October 28: The acquisition last year of a number of Metal Container beverage can plants in North America and the recent increase in share of the Latapack-Ball operations in Brazil boosted Ball Corporation’s sales in the third quarter by 12 percent to US$2.04 billion.
Net profit more than doubled to $222.2 million, and on a comparable basis in its continuing operations net profit was up by 11 percent to $127.7m.
Sales in its strongest segment, the North America & Asia metal beverage can operations, were up more than a quarter from $706m to more than $1bn, with comparable operating profits rising 9.6 percent to $112.8m. The sales were also boosted by its acquisition in China of the Jianlibao joint venture beverage can plant, the country’s biggest.
