Madison Dearborn Puts BWAY Holdings On Block

Madison Dearborn Partners is selling BWAY Holding just two years after buying it, four sources told sister Web site peHUB.

Chicago-based Madison Dearborn has hired Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Deutsche Bank to advise on the sale, two sources said. It’s not clear what stage the process is in.

News of the sale was previously reported by Mergermarket, which says Madison Dearborn is looking to sell BWAY Holdings for at least 8x EBITDA, or $1.2 billion.

Atlanta-based BWAY Holdings makes paint and aerosol cans as well as steel open and tight-headed pails. Madison Dearborn acquired the company in June 2010 in a deal valued at $915 million. The firm put in $296 million equity as part of the deal, Moody’s Investors Service said in a May 12, 2010 report.

Five months later, Madison Dearborn looks like it got nearly half of its investment back when BWAY paid out a dividend. The company issued $150 million in PIK Toggle notes to pay for the distribution, according to Moody’s.

Who could be interested in BWAY Holdings? Apollo Global Management, The Blackstone Group, GS Capital Partners, Graham Partners and CCMP have all made packaging investments.

The BWAY Holdings sale is the latest in a recent run of exits for Madison Dearborn. Last month, the firm agreed to sell Bolthouse Farms to Campbell Soup for about $1.55 billion. In February it agreed to sell TransUnion, which it owned with the Pritzker family, to Advent International and GS Capital. The deal was valued at $3 billion.

Madison Dearborn closed its sixth fund (Madison Dearborn Capital Partners VI LP) at $4.1 billion in May 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal. Fund VI originally targeted $10 billion but was cut to $7.5 billion and then to $4 billion. Fund VI has a net IRR of 7.45 percent, according to Sept. 30 data from the Washington State Investment Board. The prior fund, Fund V, raised $6.5 billion in 2006. That pool produced a much lower net IRR of 1.07 percent for the state.

Officials for Goldman, Deutsche Bank, Madison Dearborn and Barclays declined comment. Officials for BWAY Holdings couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.