Berry Global wins RPC bid battle after gatecrashing deal with Apollo

PLASTIC maker RPC has agreed to a “superior” takeover offer from Berry Global over an earlier bid from private equity firm Apollo Management.

The Indiana-based company swooped in last month to gatecrash Apollo’s £3.3bn bid, which RPC had originally accepted. However, RPC’S board yesterday unanimously recommended Berry’s offer to shareholders, which values the company at £3.34bn.

James Pike, the chairman, said: “The combination of RPC and Berry would create a leading global plastics products design and engineering company.” He added that they were “highly complementary” in terms of products, customers and geographic footprint.

Tom Salmon, chief executive of Berry, said the tie-up would “create a strong global leader in plastic packaging and recycled solutions”.

Berry Global’s 793p-a-share cash offer amounts to a 16pc premium on the Sept 7 closing price before takeover talk emerged. RPC shares slipped 1.5pc to 784p yesterday.

That is still some way off the 860p shares were changing hands for at the beginning of last year.

Shares in RPC, which makes bottles, inhalers and coffee capsules, lost ground after it borrowed heavily to make acquisitions in recent years.

Analysts noted that Apollo’s last bid, worth 782p a share, was labelled a “final offer”, meaning Berry did not have to be too generous with its higher bid. It has offered just 1.4pc more.

Craig Yeaman of Royal London, which holds a 1.3pc stake, said Berry had acquired RPC “on an incredibly low valuation”.