Low & Bonar PLC (Bonar House, Faraday Street, GB-Dundee DD1 9JA) has decided to sell its stake in its 50/50 flexible packaging joint venture with the Austrian packaging group Constantia Verpackungen AG (Opernring 19, A-1010 Vienna). For a cash consideration of GBP 9m Constantia will take over all of Low & Bonar's 50.01% shareholding in Bonar Constantia Ltd, which, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bonar Teich Flexibles Ltd, manufactures printed paper and film packaging at two sites in Derby and Dundee in the UK, primarily for the food industry.

The joint venture was originally set up in 1990. For the financial year ended 30th November 1996, Bonar Constantia made a profit before tax of GBP 2.8m on sales of GBP 28m. However, since then profits and margins have been affected by increasingly competitive market conditions, exacerbated by the strength of sterling. Jim Heilig, Low & Bonar's chief executive said that Constantia, with its pan-European presence, is in a better position to develop the business, while the sale will give Low & Bonar funds to expand its core businesses. The Teich group within Constantia has 11 sites in Europe and the USA with a turnover of ATS 3.3bn.