 "Apollo nears $3.8 billion-plus deal for packaging group RPC: WSJ")
Private equity company Apollo Global Management is in advanced talks to buy Europe's biggest plastics packaging maker RPC Group for more than $3.8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
RPC on Friday extended the deadline to Jan, 23 for Apollo to make a firm offer or walk away.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said that a deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday.
Private equity has long been attracted to the sector's reliable cash flow and growing demand from online shopping, with a spate of takeovers by bigger packaging players further spurring their interest.
RPC, which operates in 34 countries, on Monday had a market capitalisation of 2.95 billion pounds ($3.8 billion).
The company said in September that it was in talks on a possible sale to Apollo and U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital, with the deadlines to make a firm offer extended repeatedly since then.
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The FTSE mid-cap company ended talks with Bain in December.
RPC declined to comment when contacted by Reuters and Apollo could not be reached for comment outside normal business hours.