Amcor to buy parts of Rio Tinto's Alcan Packaging for $2.4bn

AMCOR said today it will buy parts of Rio Tinto's Alcan Packaging business for $2.44 billion to expand its business. The world's largest maker of plastic soft drink bottles will acquire Alcan Packaging's European and Asian food, and global pharmaceuticals and tobacco businesses, and will fund the acquisitions through a combination of underwritten equity and bank debt. After the acquisition, Amcor would be among the world's largest packaging companies with a global presence and leading positions in flexible packaging, folding cartons for tobacco and custom PET containers, the company said. The company also reported its full-year net profit fell 18 per cent to $211.7 million from $258.8m a year earlier. Its sales in the year ended June 30 rose 3.3 per cent to $9.54bn, from $9.23bn in the previous year. Amcor will pay a final dividend of 17 cents, unchanged from a year earlier.