Ball to buy out partner's interest in beverage packaging plant

Ball Corporation announced November 9 that it has agreed to acquire Guangdong Jianlibao Group Company Ltd.'s 65 percent interest in a joint-venture metal beverage can and end plant in Sanshui, China. Ball has owned 35 percent of the joint venture plant since 1992.

Ball will acquire the plant and related assets for approximately $90 million in cash and assumed debt. The company also entered into a long-term supply agreement with Jianlibao. The transaction is expected to close next year, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

"The Sanshui facility is a large, efficient manufacturing plant located in southern China, where we continue to see increasing demand for beverage cans," said R. David Hoover, Ball's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We are very familiar with the plant and its customers, and this investment allows us greater flexibility to serve the growing Chinese market at a significantly lower cost than building a new facility and without adding additional capacity."

Ball Corporation is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2008 sales of approximately $7.6 billion.