Amcor loses one, wins one

On the heels of its unsuccessful bid to buy the North American assets of Constar International Holdings LLC., plastic bottle maker Amcor Ltd. has been cleared to buy Australia’s Detmold Flexibles Pty. Ltd. for $50 million.

Detmold competes with Melbourne, Australia-based Amcor in supplying value-added flexible packaging, and Australia’s competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has now said it will not oppose Amcor’s proposed purchase. “ACCC concluded the acquisition of Detmold’s Australian flexible packaging operations would be unlikely to substantially lessen competition,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

The Amcor purchase proposal was announced in November 2013. Detmold will now become part of Amcor’s Asia Pacific flexibles division. Detmold operates two plants in Melbourne and has sales of approximately $55 million.

In early February, Amcor was outbid for Constar by Michigan-based Plastipak Packaging Inc., for $102.45 million. Amcor had announced in December 2013 that it had entered into an asset purchase agreement with Constar, under which Constar had agreed to sell substantially all its U.S. business to Amcor.