Package firms merging

RPC has backed US rival Berry Global’s £3.3bn takeover.

The British plastic packaging maker U-turned on a previous recommendation that shareholders should accept a rival bid from private equity giant Apollo.

And FTSE 250-listed RPC has opted for the Indianabased packaging group’s 793p per share deal versus Apollo’s 782p offer.

RPC chairman Jamie Pike said combining RPC and Berry ‘would create a leading global plastics products design and engineering company’.

Berry boss Tom Salmon hailed the ‘transformational combination’.