Thursday 25 April 2019 9:42 am | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:34 am

RPC Group clears another hurdle to selling company to Berry Global as EU regulators approve £3.3bn deal

Packaging giant RPC Group has taken a step closer to tying up its sale to US counterpart Berry Global, after the European Commission cleared the acquisition yesterday.

Regulators ruled that the £3.3bn takeover “would raise no competition concerns given the limited horizontal overlaps and vertical relationships between the companies’ activities”.

RPC has been looking for a sale for some months, and the announcement clears a significant hurdle for the British plastic packaging manufacturer in achieving its goal.

The firm’s board last month unanimously recommended Berry’s offer, which values the company at £3.34bn, to shareholders.

Before Berry stepped in, it looked as if a £3.3bn offer from Apollo was all but sealed, announced after months of wrangling and hours before the regulatory deadline. But it caused disquiet among RPC shareholders, some of whom felt they were getting a raw deal.

Under Apollo’s offer each RPC shareholder would get 782p cash for every share they own, 15.6 per cent up on the 683.6p closing price on 7 September, the last day before talks were confirmed.

The deal rankled Aviva Investors and Royal London Asset Management, both top 15 shareholders, who said the payout was not high enough given RPC’s future growth prospects.

When Berry emerged as a possible bidder, Craig Yeaman, fund manager at Royal London Asset Management, said: “Apollo were always going to run this risk having pitched the bid at this level which has clearly given others encouragement.

“Berry Global, being a competitor to RPC, would have plenty of synergies to go after and the first casualties could include senior management who were so willing to accept Apollo’s offer.”