(Plastics Today) -- Announced today, the merger of the two will create one of Europe's top 2-3 processors of rigid plastics packaging, and its largest injection molder of packaging. The acquisition, which is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, is priced at $319.7 million, making it one of the largest plastics packaging deals of 2010.
The acquisition is expected to be completed at or around the end of January 2011. According to this report from Dow Jones, Swedish private equity firms Ratos AB, which owns 33% of Superfos, will take a loss of 70 million Swedish kronor ($10.3 million) on the sale. The remaining share of Superfos are owned by another Swedish equity firm, IK Investment Partners AB; the two acquired the processor in 1999 and since then have invested almost $70 million in it.
Superfos (Taastrup, Denmark) injection molds packaging for food products, as well as pails and buckets for non-food packaging. It has nine processing facilities across Europe and employs more than 1300.
The buyer, RPC Group Plc, is a publicly listed company, and in fact its shares jumped more than 11% in the hours following the announcement. RPC employs almost 6000 at 40 facilities across Europe and at one in the U.S. It runs injection molding, thermoforming and blow molding operations. Almost 60% of its sales are into the food packaging sector.