Berkshire Lets Go Of Plastics Deal –

Berkshire Partners last month sold InteSys Technologies, a plastics manufacturing company, to Textron Inc. Richard Lubin, a Berkshire managing director, declined to discuss terms of the transaction.

Berkshire acquired InteSys, headquartered in Gilbert, Arizona, in 1995. Lubin said his firm was not actively pursuing selling the company when Textron became interested in purchasing it last year. The two groups continued discussions into this year when Textron made a preemptive offer that was in the best interests of the company’s stock holders – Textron is interested in participating in the consolidation of the plastics outsourcing sector, he said. Lubin added that Textron had a fair amount of cash on hand from a sale last year of one of its divisions.

When Berkshire acquired InteSys four and a half years ago, the company operated out of one facility outside Phoenix. While under the firm’s ownership, the company added a West Coast plant along with operations in Ireland, Mexico and Brazil.

InteSys anticipates 1999 revenue of $160 million. Return figures on the investment were not available.