transaction will also result in MaxVIL’s treasury corpus growing to Rs 290 crore, including the expected capital infusion of Rs 148 crore from the New York Life subsidiary and MaxVIL promoters, announced in January 2017.

Analjit Singh, founder & chairman emeritus of the Max Group and chairman of MaxVIL said, “We are delighted to welcome Toppan to an already illustrious set of joint venture partners in the Max Group, which includes Japan-based Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, South Africa’s Life Healthcare and Bupa Finance from the UK. I am confident that their partnership and strategic support will play an instrumental role in setting MSF’s future growth trajectory. We have worked successfully with Japanese companies and are most pleased to continue our friendship with Japan.”

Shingo Kaneko, president & representative director of Toppan Printing Co Ltd, said, “We see enormous opportunity in India and in this business specifically. MSF has emerged as a front-runner in their unwavering commitment towards R&D and constantly innovating and upgrading technology to stay at the top of the leader-board across a wide field of applications from labelling to flexible packaging. We are excited to partner them and help the business scale new heights.”

MaxVIL is the newest entity in the Max Group of companies that came into existence after the erstwhile Max India Group was demerged into Max Financial Services Limited, Max India Limited and Max Ventures and Industries Limited (MaxVIL). MaxVIL has four distinct business verticals Max Speciality Films (manufacturing), Max Estates (real estate), Max Learning (education) and Max I (providing intellectual and financial support to high-potential start-ups).