Berry Plastics Corp., a company backed by Apollo Management and Graham Partners, has completed its acquisition of Rexam‘s specialty and beverage closures business. Terms of the deal were not released. Rexam SBC is a maker of injection and compression molded plastic specialty and beverage closures, jars, and other plastic packaging products. Berry Plastics is based in Evansville, Indiana.

Many M&A deals include a go-shop but do such provisions actually work?

I put this question to John Pollack and David Rosewater, M&A partners with Schulte Roth & Zabel. Pollack and Rosewater recently conducted a review of 25 mergers this year involving private equity and public companies. The deals had a minimum of $500 million in enterprise value.

Pollack and Rosewater found that about half of the deals surveyed, or 14, included a “go-shop.” J. Crew’s $3 billion sale to TPG Capital and Leonard Green had a go-shop, as well as Jo-Ann Stores’ $1.6 billion sale to Leonard Green.

Rexnord Corp., which is owned by Apollo Management, has revived its plans for an initial public offering, filing Thursday to raise up to $700 million, Reuters reported. In July 2008, the company had filed for an initial public offering of $750 million but withdrew the offering in October 2009. Apollo owns about 93.8% of the company, and bought it from the Carlyle Group in 2006.

Apollo Management submitted a more than $3 billion buyout bid for BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc., Reuters reported, citing a report by the New York Post. Last month, Leonard Green & Partners was reportedly mulling a sale of the retailer. BJ’s decided to explore a sale earlier this year, and hired Morgan Stanley & Co. to advise in the process.

Momentive Performance Materials Holdings, a chemical manufacturer owned by Apollo Management, has filed to raise up to $862.5 million in an initial public offering, Reuters reported. Apollo owns about 89.5 percent of Momentive. GE Capital Equity Investments Inc. owns about 8.9 percent of the company. Momentive makes thermosets, silicones and silicone derivatives and has over 104 manufacturing facilities.

In the biggest run-up to a non-event, the long-awaited IPO from Apollo Management will price later today, a source says. Apollo is offering roughly 26.3 million Class A shares at $17 to $19 each. Apollo itself is selling 18 million shares while certain shareholders are offering about 8.3 million shares. Joint bookrunners on the deal [...]

Russia is forming a $10 billion fund to co-invest with international private equity firms, Reuters reported, citing an article in the Financial Times. The country is making an effort to increase foreign investment in the country, and has reportedly approached firms including Apollo Management, Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group.

BlackRock Inc., Spanish bank Banco Santander and more than ten private equity firms are organizing bids for CitiFinancial, a Citigroup consumer-finance business, Reuters said, citing a Bloomberg report. BlackRock, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Warburg Pincus are considering a joint bid for CitiFinancial, Reuters said. Private-equity firms Apollo Management and J.C. Flowers & Co. [...]

Smart & Final, which is backed by Apollo Management, has agreed to sell its Henry’s Farmers Market unit to Sprouts Farmers Market. Financial terms weren’t announced. Apollo will be majority owner of the combined Sprouts-Henry company.

Two private equity consortia placed second-round bids for medical diagnostics company Beckman Coulter Inc., Reuters reported. Blackstone Group and TPG Capital submitted a bid, as did a second consortium made up of Apollo Management and The Carlyle Group, Reuters said. Beckman Coulter has a market valuation of more than $5 billion.