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Hart said to be in Amcor merger talksstevenkiernan, 3 December 2007Be the first to comment on this article A possible merger between Carter Holt Harvey and Amcor could create a duopoly in the Australasian cartonboard packaging market, according to news reports today (3 December). Leading newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald said that New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart, the owner of Carter Holt Harvey, had been in talks with Amcor about forming a joint venture between the companies' corrugated and paper businesses. The newspaper added that recent redundancies of Amcor senior executives were aimed at lowering costs to determine the shareholdings of the two companies in the joint venture. Amcor was unavailable for comment. Hart has significantly expanded his packaging portfolio over the past 12 months, through the acquisition of drinks carton manufacturer SIG, Blue Ridge Paper Products and the drinks packaging arm of International Paper. A merger of Amcor and Carter Holt Harvey would rival the dominance of Visy Packaging, which has a 47% share of the £1bn (AUD$2.2bn) Australasian cartonboard market. Amcor currently has a 40% share. In November, Visy was fined £15.3m for price fixing by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) based on information provided by Amcor three years ago. Amcor was subsequently granted immunity and co-operated with the ACCC. Speak Your Mind |
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