US-based Ball Corporation has acquired an additional 10.1% economic interest in its Brazilian beverage packaging joint venture, Latapack-Ball Embalagens.
The transaction increases Ball’s overall ownership in the joint venture to approximately 60%. Latapack-Ball’s results will be consolidated and reported in Ball Corporation’s metal beverage packaging, Americas and Asia, segment beginning with the third quarter of 2010. Latapack-Ball operates metal beverage packaging manufacturing plants in Tres Rios, Jacarei and Salvador, Brazil, and is expected to have 2010 sales of approximately $360m. Ball Corporation supplies packaging for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the US government. Ball expects to report a gain in the third quarter on its previous ownership interest in Latapack-Ball.