CVC Capital Partners, the UK private equity firm, has bought Flint Ink, a family-owned US printing ink company, for around $1bn (€820m), according to a banker familiar with the auction. The deal creates the world's second-largest ink company,

The buy-out group plans to bolt Flint onto its portfolio company, Xsys Print Solutions, itself the product of a merger between BASF Printing Systems and ANI Printing Inks after CVC bought them at the end of 2004.