Amcor to acquire South America’s largest flexible packaging business

Alusa is owned by Techpack and Nexus Private Equity, and includes Alusa (Chile), Peruplast (Peru), Aluflex (Argentina) and Flexa (Colombia). The business has a plant in each of these countries providing a range of capabilities including film extrusion, flexographic and gravure printing and lamination. It is the largest flexible packaging manufacturer and supplier in Chile and Peru, and a leading participant in Colombia and Argentina. It supplies flexible packaging for food, personal care and pet food applications to large multinational and regional customers.

Amcor CEO and managing director Ron Delia said: ‘With the creation of a new Flexibles Americas business group in July 2015, there was an expectation this business could accelerate growth in both North and South America. It is pleasing that over a relatively short period of time, our flexible packaging sales in the region will almost double to nearly one billion USD with the acquisition of Alusa, and the recently completed acquisition of Deluxe Packages in the USA.

‘Alusa comes with a strong management team and provides a unique platform in an important growth region. A large number of Amcor’s multinational customers operate in South America, and this acquisition significantly improves our ability to support their needs and to grow with them in these markets.

‘Along with our leadership positions in Europe and Asia, Amcor’s customer value proposition will substantially improve with a strong presence in South America. A truly global product offering differentiates Amcor in the flexible packaging marketplace, positioning us as a partner of choice for customers.’

Inclusive of synergy benefits of approximately 25 million USD and growth in the underlying markets, PBIT is expected to be approximately 65 million USD at the end of year three. The return on cash invested is expected to have reached approximately 15 percent at that time, taking into account costs to be incurred to realize synergies and working capital benefits.

Amcor said that given the ‘unique and scalable position’ this provides in the South American region, further growth opportunities underpinned by a strong customer value proposition provide a pathway for returns to reach 20 percent by the end of year five.