Packaging takeover to create Tetra challenger
position following Carter Holt Harvey's announcement of the
purchase of International Paper's beverage unit.
The $500m deal will bring International Paper's beverage packaging business under the control of Carter Holt Harvey (CCH), which itself was bought by Rank Group Investments earlier this year.
This month Rank Group also made a $1.96bn takeover bid for SIG, a move which would create the world's second largest producer of beverage packaging after Swedish-based Tetra Laval.
In making the offer for SIG, Rank Group, under the control of New Zealand billionare Graeme Hart, outbid rivals CVC Capital Partners and Ferd, a Norwegian private equity group.
The global packaging industry, through mergers and acquisitions, is adjusting to the market in terms of size, market presence and global reach.
For processors the International Paper unit will become part of a larger supplier, giving the merged company more leverage over setting prices for its packaging.
On the positive side, a larger group might also be able to produce more innovative products, offer a wider array of options and provide a more international service to multinationals.
International Paper's drinks packaging business sells products such as liquid paperboard packaging for dairy products and juice. The unit has plants in North America and Asia.
The beverage packaging business includes gable-top beverage converting facilities in Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, California, and Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
The deal includes Evergreen Packaging manufacturing facility in Iowa, and the Pine Bluff mill in Arkansas. The business has wholly owned subsidiaries in China, South Korea and Taiwan, and joint ventures in Latin America, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
The business employs about 3,000 people and produces more than 680,000 tons of packaging a year for juice, dairy as well as other products and also produces coated groundwood paper. The business had net sales of about $860m in 2005.
Carter Holt Harvey employs about 10,000 people across New Zealand, Australia and Asia. The company's head office is in Auckland, New Zealand.
