Management shake-up at CPI looks inevitable as shareholders approve BJ Ball bid

Some 99.48% of votes were cast in favour of the Scheme of Arrangement, which will see BJ Ball acquisition vehicle PagePack buy out the company for 45c per share, and see CPI delisted from the ASX.

Final court approval is scheduled for 10 May at the Supreme Court of Victoria, though this seems little more than a formality after the deal got the green light from shareholders. “Yesterday’s vote was the last critical sign-off,” BJ Ball chief executive Andrew Bull told ProPrint.

Bull stressed that the takeover was not an “ad hoc” plan, and that this specific strategy dated back around two-and-a-half years, while Bull’s consolidation aims go back further still.

“This has been on the cards since Red Paper Group attempted to take over CPI in 2007-08 and I was a shareholder in Red Paper.

“That plan didn’t quite come off and we ended up acquiring the assets of CPI in New Zealand but it didn’t halt the fact that further consolidation needed to take place.”

He pointed out that the CPI deal was not driven by private equity backer Maui Capital. “If you listened to the general populace, this is a Maui thing in the last four to five months.”

BJ Ball is expected to officially take over on 16 May. It seems inevitable that current CPI managing director Bernard Cassell will leave the company as senior positions are reshuffled, though this has not been officially confirmed.

Bull said: “A new management structure will be announced post-acquisition and will include the likes of [former Raleigh Paper general manager] Craig Brown.

“I am genuinely excited about the opportunities that this brings our group to assist in the consolidation of the Australasian paper distribution industry,” he added.

The CPI buyout was first announced in January. It followed BJ Ball’s acquisition of Focus Paper in November 2010

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