Australian packaging giant Amcor (Abbotsford; www.amcor.com) on 2 February 2010 announced that it has completed the acquisition of Alcan Packaging (Paris / France; www.alcanpackaging.com) – see most recent coverage in Plasteurope.com of 17.12.2009. Following the decision of the US authorities to exempt Alcan Medical Flexible from the sale, the final price tag amounted to about USD 1.95 bn. According to Amcor’s own estimates, this acquisition has made it the leading global flexible packaging producer.

Together, the Alcan divisions concerned recorded sales of about USD 2.62 bn in 2009 (USD 2.69 bn in 2008). This was divided among “Food Europe” (USD 1.42 bn), “Food Asia” (USD 204m), “Global Pharmaceuticals” (USD 577m) and “Global Tobacco” (USD 420m). Comparing the overall performance of H1 and H2 2009, the “Food Europe” sales were particularly impressive – improving from USD 670m in H1 to USD 746m in H2.