THE chief executive of Toll Holdings, Paul Little, has poured cold water on a merger with Brambles, killing off speculation he was set to make his second move on the pallet company.

Yesterday, amid reports Toll was eyeing Brambles' pallet business for the second time in as many years, Mr Little suggested Toll's approaches were rejected.

''We were only ever interested in Brambles had Brambles been of the mind that by joining forces with our company that the two could create a better value offering in the marketplace,'' he said in New York, according to Dow Jones.

''We believe Brambles are not of that view, and we're quite happy to accept that outcome and move on.''

The comments came after bankers from Credit Suisse approached Brambles in recent months proposing a tie-up with Toll.

Even though Brambles' market value of $10.6 billion exceeds Toll's value of $6 billion, sources said Mr Little would have run the merged transport and logistics group under the proposed deal.

The failed approach is the second time Mr Little has aborted a move on Brambles. Two years ago Toll and the freight company Asciano Group bought stakes in Brambles of 0.3 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively.

When the global financial crisis struck, the merger plans appeared to have died, and both Toll and Asciano sold down their stakes.

But last month market speculation of a deal rose again after Toll made it clear it wanted to expand into pallets, sending the Brambles share price soaring.

Mr Little has previously talked up the logic of a merger between the freight and logistics business of Toll and Brambles, which is the world's biggest supplier of pallets.

A Toll spokesman would not comment further on Mr Little's remarks.

Toll shares rose 2c to $8.52 and Brambles rose 7c to $7.57.