Amcor eyeing Carter Holt assets

Australian packaging manufacturer Amcor has tipped its hand as a possible buyer of assets from a break up of New Zealand's Carter Holt Harvey.

Carter Holt's United States-based 50.5 per cent owner International Paper last month said it was looking at "strategic alternatives" for its stake.

That set off a round of speculation that the group may be broken up and sold off separately.

Yesterday, Mr MacKenzie, who officially took the reins at Amcor on July 1, said Amcor could be interested in those parts of Carter Holt that fitted in with its existing business.

"Carter is a broad-based pulp and forestry products business, there is some overlap with Amcor in terms of paper and packaging assets, and so from that perspective we're reviewing the situation," Mr Mackenzie said.

Amcor is the second largest player in Australia's cardboard box industry behind Visy Group, which has also said it might bid for parts of Carter Holt, the third biggest company in the sector.

- NZPA