According to reports in the British press, the Cornish family, which owns the Linpac Group (GB-Birmingham; www.linpac.com), is having final discussions on the sale of the company to an institutional investor. No comments were forthcoming from the company´s head office. Reports to this effect in April 2003 (PIE 10, 2003) were initially denied, but these latest reports state that two investment companies, BC Partners and Montagu, are the remaining bidders for the company. Apax Partners may also be involved. Other potential buyers such as CFC Capital Partners, Candova and JP Morgan, however, have now apparently quitted the race.

The price is said to be around GBP 900m (approx. EUR 1.3 bn). The family-owned enterprise, whose founder Evan Cornish died last year, has a global workforce of around 11,000 and sales of about EUR 1.4 bn. The group is known above all for its packaging activities in the cardboard and plastics segment. Apart from trays and containers for fresh foods from Linpac Plastics (www.linpac-plastics.uk), the portfolio also includes other plastics activities such as automotive supplies in the form of Linpac Automotive (www.linpac-automotive.com), contract injection moulding at Linpac Mouldings (www.linpac-mouldings.com) and transport containers from Linpac Materials Handling (www.linpac-materialshandling.com).

Overpelt, Linpac Automotive´s Belgian site, is likely to be closed next month after months of negotiations according to a company report. The announcements came almost simultaneously with the recent reports on the sale of the company. The injection moulding plant with around 230 employees was opened in 1991 to manufacture parts for the Ford factory in Genk, around 30 km away. However, this standing order was lost in 1999 and all efforts to make up for it elsewhere subsequently failed.