Packaging group Sealed Air (Saddle Brook, New Jersey / USA; www.sealedair.com) is currently regarded as the hottest candidate to take over Alcan Packaging, the packaging division of Rio Tinto Alcan (Montreal / Canada), the aluminium giant recently formed by Rio Tinto (London / UK; www.riotinto.com) following the acquisition of Alcan (Montreal /Canada; www.alcan.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 20.07.2007. Now the new world's leading aluminium industry player, the merged Canadian group wants to concentrate on its core business.

According to news agency reports, a contract worth USD 4-5 bn has been drawn up and is ready for signing. There has been no official announcement; however, insiders say the deal will be announced "within the next few weeks." Another – financially less powerful – company said to be interested in buying the Alcan business is Bemis (Minneapolis, Minnesota / USA; www.bemis.com), a manufacturer of flexible packaging.

With sales of more than USD 6 bn and a workforce of 31,000 at 129 production sites, Alcan Packaging is among the world's leading packaging groups. Apart from aluminium, it also uses plastics, and, to a lesser extent, paper and other materials. Since the takeover of its French competitor Pechiney in 2003 – see Plasteurope.com of 09.10.2003 – the new Rio Tinto division has been regarded as Europe's number one plastics packaging manufacturer.