FRANKFURT, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Investment firm Strategic Value Partners (SVP) has again cancelled the sale of German packaging maker Kloeckner Pentaplast after receiving offers well below its asking price of 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion), several people familiar with the matter said.

As equity and debt markets weaken, some of the bidders willing to meet SVP's price expectations had been unable to line up financing for the deal, one of the sources said.

According to sources familiar with the auction, buyout group Apollo as well as U.S. plastics group Polyone were bidding for the asset. Polyone had denied any interest while Apollo had declined to comment.

SVP acquired Kloeckner Pentaplast from private equity firm Blackstone following a lengthy restructuring process. Blackstone had bought the company from Cinven in 2007, backed by 1.25 billion euros of leveraged loans.

An attempt to sell the company in autumn 2013 was put on ice after potential buyers indicated they would not meet the asking price of Kloeckner Pentaplast's owners.

A price tag of 1.5 billion euros would have valued Kloeckner Pentaplast at more than eight times its expected annual earnings before interest, tax, amortisation and depreciation (EBITDA) of just below 180 million euros - in line with the valuation of peers like Berry, Ball or Silgan.

Officials at SVP and Kloeckner Pentaplast declined to comment.

For 2013 Kloeckner Pentaplast posted an adjusted EBITDA of 174 million euros on sales of 1.2 billion euros, while net debt at the end of the year stood at 430 million euros.

Founded in 1965 as a unit of steel and machinery group Kloeckner-Werke, Kloeckner Pentaplast also makes pipe insulation and other plastics products. It employs 3,100 staff at 18 production sites in 12 countries.

(1 US dollar = 0.7836 euro) (Reporting by Claire Ruckin, Arno Schuetze and Alexander Hübner; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)