MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Australian-based global packaging giant Amcor Ltd. will conduct a US$500 million share buyback after posting a healthy post-tax profit of US$321.3 million for the six months to Dec. 31.
Amcor's outgoing managing director and CEO Ken MacKenzie, who retires July 1, said the company had “good growth in emerging markets, and acquisitions delivered the benefits anticipated.”
He said the buyback is possible because Amcor has “a strong financial position with a sound balance sheet and strong cash generation.”
The Melbourne-based company can achieve a balance between returning capital to shareholders, maintaining flexibility to pursue growth and retaining “strong credit metrics,” MacKenzie said in a statement to the Sydney-based Australian Stock Exchange.
During the past six months Amcor has continued expansion into China, buying Zhongshan Tian Cai Packaging Co. Ltd., which has one plant in Zhongshan, in China's Guangdong province, in December. Tian Cai has annual sales of RMB280 million (US$45.2 million).
MacKenzie said Amcor is building two new greenfield plants in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Amcor specializes in flexible and rigid plastic packaging and tobacco packaging for overseas markets. Its flexible packaging arm achieved sales of US$3.25 billion in the six months to Dec. 31 and the rigid packaging arm's equivalent period sales were US$1.56 billion.
MacKenzie's replacement is Amcor's chief financial officer Ron Delia.
