RPC in £261m deal to buy British Polythene

Plastics firm RPC Group said it had agreed a £261m deal to buy British Polythene Industries.

It added that it was launching a £90m share placing to part fund the acquisition. RPC will pay BPI shareholders 470p a share in cash and 0.60141 of new RPC shares.

The offer is worth around 940p per British Polythene share, a 30% premium to the stock's closing price of 725.00p per share on Wednesday, RPC said.

It added that the deal provided a “unique strategic opportunity to acquire an established flexibles platform in the European polythene films market with strong market positions”.

"The proposed offer for BPI represents a compelling strategic opportunity for RPC to enter the European polythene films market through an established platform. BPI has a strong product portfolio with attractive market positions in its core markets in Europe," said RPC chief executive Pim Vervaat.

"The combination will further broaden RPC's range of polymer conversion technologies in line with global peers, establish a new growth platform with a strong cost synergy potential whilst enhancing the group's overall polymer buying capability."