Britain's competition watchdog said on Friday it was investigating whether US-based Liqui-Box's $585 million (€522.5 million) takeover of a DS Smith Plc business could lessen competition in the market.
UK-based DS Smith in March agreed to sell its plastics division to Liqui-Box, a portfolio company of private equity firm Olympus Partners.
Liqui-Box was not immediately available for a comment while DS Smith did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment on the Competition and Markets Authority's investigation.
Sustainable Packaging
DS Smith, which supplies packaging products to companies including Amazon.com, announced the sale as it sought to move away from plastics to focus on recyclable packaging materials and corrugated products.
Liqui-Box's planned takeover of DS Smith's unit adds to a long list of M&A in the packaging sector, which private equity firms have been focusing on for its stable cashflow and demand from online shopping.
A couple of months back, Europe's biggest plastic packaging group RPC Group agreed to a buyout offer from plastics maker Berry Global Group Inc that valued the company at £3.34 billion (€3 billion).
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
