MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Australian packaging giant Pact Group Holdings Ltd. says it is examining more potential takeover targets to add to its revenue stream.
The company's latest acquisition, contract manufacturer Jalco Group Pty. Ltd., will be finalized Sept 1.
At a briefing outlining its results for the first half of the year, Pact Managing Director and CEO Brian Cridland said: “Pact continues to build on its long history of successfully acquiring and integrating businesses to deliver growth in earnings.”
He said Jalco was an example of an acquisition that was “in the pipeline, and there is a sizeable pipeline of opportunities like that, that we are working on.”
Melbourne-based, publicly listed Pact bought Jalco, which is headquartered at Prestons, in the state of New South Wales (NSW), in June for $A80 million ($57.2 million).
Jalco operates from six NSW premises, and supplies outsourced contract manufacturing and filling services to big brand owners in the fast moving consumer goods sector.
In August 2014, Pact bought the Australian and New Zealand operations of mobile garbage bin manufacturer Sulo MGB (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., including its subsidiary Sulo (NZ) Ltd., for $A34.8 million ($24.9 million).
Sulo is Australia and New Zealand's main manufacturer of plastic waste and recycling bins. It produces about 2 million two-wheel MGBs annually for local governments and waste collection companies.
Cridland said the Sulo business was “performing above expectations” and on target to exceed Pact's minimum expectations for return on investment.
He said Pact also bought four “smaller bolt-on businesses, providing access to new markets and greater diversity in its customer base,” in the year to June 30.
Cridland said the smaller acquisitions were mostly completed toward the end of the financial year and would deliver benefits in 2015-16.
He said Pact's 9.3 percent increase in annual sales revenue to $A1.24 billion ($887 million) and a pre-tax profit increase of 42.7 percent to $A85.2 million ($61 million) are mainly driven by the Sulo business's contributions.
Cridland said Pact International's sales revenue increased 12.1 percent to $A359 million ($257 million), despite weaker demand from industrial customers in China in the second half of the financial year.
During the year, Pact International established a joint venture in Thailand with Germany's Weener Plastics Packaging Group and built a new facility in Indonesia.
Pact is Australasia's largest rigid plastics packaging manufacturer and operates in seven countries.