Pretium Packaging and Novapak Announce Plan to Merge

The combined business will generate more than $240 million of blow molded bottle and injection molded pre-form sales to over 500 customers from 14 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada.

21 Jan 2010 --- Pretium Packaging LLC, a provider of custom blow molded packaging solutions with a primary focus in the food, pharmaceutical and personal care markets is partnering with Castle Harlan Inc., a New York-based buy-out firm, and existing Pretium management in connection with the merger of Pretium and PVC Container Corporation, the parent of Novapak Corporation, a portfolio company of Kirtland Capital, a Cleveland-based buyout firm.

The combined business will generate more than $240 million of blow molded bottle and injection molded pre-form sales to over 500 customers from 14 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada. The new entity will retain the name Pretium Packaging, be headquartered in Chesterfield, MO, and be managed by the current Pretium management group together with certain members of the Novapak team. The founder and current owner of Pretium, Keith Harbison, will be a significant minority shareholder in the combined business and a member of the company's Board of Directors. Pretium is advised by Lazard Middle Market LLC. and Novapak is advised by Brown Gibbons Lang & Company.

Pretium's President and CEO George Abd stated, "We are very excited to realize the opportunity to put these two businesses together. Both Pretium and Novapak have focused on small to medium volume, custom bottle applications. Much of both companies' recent growth has come in PET bottles. The advantage for both companies' customers is that while Pretium has invested significantly in one-step, wide mouth PET technology and assets, Novapak has made significant investment in two-step, narrow neck PET and pre-form manufacturing. The combination of these world-class assets and capabilities, will allow the merged company to offer our customers a full range of one-step and two-step PET bottles, as well as extrusion blow molding and injection blow molding alternatives in HDPE and PP. In addition, there is very little overlap between the two companies' current customers, enabling the company to now deliver a broader range of products and services to an already existing customer base."

Mr. Abd added "while we are in the midst of a very difficult economic period, we believe that the combination of these businesses will allow us to offer our customers, and the market in general, an unparalleled breadth of product offerings and innovative packaging designs with a strong and shared cultural focus on Quality, Service and Value. We are also thrilled to be aligned with Castle Harlan, which has a long history of partnering with management teams to realize shareholder value through superior customer service."

Formally, the parent company of Novapak, PVC Container Corporation, has entered into a definitive merger agreement, providing for the acquisition of such parent company by an affiliate of Pretium. The parent company of Novapak is owned by Kirtland Capital Partners, a Cleveland-based buy-out firm, and other outside investors. The transaction is expected to return approximately $8,094 per share in cash to holders of common stock in the parent company of Novapak. The transactions are subject to the satisfaction of various conditions and are scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2010.