Ball Corporation, a Colorado-based packaging firm, announced that it has entered an agreement with ORG Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese metal can manufacturing company, to sell metal beverage packaging facilities in China for approximately US$ 225 million.
The total transaction of US$ 225 million includes cash payments and potential additional payments, ranging between $50 million and $75 million, associated with the relocation of the current manufacturing facility. The company also announced that the assets mentioned in the acquisition agreement include its beverage can and end facilities in Foshan, Beijing, Qingdao, and Hubei, China.
Ball Corporation has agreed to reinvest approximately $50 million in ORG Technology’s shares for the projects needs for relocation of its facility in China. Furthermore, the company will be licensing its beverage can and end technology to ORG technology as a part of the deal. Ball declared that, while leveraging ORG’s expertise in the Chinese market in its respective markets, it will cooperate with ORG Technology post acquisition with mutual customers to help the company leverage lucrative commercial opportunities in the upcoming years.
“The acquisition of Ball’s metal packaging facility by ORG Technology is directed towards freeing up Ball’s capital investments in the Chinese beverage can and end plants that did not generated the anticipated annual returns. This acquisition will enable us to follow a disciplined approach in capital allocation across our business segments and help both the companies to benefit from each other’s expertise and presence in our respective geographical markets,” said John A. Hayes, chairman, president and CEO.
The company declared that, anticipating an incremental rise in demand for environment-friendly packaging solutions such as metal packaging, Ball will continue to offer sustainable aluminum beverage packaging in Asian markets. The wholly owned metal packaging facility of Ball in Myanmar and several joint ventures in South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand will maintain the presence of Ball Corporation in the Asia Pacific region.
The company is planning to close the transaction during the second half of 2019, and use proceeds from the deal to support its multi-year share repurchase programs and current global growth initiatives.