Over the past four years RPC Group has looked at about 100 possible acquisitions in Europe but has agreed on just six. The number of potential targets reveals both the fragmented nature of the European packaging industry and the reason that the few big quoted UK players — mainly RPC, DS Smith and Mondi — are busy acquiring whatever they can.
The small number of deals carried out by RPC underscores the company’s caution, while those it has carried out seem to have been successful. For example, when it bought Promens in February for €386 million, it indicated that there would be about €15 million from putting the two businesses together. This was upgraded in the summer to €30 million and I suggested at the