Several investment funds advised by Apax Partners (GB-London W1B 1PT; www.apax.com) have made a takeover offer to large shareholders of Dutch-based plastic container service company IFCO Systems (NL-1075 AD Amsterdam; www.ifcosystems.com). IFCO said it has been informed by Apax that an offer has been made and that the funds intend to acquire a majority stake. Apax has declined to confirm details, including the mooted EUR 2.30 per share price tag; however, a spokesman told Plasteurope.com that it is speaking to “several large shareholders” of IFCO about such a deal.

IFCO said it understands that offer is being made through the London office of Deutsche Bank (D-60262 Frankfurt; www.deutsche-bank.de), which itself holds nearly 20% of the company. Other major shareholders include investment bank JP Morgan Chase (New York, NY / USA; www.jp.morganchase.com) with 19.3% and JO Hambro (GB-London SW1Y 4HB; www.johim.co.uk) with 14.26%. Among industrial shareholders, the German family holding Schoeller Logistics Industries (D-82049 Pullach; www.schoeller-packaging.de) holds 5.12% of IFCO through two subsidiaries. Schoeller Logistics is parent company of Schoeller Wavin Systems (NL-7750 AD Hardenberg; www.schoeller-wavinsystems.com), whose containers are used by IFCO.

IFCO Systems operates an international network of logistics systems, comprising 179 facilities with more than 3,000 employees. In 2002 it had annual sales from continuing operations of USD 378m (up 2.8% against 2001) along with EBITDA of EUR 46.7m (up 41%). Its European operations extend to round-trip container pools based in the UK, Benelux, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Norway. The company also claims to be the largest provider of pallets in North America.