Apollo set for £200m deal
BERRY Plastics, a manufacturer majority-owned by US private equity giant Apollo, is on the cusp of signing a £200m deal to acquire a bottling unit owned by FTSE 100 packaging firm Rexam, City A.M. has learned.
Rexam is in exclusive talks with Berry Plastics and is poised to sign the deal to sell a lids-manufacturing business that it bought four years ago for some £200m.
Those familiar with the industry believe the sale will crystallise a loss for Rexam on the unit, which it purchased from Owens Illinois, an American rival, alongside a collection of other assets that drew a total price of $1.8bn.
Rexam updated shareholders on its plans to sell the unit at its annual general meeting and said it was in talks, but did not disclose with whom.
Berry and Rexam have had discussions over the sale for some months but a source familiar with the matter says that the deal was delayed by “due diligence issues”.
Berry and Rexam were embroiled in a legal dispute over an employee in 2008, but the case was settled out of court. Rexam has a turnover of some $4.6bn and derives most of its revenues from selling drinks cans. Its share price was down 0.58 per cent yesterday to 376p.
Rexam declined to comment.