CVC, the European buy-out firm, has entered exclusive negotiations to sell BSN Glasspack, Europe's second largest glass container manufacturer, to a US packaging company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) for €1.2bn (€1.5bn). The sale would mark the second largest European disposal by a private equity firm so far this year.

A deal would represent a profitable exit for CVC even though the proposed sale price is close to the value CVC put on the company when it bought 56% of BSN from Danone in 1999, according to a source close to CVC. The buy-out firm used debt to finance its acquisition and BSN Glasspack, whose turnover in 2003 was €1.3bn, is thought to have paid much of that debt down. CVC declined to comment.