Rexam PLC (GB-London SW IP 3XR; www.rexam.co.uk) has reached an agreement with Montagu Private Equity (London) and other shareholders to acquire all the shares in Risdon Pharma Development SA (Paris) for roughly EUR 125m. Risdon with production sites in Neuenburg, Germany, and Offranville, France, specialises in the production of plastics packaging for medical and pharmaceutical products such as nasal sprays and inhalers. The company with 300 employees was affiliated with Crown, Cork & Seal (CCS Europe: F-75830 Paris Cedex 17; www.crowncork.com) up until the beginning of 2002. In 2002, Risdon Pharma posted a turnover of EUR 51m and a pretax profit of EUR 13m. The company is planned to become part of Rexam´s “Beauty & Closures” division. Rexam already bought the US subsidiary Risdon-AMS from CCS at the beginning of 2002 (see PIE 4, 2002).

CCS Europe retains the plastics divisions of “Personal Care Bottles” featuring Raku GmbH (D-76410 Rastatt), Polyflex (F-37130 Langeais) and Carnaud Metalbox (CMB, F-75817 Paris Cedex 17) as well as “Beverage Plastics” with eleven affiliated companies such as Crown Bender (D-67227 Frankenthal; www.crown-bender.de) and “Plastics Closures” with member companies such as Zeller Plastik (D-56856 Zell / Mosel; www.zellerplastik.com).