1st Feb 2019 07:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - RPC Group PLC on Friday reported a positive performance in the third quarter of its financial year, as it prepares to engage with Berry Global Group Inc for a possible takeover.
The FTSE 250-listed plastic packaging supplier posted revenue growth of 1.4% to GBP894 million, over the three months to the end of 2018, despite sales growth slowing towards the end of the quarter due to weak trading around the Christmas period.
For the nine months to the end of December, organic sales growth was 2.6%.
RPC said operating profit remains in line with the corresponding period a year ago, while its financial position "remains robust with significant headroom available under existing debt facilities".
The company is in the process of finalising its preparations to mitigate "any disruption" resulting from the UK's exit from the EU, by building buffer stock in manufacturing sites.
On Wednesday last week, RPC agreed terms with funds managed by Apollo Global Management for a GBP3.32 billion cash offer for the company.
However, on Thursday this week the firm entered talks with New York-listed Berry Global, which asked for material to conduct due diligence but stressed it has not decided whether to make an offer yet.
On Friday, RPC reiterated it will engage with Berry in order to advance discussions "in the interests of delivering best value to shareholders".
Also on Friday, Apollo said it received a letter of intent from RPC shareholder Eminence Capital to vote in favour of its acquisition of RPC, in respect of a total of 3.0 million RPC shares.
Since then, Eminence sold 726,169 RPC shares, Apollo therefore said the letter now covers 2.3 million shares. With 406.4 million shares in issue, Eminence's acceptance covers 0.6% of RPC's share capital.
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