Ball to acquire aerosol business
Ball Corporation has signed an agreement to buy Envases del Plata – a leading producer of aluminium aerosols in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
The can maker has also agreed to form a joint venture with the Envases del Plata Group in Argentina. This will combine both companies’ aerosol packaging operations in Argentina and Brazil.
The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of October 2012, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
“These actions are consistent with our Drive for 10 strategy to broaden Ball’s geographic reach and expand into new products and capabilities,” says John Hayes (pictured), Ball’s president and chief executive officer. “The acquisition in Mexico will provide a platform to grow our North American extruded aluminium packaging business, and in Argentina the new joint venture will leverage the combined strengths of Ball’s steel aerosol can business in Argentina with Envases’ extruded aluminium aerosol business in Argentina and Brazil.”
The San Luis Potosi plant produces extruded aluminium aerosol cans for personal care and household products to customers in North, Central and South America. It employs approximately 150 people and operates five manufacturing lines.
The plant will become part of Ball’s Food and Household Products Packaging Division, Americas, and will complement Ball’s existing aluminium aerosol business in Europe, Ball Aerocan, and the North American extruded aluminium aerosol slug business that Ball acquired in 2010.
Ball is the largest supplier of extruded aluminum slugs in the world, and this acquisition provides a new end market for Ball’s products including the company’s ReAl technology that enables the use of recycled material and lightweighting in the manufacture of extruded aluminium packaging.
The new Argentine joint venture, called Envases-Ball, will include Ball’s steel aerosol can plants in Buenos Aires and San Luis, Argentina, and Envases’ extruded aluminium packaging plants in the same locations and in Manaus, Brazil. Envases will own 75% of the joint venture, and Ball will own 25%. Ball will provide technical and other assistance to the business and under the terms of the agreement can elect to acquire or exit the joint venture in the future.
