NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) – Bahrain-based investment firm
Investcorp Bank BSC is looking to sell Berlin
Packaging LLC in a deal that could value the U.S. packaging
distribution company at around $1.3 billion, according to people
familiar with the matter.

Investcorp has hired investment banks Barclays Plc
and Deutsche Bank AG to run a sale process for Berlin
Packaging, the people said this week.

The company has annual earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortization of roughly $100 million, some of
the people added, asking not to be identified because the
deliberations are not public.

Berlin Packaging, Investcorp, Barclays and Deutsche Bank
representatives declined to comment.

Investcorp acquired a majority stake in Chicago-based Berlin
Packaging in 2007 for $410 million.

Andrew Berlin created Berlin Packaging in 1988 with the
acquisition of Alco Packaging. He agreed to continue as chief
executive after the deal with Investcorp. He also owns the South
Bend Silver Hawks baseball team and is an investor in the
Chicago White Sox baseball team.

Berlin Packaging distributes plastic, glass and metal
containers and closures for the food and beverage, household,
personal care and healthcare markets.

A sale of the company would be the latest in a wave of deals
in the industrial and consumer packaging sectors as a modest
economic recovery spurs private equity firms to seek companies
with strong cash flows and high barriers to entry.

New Zealand’s richest man, Graeme Hart, is exploring a sale
of SIG Combibloc Group Ltd that could value the world’s second
largest maker of drink cartons at around $5 billion, Reuters
reported on Monday.

Buyout firm Odyssey Investment Partners LLC is exploring a
sale of Ranpak Corp that could value the company, one of the
world’s largest producers of protective paper packaging
materials, at close to $1 billion, people familiar with the
matter told Reuters this week.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis in New York;
Editing by Leslie Adler)