Numerous reports indicate that Reynolds Group Holding (Chicago, Illinois / USA; www.reynoldspkg.com) – a member of Graeme Hart’s Rank Group (www.rankgroup.co.nz) – has won the race to acquire Graham Packaging (York, Pennsylvania / USA; www.grahampackaging.com), while competitor Silgan Holdings (Stamford, Connecticut / USA; www.silganholdings.com) has fallen behind.

Reynolds topped Silgan’s offer of USD 20 per share – see Plasteurope.com of 15.04.2011 by USD 5, bringing the final acquisition price to USD 1.64 bn. Silgan had offered to pay USD 1.3 bn in April. Including company debt, Rank’s offer amounts to a total of USD 4.5 bn.

The transaction will likely be completed in H2 2011. Should the deal go through, Graham Packaging will have to pay Silgan Holdings a fine of USD 39.5m for breach of contract. That fee notwithstanding, Rank’s higher offer is sure to meet the approval of holding company Blackstone, which has been trying to rid itself of its 61% ownership in Graham Packaging for some time already.

This is just the latest billion-dollar acquisition by the New Zealand group, which last year acquired Pactiv Corporation (Lake Forest, Illinois / USA; www.pactiv.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 22.11.2010. Earlier, Rank had won the bids for composite packaging manufacturer SIG Holding (Neuhausen / Switzerland; www.sig.biz) as well as the erstwhile Packaging & Consumer business of Alcoa (Pittburgh, Pennsylvania / USA; www.alcoa.com).