The sale of Contego Cartons, which was announced in November, completed on Christmas Eve following approval from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Moorgate Capital advised on the sale.

Contego Cartons (formerly Nampak Cartons), which had a turnover of $260m (£160m) and an EBITDA of around $19m, was acquired by Platinum Equity together with its sister company Nampak Healthcare in December 2010.

The food and beverage Cartons business in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland included Contego Packaging Group’s sites at Leeds, Gillingham, Hoogerheide and Portlaoise.

Its sale to Graphic Packaging, a leader in the North American FMCG market with an enterprise value in excess of $4bn, is expected to generate synergies of $8m-10m over the next two years for the Georgia-headquartered group.

Meanwhile, it will allow Contego to focus on its growing share of the pharmaceutical and healthcare market. The company said in a statement: "The ownership and growth strategy of the Healthcare business of the Contego Packaging Group remains unchanged and continues to be expansion through organic and acquisitive growth."

Graphic Packaging has seven paperboard mills, 44 converting plants, three machinery facilities and 15,000 employees around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the US.