Amcor close to announcing Alcan's packaging unit purchase
17 Aug 2009
Amcor Ltd., one of the world's largest packaging companies, has been placed in a trading halt till Thursday, pending the release of an announcement from the company, the Australian Stock Exchange said today.
Speculations abound that the halt in trading was be related to the likely announcement of the acquisition of Rio Tinto Ltd's Alcan Packaging business, which was flagged in February.
Reports in The Australian Financial Review and The Age newspapers have said the company is set to announce the deal, expected to hover around $2.4 billion, as soon as today.
Amcor will fund its purchase with a $1.6 billion equity raising and about $800 million of debt, the papers reported.
In February, Amcor said that it was in talks to acquire part of Rio's Alcan packaging unit, to ease its debt burden.
Rio Tinto's long-awaited sell-off of its Alcan Packaging business began on 17 July 17 when it announced the sale of its Alcan Packaging Food Americas business to US-based Bemis Company, for A$1.4 billion.
