Shorewood, AGI World To Combine Consumer Packaging Units

Source from:  RTT 08/23/2011

Paper and packaging company International Paper Co. (IP: News ) and Atlas Holdings LLC agreed Monday to combine their consumer packaging solutions businesses in order to create a global leader in specialty packaging solutions. The deal is expected to close before the end of 2011. International Paper's Shorewood Packaging will merge with Atlas Holdings' AGI World and the combined entity will be named AGI-Shorewood, which will have operations in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. "We are excited about this combination, bringing together two businesses with great legacies and creating a new global leader with unparalleled capability to serve the world's premier consumer product, media and entertainment and tobacco companies," said Andrew Bursky, chairman of Atlas Holdings. AGI World is a specialized global packaging company that makes innovative packaging products for the entertainment, music, video game, technology and telecom, and personal care industries. Shorewood Packaging is a leading value-added provider of high-quality creative, printing and packaging products serving customers in the home entertainment and tobacco industries, in addition to sporting goods and private label customers in the consumer products industry. Following the closure of the deal, Atlas will own 100 percent of AGI-Shorewood business in the U.S. and International Paper will own a 40 percent interest in AGI-Shorewood international business. The various regional transactions are expected to close before the end of 2011. The combined entity will operate 24 manufacturing facilities around the world, employing nearly 4,000 people. It will be led by the currently President of Shorewood Packaging, Mike Ukropina, as president as CEO. Meanwhile, CEO of AGI North America will lead the combined entity's North American operations as CEO of AGI-Shorewood North America, and CEO of AGI Europe, Tony Garnish, will be the CEO of AGI-Shorewood Europe. Further, the general manager of Shorewood Packaging and IP Foodservice Asia, Lucy Tzou, will be the CEO of AGI-Shorewood Asia and Global Gravure, and CFO of Atlas Material Holding Corp., Don Eldert, will be executive vice president and CFO of AGI-Shorewood. "We are committed to building the new AGI-Shorewood around the needs of our customers, providing innovation, efficiency and exceptional service through an unrivaled network of global packaging and creative service facilities," Bursky added. In Monday's regular trading session, IP is currently trading at $24.01, up $0.34 or 1.44 percent on a volume of 0.55 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $19.33 to $33.01. Enditem