GERMANY – Crown Holdings, an American company that manufactures metal beverage and food cans, has completed its announced acquisition of Helvetia Packaging AG, a beverage can and end manufacturing facility located in Saarlouis, Germany.
The companies have not disclosed the financial details and other terms of this transaction.
Through the acquisition, Crown assumes Helvetia’s existing customer base and accompanying contracts, as well as its 200 current employees.
The addition of the facility expands Crown’s European beverage can platform into Germany and increases its annual capacity by approximately one billion units. This expansion will help meet the growing customer demand for beverage cans that can be infinitely recycled.
This capability will further help the company in meeting the growing demand from its local and regional clients for infinitely recyclable aluminium beverage cans.
The acquisition comes shortly after the company announced a dip in its net income in the second quarter (Q2) of the financial year 2023 (FY23).
Crown Holdings reported a net income of US$157 million, a decline of 46.7% from US$295 million for the same period in FY22.
The company’s net sales for the quarter ending on June 30, 2023, were US$3.10 billion, compared to net sales of US$3.51 billion in Q2 FY22.
The company witnessed favorable foreign currency change of US$11 million and higher beverage can volumes in its Americas Beverage segment.
However, the growth in the Americas Beverage segment was offset by the pass-through of approximately US$288 million in lower volumes and lower material costs recorded across the company’s other business segments.
The income from operations for this year’s Q2 totaled US$367 million, compared to US$466 million in the same period last year.
Crown’s interest expense this quarter was US$110 million, compared to US$64 million in Q2 FY22, indicating that the company has increased its outstanding debt and is facing higher interest rates.
The diluted and adjusted diluted earnings per share in Q2 FY23 were US$1.31 and US$1.68, respectively.
Meanwhile, in July, the company announced its achievement of Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) certifications within the Asia-Pacific region.
This expansion comes as part of the company’s commitments highlighted in its ‘Twentyby30′ sustainability program that aims to help advance responsible supply chains.
According to Crown, the ASI Performance Standard addressed environmental, social and governance principles for the aluminium value chain, confirming the recipient’s production practices are responsible.
