Shares in British Polythene Industries (BPI) rose 15% to 349.5p last week but fell back to 320p after the group terminated talks over a takeover approach.

BPI announced it was in preliminary talks with an unnamed party but later issued a statement saying talks had ended.

The news follows Glasgow-based Macfarlanes unsuccessful 92m hostile bid for BPI, which failed at the start of this year (PrintWeek, 5 January).

Macfarlane, which offloaded its 11% stake in BPI after its bid failed (PrintWeek, 10 August), denied making the latest approach.

One party rumoured to have been interested in acquiring BPI was Bunzl, which bought BPIs retail carrier bag business in July.

"We acquired the part of the BPI business that we were interested in, so I think people can draw their own conclusions from that," said Bunzl chairman Anthony Habgood.

Since the failure of the Macfarlane bid, BPI has sold off non-core assets and embarked on a cost-saving programme in a bid to make annual savings of around 10m.

As PrintWeek went to press no one from British Polythene Industries was available for comment.

Story by Andy Scott