RPC confirms early takeover talks with Apollo, Bain

Greg Gille
11 September 2018

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The board of UK-listed plastic packaging company RPC Group has confirmed that preliminary discussions are taking place with Apollo Global Management and Bain Capital regarding a potential takeover.

The board of RPC issued a statement to address recent media speculation, confirming that early talks were under way with each of the potential buyers – but noting that these may not necessarily materialise.

The two GPs now have until 8 October 2018 to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for the company, or walk away, as per the UK's Takeover Code. This deadline can be extended.

RPC is advised by Rothschild, Credit Suisse, Jefferies and Deutsche Bank.

Founded in 1991, RPC designs and manufactures plastic products in packaging and non-packaging markets. It posted a turnover of £3.7bn in the year to March 2018, with pre-tax profit of £315m. It currently has a market cap of £3.28bn.

The company's shares rose sharply on Monday 10 September, the day the board's announcement was released. Shares were trading at 805 pence at the time of writing, against 686 pence on Friday.

The containers and packaging sector has seen rising levels of PE interest in Europe over the past couple of years, according to Unquote Data: 25 buyouts worth an aggregate EV of around €3bn took place last year, versus 12 deals for €2.5bn in 2016.

This year is unlikely to match that record volume, although estimated value has already breached the €5bn mark thanks to a handful of large-cap deals inked in the first eight months of 2018. PAI Partners acquired French beauty packaging business Albéa from Sun European Partners in January for an EV understood to be in excess of €1.2bn. Meanwhile, Cinven acquired Stockholm-based temperature-controlled containers producer Envirotainer from AAC Capital Partners in July.