(Reuters) - Britain's competition watchdog said on Friday it was investigating whether U.S.-based Liqui-Box's $585 million (462 million pounds) takeover of a DS Smith Plc business could lessen competition in the market.
UK-based DS Smith in March agreed to sell its plastics division to Liqui-Box, a portfolio company of private equity firm Olympus Partners.
Liqui-Box was not immediately available for a comment while DS Smith did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment on the Competition and Markets Authority's investigation.
DS Smith, which supplies packaging products to companies including Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), announced the sale as it sought to move away from plastics to focus on recyclable packaging materials and corrugated products.
Liqui-Box's planned takeover of DS Smith's unit adds to a long list of M&A in the packaging sector, which private equity firms have been focusing on for its stable cashflow and demand from online shopping.
A couple of months back, Europe's biggest plastic packaging group RPC Group (LON:RPC) agreed to a buyout offer from plastics maker Berry Global Group Inc that valued the company at 3.34 billion pounds.