TERRY MCCRANN

packaging (like you get frozen vegetables in, as contrasted with rigid containers for beverages) in the world.

But it would be the biggest in what are essentially very fragmented markets.

Adding Bemis would double its US flexibles share, but only from 4 per cent to about 8 per cent. Bemis will add share, but more at the margin, in Europe and Latin America, where it is already number one in flexibles in both.

In short, this move “bets the bank” on flexibles – they will leap from 53 per cent to 67 per cent of group global revenue; and on “the Americas” (mostly, the US), whose group revenue share goes up from 44 per cent to 56 per cent.

Amcor is already the biggest player in the US – again, in a very fragmented, market – in rigid plastic.

We will have to see the terms of the deal, but it apparently will be done on an all-(Amcor)-paper basis. As it’s an $18 billion company making a $7 billion-plus acquisition, that would suggest Amcor shares on issue will increase