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Amcor Limited, a leading $11 billion global packaging company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, has a focused corporate strategy based on ‘targeting high growth markets to become a leading player in these market segments.’  Amcor has pursued this strategy by making several multinational acquisitions of packaging businesses and operations across market segments.  Over the past 2 years, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg has worked with Amcor to complete acquisitions which have made Amcor the world’s leading PET producer, the global leader in flexible packaging for the healthcare industry and a top five manufacturer of closures.  

In leading the legal work for Amcor’s recent international acquisitions, we have drawn upon the business law specialties, international experience, multi-language proficiency and capability in both common and civil law, of our lawyers throughout our various offices.

In April 2002, Amcor Flexibles Europe purchased Tobepal S.A., the flexible packaging and extrusion operations of the Tobepal Group of Spain.  Acting on behalf of the UK subsidiary of our Australian client to purchase these Spanish operations, lawyers from our corporate/commercial practice area conducted the due diligence and negotiated through closing.

In July 2002, Amcor completed the US $1.56 billion purchase of the PET and White Cap closure businesses of Schmalbach-Lubeca AG of Ratingen, Germany.   This acquisition involved 58 subsidiaries in 26 countries on five continents.  Our firm represented Amcor in the transaction, coordinating all aspects of the acquisition across the multiple jurisdictions.  Lawyers from each of our Montreal, Toronto, New York and Paris offices were involved in the acquisition, working in French, English, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese.

The global breadth of the acquisition from Schmalbach-Lubeca created jurisdictional, logistical and linguistic complexities.  To manage these complexities, we divided the world into 5 regions, assigning a regional lead to coordinate the work from beginning to end, including managing the teams from the due diligence process through to the local closings.  Our involvement required specialization in many areas, including M&A, corporate, competition, tax, environmental, intellectual property and securities law in both civil and common law.  Teams comprising internationally recognized lawyers in each of these areas developed solutions at the local level within the larger context of the entire transaction. 

Davies has continued to work with Amcor on its acquisitions of international businesses and operations in different market segments.  In October 2003, Amcor completed the US$330 million purchase of the healthcare flexible packaging operations of Rexam Plc of London, England, making Amcor the global leader in this market segment.   This acquisition included 10 plants located in 7 countries – four in the US and 1 each in England, Ireland, France, Singapore, Puerto Rico and Brazil, with sales offices also in China, Spain and Germany.   Again, Davies’s Montreal, Toronto, New York and Paris offices represented Amcor in this acquisition, providing the international knowledge and specialization in all of the required areas of the law to successfully close the deal.

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2003