KKR to Acquire Singapore"s Goodpack Ltd. for $1.1 Billion

SINGAPORE—KKR Co. plans to buy Singaporean packaging company Goodpack Ltd. for roughly 1.4 billion Singapore dollars ($1.1 billion), in what would be one of Asia’s largest private-equity acquisitions so far this year.

KKR is offering to pay S$2.50 a Goodpack share and plans to delist the Singaporean group once its takeover is complete, the companies said on Tuesday. Goodpack’s executive chairman and largest shareholder, David Lam, has pledged to sell his entire 32% stake to KKR, they added.

The acquisition will be KKR’s largest investment in Southeast Asia and is subject to approval by Goodpack’s shareholders.

Singapore-listed Goodpack’s shares ended Friday priced at S$2.34 each, before the company called for a trading halt early Monday. KKR’s offer is 6.8% higher than the stock’s last traded price and marks a roughly 23% premium to its closing value on March 18, the day before Goodpack announced it had been approached by prospective buyers.

Goodpack makes containers and boxes the chemical, food and rubber industries use as an alternatives to wooden boxes and metal drums. Its containers are used in more than 60 countries. It has operations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North and South America.

Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are advising KKR on the offer, while Rippledot Capital is among the advisers for Goodpack.

KKR’s offer for Goodpack comes as private-equity firms globally are sitting atop substantial unused cash: $138 billion as of the end of last year, according to consultants Bain Co.

New York-based KKR was one of last year’s busiest buyers, investing in 34 companies and spending around an estimated $17.4 billion on buyouts around the world. It surpassed rivals, including Carlyle Group, TPG Capital and Bain Capital Partners, in securing deals.

The Goodpack offer comes after the KKR and Affinity Equity Partners sold their stake in South Korea’s Oriental Brewery back to Anheuser-Busch InBev NV for $5.8 billion earlier this year, the largest deal on record allowing a private-equity firm to exit from an Asian investment. KKR had bought the Korean brewer for $1.8 billion in 2009.

Buying Goodpack would be KKR’s first Singapore deal since it set up a Southeast Asia office in the city-state in October 2012, though it wouldn’t be the private-equity firm’s first investment there.

In 2007, KKR acquired data storage company MMI Holdings Ltd. for $700 million and took it private. It also invested in a Singapore-based technology company, Avago Technologies Ltd., which went public in 2009 on the Nasdaq market.

Founded in 1980, Goodpack has been an acquisition target before. Brambles Ltd., an Australia-listed supply chain management company, said in March that it had approached Goodpack about a possible takeover bid on several occasions and that those discussions didn’t progress.

Separately, Goodpack told the Singapore Exchange on March 19 that it had been approached by parties seeking to buy shares in the company, but didn’t identify its suitors.

Write to P.R. Venkat at chunhan.wong@wsj.com

KKR to Acquire Singapore"s Goodpack Ltd. for $1.1 Billion