Amcor Plc has agreed to acquire Berry Global Group Inc. for about $8.4 billion in a combination of two of the world’s biggest makers of packaging. Amcor and Berry Global had on 19 November announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement, pursuant to which Amcor and Berry will combine in an all-stock transaction. The combined entity will be named Amcor plc, the company announced in a release on its website.
Berry shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 7.25 Amcor shares for each Berry share held upon closing, resulting in Amcor and Berry shareholders owning approximately 63% and 37% of the combined company, respectively. The transaction has received unanimous approval of the boards of directors of both Amcor and Berry and values Berry’s common stock at $73.59 per share.
The combination brings together two highly complementary businesses to create a global leader in consumer packaging solutions, with a broader flexible film and converted film offering for customers, a scaled containers and closures business and a unique global healthcare portfolio.
The combined company will have unprecedented innovation capabilities and scale, and be uniquely positioned to accelerate growth, solve customers’ and consumers’ sustainability needs, unlock portfolio transformation and deliver significant value to both sets of shareholders.
Amcor CEO, Peter Konieczny, said “This combination delivers on our strategy to accelerate growth by putting the customer first, elevating the role of sustainability and orienting the portfolio toward faster growing, higher margin categories. We will have a more complete and more sustainable product offering, supported by stronger innovation capabilities, global scale and supply chain flexibility. We will help global and local customers grow faster and operate more efficiently with a team of exceptional talent. As a result, this combination also drives a step change in annual free cash flow, earnings growth and value creation for our shareholders. I, and the Amcor team, look forward to joining with Berry to accelerate change and real impact for our customers and their consumers.”
Berry CEO, Kevin Kwilinski, added, “Over the past year, Berry has undergone a significant transformation, completing the spin-off of our HHNF business, enhancing our product mix and optimizing our portfolio. Our combination with Amcor is a logical next step in our company’s evolution, and it is a testament to our entire team that we’re well positioned to build on this momentum and deliver even more value to our shareholders. We expect to better serve customers through a comprehensive and innovative consumer packaging portfolio and a complementary geographic coverage. Importantly Berry and Amcor have aligned philosophies focused on safety, employee experience, sustainability, innovation, customer intimacy, and functional excellence. We will be better together, and I look forward to all we will achieve as a combined organization.”
Peter Konieczny will serve as chief executive officer, Graeme Liebelt will serve as chairman and Stephen Sterrett will serve as deputy chairman of the combined company. Amcor will maintain its primary listing on the NYSE and its secondary listing on the ASX.
The global head office will remain in Zurich, Switzerland. The combined company expects to maintain a significant presence in Evansville, Indiana. Upon completion of the transaction, Amcor’s board of directors will expand to 11 directors, four of whom will be nominated by Berry.
Strategic and financial benefits
The merger creates a stronger business, strategically focused on high-growth, high-margin categories with greater capabilities and a more complete product offering for customers. It creates a global product offering in flexibles, containers and closures by combining Amcor’s global flexibles and regional containers businesses with Berry’s regional flexibles and global containers and closures businesses.
The deal combines two highly attractive and complementary global healthcare businesses and strengthens their positions in high-growth, high-value categories, including healthcare, protein, pet food, liquids, beauty & personal care, and food service.
The move delivers greater choice for customers and consumers with a portfolio of unique flexible, container and closure solutions developed using a broader range of recycled materials, next generation lightweighting technologies, reuse and recycle ready capabilities and differentiated high barrier paper based formats.
It establishes a technology-driven innovation leader with more capabilities and significantly higher capacity to invest in solving technical challenges with combined R&D investment of $180 million per annum, ~1,500 R&D professionals, 10 innovation centers worldwide and 7,000+ patents, registered designs, and trademarks
The merger optimizes footprint servicing customers in 140+ countries through ~400 production facilities, brings global capabilities to local customers and provides local access and expertise to global brands
It combines revenues of $24 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $4.3 billion, including run-rate synergies. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Amcor and Berry. Closing is targeted in the middle of calendar year 2025. The closing of the transaction is subject to shareholder approvals, regulatory approvals, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
