PRINT THIS PAGE Hicks Acquisition, Blackstone to take Graham Packaging public in $3.2bn deal02/07/2008. Source: AltAssets. 
Hicks Acquisition Company I, a Dallas-based special purpose acquisition company founded and headed by Thomas O Hicks, The Blackstone Group and the Graham Group, have agreed to take York, Pennsylvania-based Graham Packaging Holdings public. The transaction is valued at approximately $3.2bn. Following completion of the transaction, the combined enterprise will be renamed Graham Packaging Company and will apply for listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
As part of the agreement, Blackstone will hold the largest single ownership stake for at least two years.
Graham Packaging produces plastic containers for the branded food and beverage, household, personal care/specialty and automotive lubricant industries. The company produces more than 20 billion container units per year, at 83 manufacturing plants in North America, Europe and South America. In 2007, the company recorded net sales of approximately $2.5bn, according to a statement.
Hicks Acquisition will own approximately 66 per cent of the company, with the Graham Group and Blackstone taking the remaining 34 per cent stake. Following the deal, there will be no change in the control structure of the company.
Hicks said, 'After considering more than a hundred possible transactions, we are tremendously pleased to have identified Graham Packaging as the right transaction for Hicks Acquisition, and to be partnering with Blackstone, whose senior partners I have had close business relationships with for many years, and the other Current Graham Equity Holders.'
Chinh Chu, a Graham Packaging board member and a senior managing director at Blackstone, added, 'Blackstone is pleased to partner with Tom Hicks and management for this next chapter of Graham Packaging as a public company.'
Hicks Acquisition was launched in October 2007 in an IPO that raised $552m. Hicks owns 50 per cent of UK football club Liverpool F.C.
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