Ball Corp – packaging is better than aerospace

You would have thought that the packaging sector is a mature and unexciting one compared to the aerospace sector. But NYSE Ball Corp thinks otherwise. The company had 2 segments – packaging and aerospace. But in Feb of this year, it completed the sale of its aerospace business for USD 5.6 billion to concentrate on its packaging business.

The company stated that the sale of the aerospace business would result in an estimated pre-tax gain of USD4.8 billion and an estimated USD4.5 billion in after-tax proceeds. Part of the proceeds would be used to pare down debt and the balance ear-marked for growth.

Despite being in a mature sector, many US companies were able to achieve double digits growth via M&A excercises. A good example of this in the packaging sector is the merger between WestRock and Smurfit Kappa. You can imagine Ball pursuing such a strategy with its war chest. Suddenly this is not a dull sector anymore.