Amcor Acquired Ball Plastics Packaging Americas in Multi-Million Dollar Deal

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 4, 2010 – Amcor Rigid Plastics’ acquisition of Ball Plastics Packaging Americas on Aug. 2 complements the company’s PET beverage packaging business and expands its role in the high-growth diversified products packaging category which includes health care/pharmaceutical, home care, personal care, food, and distilled spirits, says William Long, president of Amcor Rigid Plastics. The deal brings expanded material and process capabilities, including multilayer, retort, and barrier technologies, along with know-how to manufacture HDPE and PP extrusion-blow molded containers.

“This acquisition makes us a larger and more diverse company positioned to offer a broader range of innovative and technology-based solutions to our customers,” said Long. “We’ve again stepped outside of PET and we expect to take advantage of the growth opportunities presented by our new material and processing expertise.” Amcor has long been recognized as a global leader in the design and production of PET hot-fill packaging for the beverage, food, and non-food industries and recently expanded from that with the acquisition of the Alcan Pharma Rigid Plastics business.

The acquisition of Ball Plastics Packaging Americas for $280 million comes on the heels of Amcor’s February 2010 purchase of Alcan’s Pharmaceutical Plastics packaging business, which produces PP, PE, and PET rigid containers for over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and other pharmaceutical needs. That deal moved Amcor into new applications, materials, and processes, and provided a valuable entry into the pharmaceutical market.

With the Ball acquisition, Amcor remains committed to the North American carbonated soft drink (CSD) and water segments, where Amcor’s focus on manufacturing excellence is well known and longstanding. However, the company sees strong opportunities in diversified products such as multilayer food packages and retortable containers for food and beverages, including coffee drinks, nutraceutical beverages, and other dairy-based beverages. Ball’s proprietary barrier technology includes Gamma-Clear multilayer OPP containers for barrier food applications and Gamma PP retort bottles that withstand retort sterilization temperatures up to 250 F. Ball also offers other barrier solutions including Plasmax SiOx internal barrier coating.

The Ball acquisition also opens up new market areas including wine, retorted food, and non-PET food and beverage packaging. While Ball’s historic business has been based in North America, these new technologies and product categories will be transferable to Amcor’s growing businesses in Mexico and Latin America. The acquisition of Ball Plastics Packaging Americas includes five plants in North America and sales of approximately $600 million. The company employed approximately 950 co-workers and maintains manufacturing capacity for more than 5 billion units of PET, HDPE, and PP containers per year.

About Amcor

Amcor Rigid Plastics is among the world’s largest manufacturers of plastic packaging for the beverage, food, personal and home care, and pharmaceuticals industries with 76 facilities in 12 countries. Amcor Limited is a global leader in responsible packaging solutions, employing more than 35,000 people worldwide, operating in 43 countries across 300 sites. Amcor supplies a broad range of plastic (rigid and flexible), fibre, metal, and glass packaging solutions to enhance the products consumers use in everyday life. Amcor also provides packaging-related services that help customers succeed through collaboration and innovation driven by art and science. Amcor is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. For more information, visit www.amcor.com.